EDMONTON – As COVID-19 cases in Alberta surge and health-care leaders call for military aid to help beleaguered hospital staff, some are worried the latest public health measures may not help curb the fourth wave.

On Friday, Alberta reported more than 2,000 daily COVID-19 cases for the first time since May. While the next data update is expected Monday, the province has 19,201 active cases and 911 hospitalizations – including 215 ICU admissions.

The province released triage protocols to guide workers on how life-and-death decisions should be made if the province’s healthcare system is overwhelmed, and field hospitals were prepared in Calgary and Edmonton.

Other provinces pledged support to help Alberta deal with the fourth wave of the pandemic, including offers of pharmaceutical aid from Manitoba and the ability to send patients for care to Ontario.

Don Iveson, Edmonton’s mayor, told CTV News that the province should have taken the word of public health experts who were sounding alarm over the open for summer plan back in June.

“What we were promised in Alberta with open for summer,” Iveson said, “was a false promise because not enough people were vaccinated and our doctors and epidemiologists here in Edmonton were saying that at the time.

“We should have listened to them, or our decision-maker should have listened to them,” Iveson added.

That is why the City of Edmonton erred on the side of caution when it came to measures like mask mandates, Iveson said.

“Edmonton City Council takes very seriously what our healthcare leaders in the city say,” he said. “Notwithstanding the signals that everything’s fine coming out of the legislature, which were wrong.”

Iveson shared that he has heard large amounts of frustration from Albertans reacting to the newest public health measures.

“I’ve never seen Albertans this mad across the political spectrum about the situation we find ourselves in,” he said. “People are furious.

“Just call it a vaccine passport if you’re going to reverse course,” Iveson added. “Make it straightforward rather than a proof of vaccination restriction exemption program, which is an un-passport, which downloads the onus onto small businesses and municipalities like mine to have to make venue by venue decisions about whether we’re going to opt into this and that.”

The mayor said he and other colleagues in municipal governance are concerned that the program could create potential for inconsistencies across the province.

“That lack of clarity,” he said,” leads to potential for misinterpretation and potential for conflict on a store-by-storefront basis.”

Dr. Joe Vipond, a Calgary emergency room doctor and outspoken activist about the need for COVID-19 restrictions, told CTV News that the measures introduced last week by the premier “will not be enough.”

“I can tell you that the measures that were introduced on Wednesday, in my mind, won’t be enough to curb the exponential growth of cases,” Vipond said.

“And as such, we should be continuing to see growth of hospitalizations and ICU (admissions),” Vipond added. “If that’s the case, if we continue to have not just tens of people needing ICUs that we don’t have room for but dozens or hundreds, I don’t know what we can except maybe implement these (triage) protocols and that is deeply concerning.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Diego Romero

TORONTO — With the 36-day election campaign in the books, Canadians head to the polls on Monday to elect the members of the 44th parliament.

The ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic means that this will be a federal election unlike any other in Canadian history. Polling stations will follow local distancing and masking regulations, voters will mark their ballots with single-use pencils, and there will be plenty of hand sanitizer to go around.

Perhaps owing in part to pandemic-era fears, a record number of Canadians – nearly 5.8 million – have already voted at advance polls. Others have selected their preferred candidates via mail-in and special ballots.

CTVNews.ca looked back at our coverage of the past five weeks and compiled a guide that may help you be better informed before you vote and after the results start to come in.

Although the latest data from Nanos Research suggests the battle to form government is a two-way race, there are more than 20 parties running candidates in multiple ridings.

Before the campaign began, we profiled the leaders of the six parties expected to have the best showings in the election results: Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, Green Leader Annamie Paul, and People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier.

Several of those leaders also spoke to us in other settings. CTV News National Affairs Correspondent Omar Sachedina sat down with Trudeau, Singh, and Paul, while Question Period Host Evan Solomon talked to both Singh and Paul.

Five of the leaders also squared off at two debates produced by the Debate Broadcast Group, one in French followed by one in English. During the English debate, we had a team of journalists providing live fact-checking and analysis.

Our quest to find the facts behind campaign spin didn’t stop at the debates. All campaign long, our Truth Tracker team separated fantasies from realities. Here’s what they were up to:

Those who have yet to make up their minds on voting might find it helpful to consult our platform guide, which shows what the five leaders who were invited to the debates are promising to do about 14 different policy files, if elected as government.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that no party will secure enough seats in Parliament to implement their agenda without help from others. We’ve been ruled by minority government for the past two years, and could well be again in the 44th Parliament. CTVNews.ca’s Rachel Aiello took a look at what each of the five leaders has said about minority or coalition governments, and how certain scenarios could play out.

We’ve also highlighted 27 ridings that could be make-or-break for parties’ hopes of forming the next government, and you’ll be able to track results in all 338 ridings on election night with our live results map.

A new wrinkle this time around is that it will likely be several days before we know the final result of the election. Elections Canada has said that the counting of mail-in votes will not start until Tuesday, and may take two to five days to complete. Media outlets may still declare winners as early as election night, if they do not believe the mail-in totals will substantially alter the outcome of the election.

Whatever happens Monday night and beyond, we’ll have you covered every step of the way. Special coverage helmed by CTV’s Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme starts at 6:30 p.m. EDT Monday on CTVNews.ca, the CTV and CTV News apps, CTV, CTV News Channel, BNN Bloomberg, and CTV.ca.

EDMONTON – The mother of a child who spends a lot of time in hospital wants to give staff in Alberta’s overloaded intensive care units (ICUs) a coffee to help keep them going.

Alberta’s hospitals are in a critical state, according to healthcare officials.

The situation has parents of chronically ill children worried about what would happen if they needed to bring their kids to hospital.

“It’s scary to hear that there may not be a bed available for my child,” said Kaela Hendra, whose nine-year-old son had been in and out of hospital since he was born. “The conditions he has are lifelong, he does have chronic lung disease and a brain condition that, at any time he could need brain surgery.

“The thought that ICU beds are being taken up and hospital beds are being taken up and those may not be available to us was really concerning.”

According to a pediatric neurosurgery nurse, parents don’t need to worry about their children not being able to get care in hospitals.

“Whatever the situation is, if there’s kids that need urgent and emergent care, we will provide the absolute highest level quality of care that we always have,” said Wendy Beaudoin.

However, when Hendra was speaking to an ICU nurse, she realized how tired staff were.

“She just said how bad it is right now and that they needed help, it really sounded to me that they needed a little bit of hope,” said Hendra.

The idea came to start a GoFundMe page to raise $1,000 to get coffee for ICU staff. According to Hendra, they reached that fundraising goal in 45 minutes and raised the goal.

“Right now we’re at $6,000, which is just mind blowing to have the support and let people know that we really care about those folks in the hospital,” said Hendra.

“It just makes you smile and catch your breath and shed a tear all at the same time,” added Beaudoin. “And really makes you feel like you can get up and go to work the next day, which is probably the biggest thing right now.”

The fourth wave of the pandemic has been the hardest so far on healthcare workers, according to Beaudoin. She hopes people remember that front-line workers are people too.

“(They’re) trying to do everything they can for every Albertans and find some room in your heart to support that and set politics aside just let us get through the pandemic right now.”

Hendra is planning to start delivering gift cards to workers this week.

“This won’t be enough, it’ll never be enough, but we just want them to know that we love them and we’re so thankful for them and if they need something we’ll be here for it too,” said Hendra.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson 

EDMONTON – Saturday’s Edmonton Elks game is the city’s first major event offering rapid COVID-19 testing at the door.

The team previously announced that starting in October fans would have to provide proof of double vaccination or a negative test result.

Those plans changed once the province’s restrictions exemption program was announced Wednesday evening. To be in line with the program, the Elks are asking everyone 12 years of age or older for proof of one dose of COVID-19 vaccine or a negative test result from within 48 hours of kickoff.

Tests are offered outside Commonwealth Stadium for $50.

“This is an opportunity for everyone to attend the game in a safe environment,” said Chris Presson, Elks CEO and president.

“People understand where we are as a country, as a province, and as a city,” Presson added. “Any time you open the paper and see 2,000 new cases is cause for concern. We want a safe environment and (Commonwealth Stadium) is a part of that.”

Individual tests take around five to six minutes for results. Many fans who came out early Saturday to receive theirs say the short wait and $50 price tag will be well worth it come game time.

“It’s a small price to pay to do the right thing and keep people safe,” said

“I don’t find it to be a problem,” xx said. “I’ve seen people at my work pay $140 for the test, so I don’t have a problem with it.”

Presson said the testing site saw busy periods throughout Saturday afternoon.

No decision has been made on whether to continue the onsite rapid testing throughout the season. The Elks say that will depend on demand. 

EDMONTON – In the past week, Albertans and residents of Saskatchewan have been searching for information about the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) the most on Google, according to data released by the search engine.

Google Trends, a website analyzing popularity of queries people input into the search engine, says the PPC dominated search interest in federal political parties in the past week within Alberta.

According to data released by Google, 34 per cent of searches in Alberta related to the PPC at the time of publication while the New Democratic Party (NDP) garnered 32 per cent of searches.

Twenty-one per cent of searches related to the Conservative Party and nine per cent of searches were for information about the Liberal Party. The Green Party received the lowest amount of search interest with only four per cent of searches.

Search interest was dominated by the PPC since Sept. 5 until 10 days later when it started to switch on a daily basis between that party and the federal NDP.

Nationally, the NDP received the highest amount of searches at the time of publication with 32 per cent while the PPC had 30 per cent of searches. The Conservative Party and Liberal Party had 21 and 10 per cent of search interest across the country in the past week, respectively.

When it comes to federal political leaders, Google Trends says Justin Trudeau represented 54 per cent of search interest in Alberta within the past week. Erin O’Toole garnered 21 per cent of interest while Jagmeet Singh and Maxime Bernier received 12 per cent and 9 per cent of search interest, respectively.

Search interest for all the party leaders was highest on Sept. 10, the night of the only televised English debate.

Search interest for the PPC in Alberta was driven primarily by rural areas, particularly in central and southern regions of the province. Data showed NDP search interest was highest in Athabasca, Fort MacLeod, Ponoka, Morinville, Edmonton, and Stettler.

Search interest for the NDP was highest in the Northwest Territories, British Columbia, and Alberta.

Founded in 2018 by Maxine Bernier, the party brands itself as a mix of “common sense, populism, classical conservatism and libertarianism.” Its platform includes withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, decreasing immigration, and reducing government involvement in the free market. The party has been criticized for harbouring racist views and legitimizing white nationalism.

In the 2019 federal election, the PPC captured less than two per cent of the popular vote and its leader Maxime Bernier lost his own seat.

According to the most recent Nanos Research’s nightly tracking data, conducted for CTV News and the Globe and Mail and released on Saturday, the PPC saw a slight dip from 7.5 per cent to 7.3 per cent.

Polling shows the Liberals had a slight drop in support from 31.9 per cent to 31.3 per cent. The Conservatives saw a similar dip from 30.4 per cent to 29.2 per cent. The NDP are at 20.9 per cent, up from 20.3 per cent the previous day.

According to Nanos election tracking for the prairie region specifically, polling shows 8 per cent of people surveyed from Sept. 10 to 14 would vote for the PPC – compared to 49 per cent Conservative, 23 per cent NDP, and 17 per cent support. From Aug. 18 to 22, PPC support was polled at 5 per cent.

‘IT’S AN INDICATION OF INTEREST’

For Rey Rosales, associate professor in the department of communications at MacEwan University, the Google Trends data is one indicator that can be used to gauge voter interest in a particular party that may not translate to votes.

“It’s an indication of interest,” Rosales said.

“(At this point) voters have been fed all kinds of information,” he added. “They’ve gone through a lot of awareness already, messages on social media and all kinds of channels. So search interest can show what people are looking at or considering.”

Further, Rosales said that search interest can also show indicators of what people are looking at to validate their beliefs or inclinations in voting a certain way.

On the flip side, search interest results only show what people are looking at. Rosales said that while the Liberals and Conservatives have low search rates in Alberta, it could be due to people seeing their messaging more and not needing further information.

When it comes to northern Alberta, Rosales said the three ridings to watch for are Edmonton Centre, Mill Woods, and Griesbach. Outside of those ridings, Rosales said polling and data he’s seen is showing comfortable Conservative leads.

“You can’t really find anything competitive in Alberta,” Rosales said. “Alberta is still dominated by blue.

“There are only pockets of interest where ridings can be competitive,” he added.

“In terms of the final numbers, the surging numbers of the PPC might take a little away from Conservatives but it will probably mean little difference. We shall see on election night.”

One thing Rosales says he’s noted after seeing the search interest results is that people are clearly seeking out information about the PPC.

“In Alberta, the party has the highest share of polling,” Rosales says. “So it shows a growing interest here.

“Something is resonating, from their platform, messaging, or candidates,” he added. “They have messaging between hope and fear, of anxiety; limiting immigration, less (COVID) restrictions.

“For people in rural areas those types of messages will tend to appeal to them.”

NANOS METHODOLOGY

A national random telephone survey (land-and cell-line sample using live agents) of 1,200 Canadians is conducted by Nanos Research throughout the campaign over a three-day period. Each evening a new group of 400 eligible voters are interviewed. The daily tracking figures are based on a three-day rolling sample comprising 1,200 interviews. To update the tracking, a new day of interviewing is added and the oldest day dropped. The margin of error for a survey of 1,200 respondents is ±2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The respondent sample is stratified geographically and by gender. The data may be weighted by age according to data from the 2016 Canadian Census administered by Statistics Canada. Percentages reported may not add up to 100 due to rounding.

For Prairie region polling, a national dual-frame (land+cell) random telephone survey is conducted nightly by Nanos Research throughout the campaign using live agents. This report is comprised of a comparison of two five-day periods of the election campaign, the first wave being between Aug. 18 and 22 and the second between Sept. 10 and 14, for voters in the Prairies.

The margin of error for a survey of 376 and 422 respondents is ±5.1 percentage points and ±4.8 percentage points respectively, 19 times out of 20.

With files from CTV News’ Brooke Taylor