Liberal Joël Lightbound’s criticisms of the prime minister’s pandemic management were publicly echoed by a first deputy. Quebec elected official Yves Robillard said he shared his colleague’s discomfort with the divisive tone adopted by Justin Trudeau.
Joël Lightbound broke ranks on Tuesday to denounce, at a press conference, the tone of his government, which he criticized for having “politicized” the whole debate surrounding vaccination by drawing up “overly broad generalizations” sometimes “as easy as ‘absurd’.
“He said exactly what many of us think,” said Yves Robillard, MP for the riding of Marc-Aurèle-Fortin in Laval, to the parliamentary media on Wednesday. The Hill Times. “I agree with everything Mr. Lightbound said. »
The latter, who represents a riding in Quebec, had reported the day before that “several” of his colleagues shared his opinion. Mr. Robillard is the only one for the moment to have endorsed his comments publicly.
But behind the scenes, other Liberals, like Mr. Lightbound and Mr. Robillard, have expressed concern that the Prime Minister will reject out of hand any challenge to health measures. Justin Trudeau has been hammering for months that the majority of Canadians have “done the right thing” by getting vaccinated and brings back the demands of some Canadians who would like to see health measures eased to a “marginal minority” represented by the convoy of truckers who have paralyzed downtown Ottawa.
Yves Robillard was slapped on the knuckles this winter after traveling to Costa Rica when the government advised Liberal MPs not to travel abroad. The member lost his position as chairman of the parliamentary defense committee. A decision he denounced during his interview with the Hill Timesdemanding an apology from the government whip, Steven MacKinnon, who removed him from this position.
More ammunition for the opposition
The Conservatives are making a big fuss of criticism from Mr. Lightbound and now Mr. Robillard. Members of the official opposition spent question period on Wednesday evoking their remarks.
Joël Lightbound said on Tuesday that he felt uneasy “with the direction his government has decided to take”. The tone reportedly changed on the eve of the election campaign — during which the Liberals campaigned on a promise to impose mandatory vaccinations on travelers and public servants. Mr. Lightbound cited the concerns of people “who worry that they no longer know where public health stops and where politics begins” and argued that “governments have every interest in not brushing these concerns aside. hand and not to demonize those who express them”.