O’Toole still won’t say how many Conservative candidates got COVID-19 vaccines – National | Globalnews.ca

COVID-19 Vaccines continue to dog Canada’s Conservative leader as he vies for votes in seat heavy Ontario with the clock ticking down to election day.

Erin O’Toole started his second last day of campaigning running by a farmers market without appearing to go inside to capitalize on one of his last chances to meet prospective voters.

That decision reflects the party’s overall campaign strategy, which has relied more on O’Toole answering questions from people through virtual townhalls in a broadcast studio in downtown Ottawa, as opposed to pressing the flesh in local communities.

Speaking at a stop near Hamilton, Ont., O’Toole said he’s met thousands more people this way and run a safer campaign than the Liberal effort, which has seen leader Justin Trudeau appear in crowded rooms and at hospitals.

“I’m proud of the campaign we’re running,” he said. “I’m proud I’m not a celebrity taking people for granted like Mr. Trudeau.”

The Conservative leader faced renewed questions about his decision not to require his candidates to be vaccinated and would not answer questions Saturday about whether he knew how many had received shots.

O’Toole is inoculated and has committed to appointing a health minister who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but he didn’t say whether he would be asking candidates for their immunization status.

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Canada election: Trudeau blasts O’Toole about his candidates’ vaccination status

“We have a rule that everyone that’s campaigning for us, candidates, people going door-to-door have to use vaccines, and if someone is not fully vaccinated they must use a daily rapid test and follow all the public health guidance in the provinces they’re in,” he said.

“We’ve said that from the beginning of the campaign and here’s something interesting, we’ve followed it. We have followed the health rules throughout the campaign.”

O’Toole received an endorsement Saturday from retired vice-admiral Mark Norman, who was at the centre of a failed prosecution by the Liberal government in a politically heated case that ended his military career.

In a video clip the Conservatives shared on social media, Norman says Canadians have an important decision to make as to who should lead the country through the challenges it faces at home and abroad.