As the pandemic rages on, the political debate moves to the supermarket aisle

In the midst of a deadly third wave of the pandemic — nearly 2,000 Canadians have died of COVID-19 so far in January — the fiercest political debate going on at the federal level concerns the state of the nation's store shelves.

At issue is a new rule that says anyone driving a transport truck across Canada's border with the United States must be vaccinated. That rule is now being enforced by both the Canadian and American governments.

The federal Conservatives are loudly opposed and point to images of empty grocery store shelves as they accuse the Liberal government of imposing unnecessary hardship.

"If you walk into a grocery store and you see products on the shelves, thank a trucker," Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative party's shadow finance minister, said last week. "If you walk into a grocery store and you see empty shelves, thank Justin Trudeau."

But Conservatives say their concerns go beyond supply issues — they're also worried about "freedom."

With a convoy of aggrieved drivers now headed for Ottawa, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis tweeted the hashtag #TruckersForFreedom and called the vaccine rule "nonsensical."

Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer accused Trudeau of "attacking personal liberty."

Both Poilievre and Genuis refer to the border policy as a "vaccine vendetta" — essentially suggesting the mandate is part of some long-held grudge Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden have against truckers. (Or maybe Conservative wordsmiths just liked the alliteration and didn't think too hard about the meaning of the word "vendetta.")

Some products might not be as abundant as they were before the pandemic and some things might now cost more — for several reasons.

But even if the vaccine mandate for cross-border transport ends up contributing to those problems, Poilievre's simplistic summation can just as easily be turned around. If the shelves are full, thank a vaccinated trucker. If the shelves are empty, thank an unvaccinated trucker.

Federal Conservatives appear to be dug in hard against all forms of vaccine mandates. Where once Conservatives might have gotten behind vaccination requirements as a matter of personal and mutual responsibility, they have instead come down on the side of "radical individualism," to borrow a phrase from Conservative strategist Ken Boessenkool.

"We think the best way to get people vaccinated is through persuasion, not intimidation," Poilievre said last week. "We don't believe in robbing people's freedoms. We believe in convincing them through data, science and logic."

All this talk of a "vendetta" and "freedom" might make it even harder for some to hear that "logic."

Ideally, rational explanation would prevail. But what happens when that isn't enough?