The Conservatives' COVID conspiracy conundrum

The time to stand up to anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists is yesterday.

When Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for President and then inexplicably won the 2016 election, one of my biggest worries was how it would affect the Conservative Party of Canada. Everything else being equal, the CPC has never been as far right politically as the GOP - even Joe Biden doesn’t (publicly) support a Canadian-style single-payer health system, while most Tories are far too timid to suggest any serious reforms of it - but American conservatives have always had some influence over their Canadian counterparts.

The first time I ever heard about QAnon was at an event for former Tory leader Andrew Scheer in 2018. That was a…memorable conversation.

Sadly, it’s not at all surprising to see Conservative MP Derek Sloan using his position to promote anti-vaxxer nonsense in the middle of a pandemic:

Conservative MP Derek Sloan has sponsored a parliamentary e-petition that raises questions about the safety of a future coronavirus vaccine.

It also states that “bypassing proper …