O'Toole is a perfect example of the saying "When you're stupid you don't know you're stupid"

 

In slamming Justin Trudeau for ‘screwing up’ the COVID-19 economy, Erin O’Toole misses the mark

There were some extraordinary moments last March and April on virtual Parliament Hill, but they seem to have slipped Erin O’Toole’s mind.

It was a time of fear, but it was also a time of common understanding about what matters most. The coronavirus was spreading quickly, requiring quick, life-altering decisions many times a day.

Despite a bitter federal election just months earlier, the political parties stopped haranguing each other and instead focused on how to shutter the economy, encourage everyone but essential workers to go home, and slow down the spread of COVID-19.

And they largely succeeded, with a generosity of spirit that should make any parliamentarian proud.

Yes, there were shortcomings. The recession has hit women the hardest, revealing weaknesses in child care and workplace attachment. The virus hit poor neighbourhoods and racialized communities the hardest, revealing the fragile intersections of poverty, race and close quarters.

O’Toole, though, has seized his new podium as leader of the Conservative party and used it to lump everything in together and accuse the Liberals of “screwing up” the entire system of income supports.

That’s historical revisionism with serious implications for how a Conservative leader would deal with future outbreaks.

In an interview with Global’s “West Block” after winning the leadership last week, O’Toole accused the Liberals of getting pandemic supports “entirely wrong” — saying the government’s CERB undermined its efforts to give employers wage supports to keep their workers.

There’s some legitimacy to the argument. It was something that the Liberals and government officials have fretted about for months. They were fearful that by rushing the $2,000-a-month emergency response benefit out the door early in the pandemic so that workers would stay home and not spread the virus, their jobs would disappear for good and make recovery much more difficult.

Indeed, former finance minister Bill Morneau spoke openly about the problem, begging employers to take back their employees and make full use of the government wage subsidy instead.

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