Dear Ms. Hannan Rizkalla (North Oakville - North Burlington Conservative Candidate)
I am a resident and a constituent in North Oakville - Burlington currently held by Pam Damoff of the Liberal party. I have been a faithful Conservative voter in all past federal and provincial elections. Full disclosure, I have never voted Liberal and I am not a fan of Justin Trudeau and what I view as numerous faux-pas in his capacity as Prime Minister. However, in this election, I will hold my nose and vote Liberal unless you can convince Erin O’Toole to make an immediate and very sharp left turn on the matter of mandatory vaccinations, vaccine passports, and in dealing with anti-vaxxers who see fit to illegally block access to healthcare facilities. It seems that you have less than a week to get the job done, and I suggest even less if you hope to sway swing voters in favour of the Conservatives. Let me explain.
Normally, I consider all election issues in forming my voting intention. But in this election, only one issue; mandatory vaccinations and dealing with anti-vaxxers (especially those protesting at health care facilities) trumps all others, pardon the pun. I understand that you yourself are a seasoned health professional, so I expect you to be familiar with the issues more so than most. Now is time for you to put that familiarity to good use. While in my opinion, not even Justin Trudeau is dealing with the matter seriously enough, he is at least promising to tackle the issue most head-on compared to other Canadian party leaders with the exception of the Bloc Québécois’ Yves-François Blanchet, but who represents only one province, not the country. Frankly, I am not certain Justin Trudeau’s promises will go far enough or will be delivered upon, however, Erin O’Toole’s and the Conservative approach appears even more lame.
I appreciate that Erin O’Toole is worried that he may alienate a portion of the Conservative base who, while most have been vaccinated and most disagree with the actions of anti-vaxxers, stop short of favouring taking strong action against a small and misguided minority. In my view this is not simply bad policy, it is evidence of short-sightedness in terms of political strategy. An overwhelming majority of Canadians favour mandatory vaccinations and effectively dealing with anti-vaxxers and anti-vaxxer protesters at healthcare facilities. So why is Erin O’Toole catering to the minority instead of the majority? With only a few days to go before the election, some may think it is too late to change course to a heading that should have been adopted from the start. In the Federal leaders' debate, Erin O’Toole indicated that he leads the Conservative caucus, not the other way around. Time for him to put his money where his mouth is.
So, Ms. Rizkalla, if you want my vote then you know what to do, otherwise I, and I suspect many others, are going to do the unthinkable and vote Liberal on September 20. However, if in the next 24-48 hours you can demonstrate that you succeeded in turning Erin O’Toole around, then you can put 20 of your lawn signs on my front lawn and I will once again proudly vote Conservative.
Please advise.
Dan Baril
