Editor: Chatham-Kent–Leamington MPP Rick Nicholls has frequently expressed concern about his eroding freedoms.
Yet, in his own words, he “never felt so liberated” as he did the day after he defied his leader, refused to get vaccinated, and was turfed from his party and the sitting Government of Ontario. In so doing, he selfishly ignored the wishes of his constituents who sent him to Queen’s Park as a Conservative member of the Ford administration.
Recently he felt free enough to speak – unvaccinated and unmasked – at a Worldwide Rally for Freedom event in Toronto. In the process, he smugly dismissed the advice of his personal doctor, and countless world health experts, repeatedly relying on personal biases to call the life-saving vaccines “experimental.” He apparently had no concern for the health of the hundreds of unmasked spectators in his audience or for the strain on the health-care system he might have been exacerbating.
It is a free country and Mr. Nicholls has every right, no matter how misguided, to launch an anti-vaccination campaign. But in my view, he should resign from the Ontario Legislature and do it as a private citizen and at his own expense.
In addition, when he does speak on the subject, he often speaks as if he still represents the feelings of his constituency, which he clearly does not. So, in the future, when he promotes his anti-vaccination stand, he should do so as a private individual.
Dennis Makowetsky
Chatham
