On the day the province moved from Stage 1 to Stage 2 of the COVID-19 reopening, Airdrie-Cochrane MLA has blunt words for his government and other provinces.
"Let us learn from our mistakes, the errors of our past should be the wisdom of our future," Peter Guthrie the UCP MLA said in a online video posted to his Facebook page.
The five minute video lays out his thoughts and opinion on the last two years and how provinces failed to adapt to the changing pandemic and relied heavily on opinion polls.
"I think that most people appreciate the fact that when the pandemic began the lack of knowledge around the severity of outcome warranted a cautious approach," Guthrie said. "The feedback that I received was that government didn't reassess protocols or methods as information was gained."
Guthrie said that in the eyes of many there was an abdication of responsibility, "(There was a) deferral to health experts without adequate consideration of all other inputs when problem solving."
The UCP MLA said that provinces upheld similar restrictions, with only a slight degrees of variations, "The logic begin was that if everyone maintains a similar response no one could be centred out because there was little deviation.
"A kind of safety in numbers mentality," he added.
In the video he called out the restrictions and mandates that were seen to be driven by polling, "The results was inconsistent policy, and flip-flopping of positions."
He took a shot at the Alberta government over last summers flip flop on introducing a vaccine passport, "Up to last summer there were strong opinions favouring individual rights, with the sentiment very much against mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports.
"Most government across the country opposed these types of measures. Claiming that they would never introduce them," Guthrie added. "However in the matter of a couple of months public opinion shifted as fear rose."
In the fall of 2021, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced that the province would be introducing a vaccine passport. In early February, Kenney cancelled the program after COVID-19 numbers receded.
Guthrie took a not so subtle shot at Kenney over his stance on the mandatory vaccination policy the federal government has for workers like truckers, " Provinces are asking the federal government to lift its mandates on truckers, and rightfully so. And yet in Alberta every governmental organization that I know of, has implemented a mandatory vaccination policy."
He added that constituents of Airdrie-Cochrane have pointed out the hypocrisy, "And assume that the same demands that are made of the Trudeau Government should be applied internally right here at home."
The Airdrie-Cochrane MLA acknowledges that another variant could come to Canada, "But we will no longer tolerate previously introduced measures."