London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Canada: politicians punished for holiday travel despite Covid warnings

Canada: politicians punished for holiday travel despite Covid warnings

Jason Kenney, Alberta’s premier, fired chief of staff, accepted municipal affairs minister’s resignation and demoted five others
Seven members of Alberta’s provincial government have been punished for taking vacations outside Canada despite guidelines urging people to avoid nonessential travel during the pandemic.

Alberta’s premier had previously declined to sanction the officials over their holiday trips, but on Monday, Jason Kenney reversed course, announcing he had fired his chief of staff and accepted the resignation of his municipal affairs minister.

Kenney also demoted five other members of his United Conservative party (UCP) for taking flights abroad in recent weeks.

The growing scandal has cast the UCP into further disarray as Alberta battles the highest rate of active coronavirus cases in Canada.

Ahead of the Christmas holidays, officials across the country, including in Alberta, had begged residents to remain home to prevent a surge in cases.

But a string of politicians at federal or provincial levels have admitted to having taken vacations outside of the country, raising fears that their behaviour could undermine confidence in Canada’s fight against the pandemic.

Last week, Ontario’s finance minister resigned after taking a secret Caribbean vacation to St Barts, and attempting to cover his tracks on social media.

A similar scandal broke in Alberta, when it emerged that Tracy Allard, minister of municipal affairs – and a key figure in the province’s Covid-19 vaccine strategy – had taken a family trip to Hawaii.

Kenney’s chief of staff, Jamie Huckabay, also admitted spending time in the UK over the holidays. Huckabay had been forced to return via the US because flights between the UK and Canada have been suspended over the variant Covid strain first detected in the UK.

Kenney further stoked outrage over the weekend after initially declining to sanction any party members, arguing that there was “no public health order or legal barrier” barring vacations.

On Monday, however, he was forced into a U-turn and accused his scofflaw party members of “demonstrat[ing] extremely poor judgment”.

“Millions of Albertans have made real sacrifices over the past 10 months to help keep each other safe. They are right to be angry about people in positions of leadership vacationing outside of the country,” Kenney wrote on Facebook.

Over the weekend #ResignKenney trended in Canada as political opponents on the left seized on Kenney’s refusal to dole out punishments.

“This is a complete failure of leadership,” said the New Democratic (NDP) leader, Rachel Notley.

Even right-of-centre newspapers have condemned the premier.

“The moral authority and credibility that the Kenney government must wield in convincing Albertans to obey public-health recommendations are now severely diminished by the apparent double-standard followed by UCP politicians and staffers,” said an editorial in the Edmonton Journal.

More broadly, the violation of rules without consequence risks undermining a sense of collective action in fighting the virus, said political scientist Lori Turnbull.

“Does the government actually believe their own messaging? Do they think that it’s OK to travel? Do they not think that the guidelines are worth following?” she said. “It’s not about one person using bad judgment. It’s a systemic lack of adherence to the guidelines that the government itself is putting out.”

On a federal level, two Liberal parliamentary secretaries – Kamal Khera and Sameer Zuberi – have stepped aside from their roles after attending memorials for family members or visiting ailing relatives.

Conservative lawmaker David Sweet announced his resignation as chair of a parliamentary committee on Monday after admitting he travelled to the United States and “for leisure” without informing party officials.

NDP member Niki Ashton has stripped of her shadow critic roles in parliament after travelling to visit her ill grandmother in Greece without telling the leader, Jagmeet Singh.

But even travel out of compassion can send the wrong message when residents have made personal sacrifices during the pandemic, said Turnbull.

“There are people who are living close to family members and who haven’t been able to be with them when they die. Being separated from one another has been one of the most haunting, miserable parts of this pandemic,” she said. “For many it feels politicians are breaking this rule – but we can’t.”

As the federal government warn that a surge in new cases is likely following Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, Turnbull cautioned there could be long-term political fallout.

“Being in elected office is a privileged position. You are holding that office, but it’s not yours. That office is connected to democracy … and have to be really, really careful, because your actions might have lasting consequences.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×