Higgs no outlier as he maps end to COVID restrictions

Blaine Higgs says he's not blinking.

The New Brunswick premier says the further loosening of COVID restrictions on Feb. 18 is not a concession to protestors, including those who plan to bring a trucker convoy to Fredericton this weekend.

"That isn't the way to make decisions," he says.

While he hopes the timeline he's laying out will persuade "moderates" that the protest is now a waste of time, he insists the move to Level 1 is consistent with the plan he laid out in December.

It also happens to dovetail with where public opinion, other governments and many public health experts are going. 

The Angus Reid Institute recently found that 54 per cent of Canadians it polled support an end to restrictions, the first time in a long time that a majority has held that view.

The firm's president Shachi Kurl calls it "a significant number."

"It is a signal that Canadians are starting to move in a certain direction, and it's probably incumbent on politicians to know that if they're going to continue to double down on restrictions, they're going to have to make a case for why or risk losing the room."

Higgs announced Wednesday that the province will move to Level 1 of its COVID winter plan on Feb. 18 and could scrap the provincial emergency order and its remaining restrictions by the end of March.

"The end of the mandates is certainly in sight," he said. "When we make that decision, it will be based on science."

He was less clear about the future of mask and proof-of-vaccination requirements, which are part of a Public Health Act regulation due to expire at the end of April. It's separate from the emergency order.

While Higgs defended the move to Level 1 as science-based, he said it's also a nod to fatigued New Brunswickers who've done everything right from the beginning.

"The public have been with us on this. They want to see changes. They want to see improvements. They want to see the benefits of being vaccinated and that's what we're trying to accomplish here based on the science."

Kurl says much of the support for lifting restrictions comes from fully vaccinated Canadians who feel less at risk than before, and who no longer can justify the trade-off of restrictions.