Crisis? What crisis? Alberta premier massages the message with his fast and loose use of facts, figures
CBC
This column is an opinion from Graham Thomson, an award-winning journalist who has covered Alberta politics for more than 30 years. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
After months of feeding carrots to vaccine-hesitant Albertans, Premier Jason Kenney is breaking out the stick.
Sort of.
He is telling Alberta's 25,000 civil servants who work directly for the government they must be vaccinated by Nov. 30 or produce a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of every scheduled workday.
Those that refuse won't be fired but will be placed on unpaid leave.
"Our aim is to encourage and educate all the members of the public service to get vaccinated," said public service commissioner Tim Grant.
In a previous incarnation a decade ago, Grant was a general leading Canadian troops in Afghanistan against the Taliban, an experience that might come in handy when dealing with another bellicose opponent: Alberta's anti-vaxxers. At least, any anti-vaxxers who happened to work for the government.
What the 'inadvertent error' in the PBO's carbon tax analysis means, in as plain English as possible
The next time you feel bad about a mistake in your line of work, spare a thought for the folks at the Parliamentary Budget Office.