trudeau also pledged a billion dollars to help provinces set up their own vaccine mandates. ndp leader jagmeet singh backs trudeau’s approach, but wants the government to move faster on a national vaccine passport. singh has also suggested federal workers could be fired for refusing to get vaccinated.
o’toole prefers an exemption to allow unvaccinated federal workers and plane and train travellers the option of presenting a negative test result to continue to work and travel.
what’s at stake?
for the supporters of proof of vaccination, the issue represents a common sense approach to protect public health amid a fourth wave of the pandemic.
opponents see it as an infringement on their rights. the far-right fringe has suggested vaccine passports represent the first step toward totalitarianism, with freedom itself at stake.
people’s party of canada leader maxime bernier has repeated this rhetoric and seen a rise in support in opinion polls that could affect some electoral races.
ultimately, though, the vaccine requirement system that could affect most people’s daily lives, outside of plane and train travel, remains the jurisdiction of the provinces.
most canadians now live in a province that has either imposed a proof of vaccine system or is moving toward one.