ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — With voting day in the provincial election just days away, Progressive Conservative Leader Ches Crosbie said it is politically inappropriate for Liberal Leader Andrew Furey to join the COVID-19 briefings.
“They told us in the beginning they would not be present for these public briefings and now they've broken that five days — it was five days yesterday — before voting day,” Crosbie said Tuesday. “It's giving them a stage now on which to strut their stuff within days of an election vote taking place. It's politically inappropriate.”
With 41 cases of COVID-19 reported in the past two days, as well as community spread, Crosbie said he worries about voter turnout on election day.
“There are going to be a lot of people who would be concerned about going out at all, whether it’s to a shop or to a voting station, so I am very concerned that it will suppress the vote and is adverse to the democratic process,” he said. “This didn’t have to happen. It’s a choice that Mr. Furey made to have this election … in conditions in which an outbreak and community spread of this kind were very possible to happen, and now it’s happened. He made a choice to advance his own interest, and the public health interest has been undermined as a result.”
Crosbie said the option was given to push the election to the summer or fall, when people are more likely to be vaccinated.
“He chose otherwise and now, regrettably, the genie of COVID is out of the bottle,” Crosbie said.
With a large number of people now having to self-isolate because of the recent cases, Crosbie said Chief Electoral Officer Bruce Chaulk should look to Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald for guidance about the election, while keeping in mind the “fundamental importance of the right to vote.”
Furey said that while he is running in an election, he doesn’t run the election.
“Mr. Chaulk has been fully equipped and has told us he’s been equipped to deal with COVID-19,” Furey said. “Because there is a serious situation does not mean that we cannot run a safe and effective election.”
Furey said elections have been held in other jurisdictions around the country and the world, in places with a “greater burden of disease than we currently have.”
“That doesn’t diminish the significance of people’s anxieties and fears with respect to this current Mount Pearl cluster, and that’s why I’m here today,” Furey said.
A representative with Elections Newfoundland and Labrador said Chaulk had a meeting scheduled with Fitzgerald, but given the timing would not be available for an interview until Wednesday.
