Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole stopped in Saskatchewan this week, another Canadian province he visited without leaving his home.
Utilizing Zoom, O’Toole has been meeting with residents of different provinces. He told Gormley the pandemic is overwhelmingly the major issue right now. It’s so big it makes the opposition want to help the government succeed.
“We’ve tried to collaborate,” he explained. “We voted for the assistance packages and then we’ve worked hard to improve them. We improved the rent subsidy, we improved the wage subsidy, and then we’re pushing in all areas we think the government has been slow.”
It’s O’Toole’s firm belief that the Trudeau government isn’t looking beyond Ottawa, and is failing to recognize that the pandemic has affected different parts of the country differently.
“The people on the ground know the needs of their community and their economy a lot more, so that’s why (for example) I think the carbon tax, Trudeau’s carbon tax, is unconstitutional,” O’Toole said.
Addressing rumours of a possible election, O’Toole says the state of the world during the pandemic is definitely not the right time.
“In Quebec there are curfews being imposed on people for the first time in 100 years,” he said. “It’s tough. Sixty per cent of restaurants are on the verge of bankruptcy (and) we’ve got the highest unemployment in the G20.”
O’Toole insists everyone’s focus should be on addressing the pandemic, getting people vaccinated and “securing our future.”