"It's laughable": Horgan slams new Alberta premier's vaccine discrimination comments

Oct 12 2022, 10:01 pm

BC’s outgoing premier is not looking to start off on a friendly foot with Alberta’s new leader after she said unvaccinated people faced extreme levels of discrimination during the pandemic.

BC Premier John Horgan called Premier Danielle Smith’s comments “laughable” and didn’t attempt any thinly veiled diplomacy when he shared his thoughts on CFAX 1070 Wednesday.

“I can’t respond to that. It’s laughable quite frankly. We collectively, not just British Columbians and Canadians but the Global community, have just gone through an unprecedented time, going back to Spanish influenza, and on top of that, we have a toxic drug supply that is killing our brothers and sisters, our friends and our neighbours,” Horgan said.

“To focus on the sliver of the population who chose not to get vaccinated when there are all these other challenges seems short-sighted to me. I just disagree with her,” Horgan explained.

Smith made the comments on the heels of taking the helm at the Alberta Legislature following her successful leadership bid which came after former premier Jason Kenney stepped down from the UCP.

Smith said, “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a situation in my lifetime where a person was fired from their job or not allowed to watch their kids play hockey or not allowed to go visit a loved one in long-term care or hospital, not allowed to get on a plane to either go across the country to see family or even travel across the border.”

Following major backlash, Smith issued a statement Wednesday, saying she doesn’t want to take anything away from other groups that have faced discrimination.

“I want to be clear that I did not intend to trivialize in any way the discrimination faced by minority communities and other persecuted groups both here in Canada and around the world or to create any false equivalences to the terrible historical discrimination and persecution suffered by so many minority groups over the last decades and centuries,” Smith’s statement reads in part.

However, others point out that the statement does not include “I’m sorry.”

It seems that despite the geographic closeness, Horgan and Smith don’t seem poised to become premiers and pals.

“I don’t agree with the premier of Alberta and perhaps it’s a good thing that I’m not required to do that,” Horgan says, referencing that he will be stepping away as premier as soon as a new leader of the NDP is selected in December.

Currently, only two people have put their names forward for the job: David Eby and Anjali Appadurai.

With files from Peter Klein and Kenneth Chan

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