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The political game, in what still qualifies as a pandemic, can make for some interesting twists and turns.
Take, for example, the developments today on what began with a throne speech and hours later ended with the long-awaited announcement of the byelection in the provincial riding of Kirkfield Park.
It wasn’t as if the official blueprint laid out for the fifth and final session in the Tory government’s mandate ignored COVID. In fact, the word pandemic was mentioned exactly three times in the speech delivered by Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville.
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But after the word pandemic was thrice uttered, the chances to hear anything more about COVID — especially anything about a growing chorus calling for the return of mask mandates — was kicked down the road until after the byelection on Dec. 13. Under Manitoba’s election laws, a byelection call requires the government to all but turn off the use of any of its communication channels in order to ensure fairness and transparency on the campaign trail. While that might seem to be a constraint on the governing party, it also offers the convenience of being able to duck matters that are politically problematic. Like a pandemic. In other words, if getting questions to Health Minister Audrey Gordon about vaccine uptake or masking was difficult before, then good luck over the next 28 days.
Before the government went into a communication hiatus, the Free Press was able to get some questions to Dr. Brent Roussin, who didn’t deviate from what has become pretty standard messaging from the chief provincial public health officer. In other words, stay up to date on vaccines, and as for masks, well they remain a layer of protection option. But unlike his counterparts in Ottawa or Ontario, there’s no recommendation from Roussin to wear masks and certainly no hint that mask mandates are even on the table for discussion.
And with that, the road was cleared for the Tories to try to hold their seat in Kirkfield Park.
But what isn’t clear are the reasons Roussin doesn’t want to move in the direction others have been urging as a triple threat of COVID, flu and respiratory syncytial virus are overwhelming the capacity of the emergency department at Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg. There’s no modelling, no forecasting and no full-blown news conference to better explain Manitoba’s decision making one way or the other.
Politics being what it is, I’d be surprised if we see or hear from Roussin again until after Dec. 13. But lest we forget, the rules governing government communication during the byelection don’t allow Roussin to be silenced. I’ll quote here from what the province outlined today about the exception for “public health and safety where communication is necessary to ensure the health and wellness of Manitobans; this may include urgent or emerging issues as well as ongoing public health information campaigns.”
In other words, Roussin still has access to his bully pulpit — if he believes the public doesn’t deserve to stay in the dark for the next 28 days.
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