Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu’s comment that a Covid disaster is “what the NDP, the media and the federal Liberals were looking for and want” is contemptible. Politics can be a rough business but to accuse your fellow Albertans and fellow Canadians of wanting their neighbours to suffer disease and death is taking it into the sewer.

Recently Premier Kenney responded to death threats he had received for imposing stronger pandemic measures by insisting those sort of people were not his party’s base. Perhaps he needs to expand his indignation to include his cabinet.

In fact, Madu’s comment actually reflects his boss’s difficulty in tolerating dissent. Madu is channeling his mentor.

What is perhaps most disturbing about Madu’s attitude is his lack of trust and respect for his fellow citizens. It takes a bitter man to believe that this wide group of Canadians—NDP supporters, media people, and the members of the federal Liberal Party—are all so callous they would wish Covid on their fellow men and women.

Finally, his attitude illustrates a rather surprising paranoia. The UCP tend to blame all their and the province’s problems on Mr. Trudeau. Madu has now thrown in the NDP and the media. Could this be a result of his party trailing the NDP in the polls? It certainly has the odour of desperation.

The irony in this blame game is that the NDP opposition has been pushing for stricter Covid measures all along. It is the UCP government, attempting to placate its more rabid supporters, that has repeatedly opened up too soon and brought Alberta to the sorry state of experiencing the worst outbreak in North America.