Nothing hits the Conservatives like 'economy before people' . . .

CBC News · Posted: Nov 25, 2020

Conservative support dipping in the provinces hardest hit by COVID-19 — and governed by Conservatives

Alberta is now one of Canada's worst COVID-19 hotspots and Premier Jason Kenney's handling of the pandemic in his province is getting low marks, according to polls.

It might also be sapping support for the federal Conservative Party in its most loyal stronghold.

On Sunday and Monday, Alberta reported over 1,500 new cases of COVID-19 — a number similar to or greater than the daily counts in Ontario and Quebec, two provinces with much larger populations. The province's hospitals are filling up and there are serious concerns that continued spread will push the health care system beyond its limits.

Kenney introduced a series of new measures and restrictions on Tuesday, but throughout the crisis Kenney's United Conservatives have adopted an ideological approach to the pandemic — banking on appeals to personal responsibility and individual freedom rather than restrictions and lockdowns, with an eye toward keeping businesses open.

It hasn't worked. If Canada as a whole experienced Alberta's per capita growth in cases, its total would be well over 10,000 new cases per day — ranking it as one of the worst-afflicted countries in the world.

Albertans are not pleased. Last week's survey by Léger for the Canadian Press and the Association for Canadian Studies found just 37 per cent of Albertans reporting satisfaction with the measures put in place by the provincial government.

That put Kenney's government at the bottom of the ranking of provincial governments in the poll — and lower than Albertans' expressed satisfaction (46 per cent) with the measures put in by Justin Trudeau's Liberal government in Ottawa.

Alberta's nine-point spread in that poll — between voters' satisfaction with provincial pandemic measures and their assessment of Ottawa's performance — was the widest in the country.

The poll was conducted between Nov. 13 and 15, when Alberta was averaging 975 new cases per day. With the province's daily count of new cases now hovering around 1,500, it is unlikely Kenney's numbers have improved.