When news came that Tyler Shandro, Minister of Health, and Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Chief Medical Officer of Health were going to host a press conference today, Albertans thought they might have something useful to impart.

Yes, we Albertans still maintained some hope that this government might actually do the work required to govern.

We were disappointed, yet again.

Despite doing the right thing when Covid-19 first arrived in the province, each subsequent wave – after wave, after wave – of this pandemic has been met with a deep reluctance to navigate the difficulties imposed by something completely out of the government’s control.

And yes, Covid-19, like so many other things promised by this government, was completely out of their control.

But, you see, that’s where leadership comes in.

The healthcare system is at a boiling point today – which means we haven’t even felt the problems posed by the last two straight weeks of rising cases.

Instead, Albertans received excuses, apologies, platitudes, and ineptitude while our hospitals are filling up, care is being passed along, and people are dying – for political fundraising opportunities and a refusal to admit they were wrong.

Because it is just the provincial government who refuses to act.

Municipalities are acting, municipalities are calling on the government to act, doctors are asking the government to act, businesses and their chambers are asking the government to act… yet… nothing.

It’s the “endemic of the unvaccinated“, the government mouthpieces said, as if that somehow doesn’t affect everyone else.

Still – they did nothing.

There are worse things than Covid-19 for children, they said, as the number of schools and daycares across the province listed outbreaks.

And still, our case numbers rise.

Eventually, though, the government will probably have to act – when there are no more spaces in hospitals and no more staff to care for patients, the government might have to act.

They will have to mandate business closures and restrict the freedoms of everyone in the province to account for their unwillingness to act earlier.

And we all know that it could have been prevented – had the government protected the healthcare system, as is their responsibility.

Alberta’s government is doubling down on their bad decisions – and every illness and preventable death that follows belongs to them.

Every, single, one.

This post contains opinion.

Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean is a political podcaster and a thorn in the side of lilies.
Connect: @Mitchell_AB for more, @thisweekinAB for posts, @politicalRnD for something in between

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