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‘Leadership matters,’ Trudeau says of Alberta’s COVID-19 crisis

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says while he’s not in the position to judge Alberta’s approach to containing the spread of COVID-19, the crisis there is proof that “leadership matters.”

Speaking on the campaign trail in Montreal on Thursday, Trudeau called the situation “heartbreaking” and said he has spoken with the Clerk of the Privy Council to ensure the province’s needs are met as it battles the fourth wave.

“Ventilators are on the way. Anything more we can do whether it’s sending more medical professionals as we did in Ontario a few months ago when they were overwhelmed, we’re going to make sure Albertans get the support,” he said.

“I think what Canadians see in this is leadership matters at whatever level, the choices we make on who to elect to lead the government through a time of crisis…dictates how we’re going to do.”

On Wednesday evening Alberta Premier Jason Kenney held a press conference where he apologized for his government’s pandemic approach and admitted was the “wrong” path.

“I know that we had all hoped this summer that we could put COVID behind us once and for all, that was certainly my hope and I said that very clearly,” said Kenney.

“It is now clear that we were wrong, and for that I apologize.”

Kenney declared a state of public health emergency as active COVID-19 cases surpass 18,000, the most of any province.

Kenney said 90 per cent of patients in Alberta’s intensive care units are unvaccinated. The province set a pandemic high for the number of ICU admissions on Tuesday with 212.

Trudeau said he understands the concerns Canadians may have that “Conservative politicians across this country haven’t been as effective in fighting this pandemic.”

“The question I have then for people is ‘do you really want Erin O’Toole to be sitting across from them at the premiers’ table, talking about how we end this pandemic when he himself can’t stand up to the anti-vaxxers in his own party?’” he said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also weighed in on Alberta’s health emergency, saying that Kenney “did not show leadership” and that an NDP government would consider all tools available at the federal level to end the pandemic.

He then pivoted and placed blame on Trudeau for calling an election during the COVID-19 crisis.

“Mr. Trudeau called an election in the midst of a fourth wave, an election that did not need to happen,” Singh said, speaking to reporters in Toronto.

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