CALGARY — In September 2021, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney did something he had sworn he would never do: he introduced a vaccine passport system. The Restrictions Exemption Program — or REP — required Albertans to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test to enter restaurants, bars, gyms, entertainment venues, and organized events. For a premier who had built his brand on personal freedom and opposition to government overreach, it was a stunning reversal.
And it tore Alberta apart.
The Collapse of the "Open for Summer" Strategy
To understand the REP's controversial introduction, you have to understand what preceded it. In June 2021, Kenney launched his "Open for Summer" plan — a triumphant lifting of virtually all COVID restrictions, accompanied by a $100 lottery incentive for vaccinated Albertans. He declared the pandemic "over" for Alberta and positioned the province as a beacon of freedom while other jurisdictions maintained restrictions.
It was a catastrophic miscalculation. By September, Alberta's fourth wave was the worst in Canada. ICU capacity was overwhelmed. Field hospitals were activated. Triage protocols — the medical term for deciding who gets life-saving treatment and who doesn't — were on the table. And doctors were going on television, some in tears, begging for help.
"We went from 'best summer ever' to 'we might have to decide who lives and who dies' in about eight weeks," said Dr. Joe Vipond, a Calgary emergency physician who became one of Alberta's most prominent medical voices during the pandemic. "That whiplash — from denial to crisis — defined Alberta's pandemic experience."
The REP was Kenney's reluctant response to a crisis of his own making. And virtually nobody was happy about it.
A Province Divided Against Itself
The vaccine passport debate split Alberta along lines that didn't always follow traditional political boundaries. Families were divided. Friendships ended. Workplace tensions escalated to the point of hostility.
On one side: Albertans who viewed vaccination and the REP as common-sense public health measures — who were frustrated that a minority of unvaccinated people were overwhelming hospitals and threatening the healthcare system. "My mom's cancer surgery was cancelled because ICUs were full of unvaccinated COVID patients," said Rachel Turner, a Calgary nurse. "When people tell me the REP was government overreach, I think of my mom sitting at home with a tumour growing inside her because someone decided Facebook was a better source of medical information than their doctor."
On the other side: Albertans who saw the REP as a fundamental violation of bodily autonomy and individual rights — a two-tier society that punished people for making a personal medical decision. "I'm not anti-vaccine. I have all my other vaccines," said Kevin Drummond, a Calgary small business owner who declined the COVID-19 vaccine. "But mandating an emergency-authorized vaccine and creating a system where I can't go to a restaurant or watch my kid play hockey unless I show my papers? That's not the Alberta I know."
Small Businesses Caught in the Crossfire
For Calgary's small business community, the REP created an impossible situation. Restaurant and bar owners were conscripted as enforcement agents — required to check vaccine documents at the door or face fines and potential closure.
"I opened a restaurant to cook food, not to be a government checkpoint," said Marco Vitale, owner of a popular Italian restaurant in Kensington. "I lost customers on both sides. Vaccinated people who thought I wasn't checking carefully enough. Unvaccinated people who said I was a traitor. My staff were being verbally abused daily. One server was spit on."
The abuse directed at front-line workers became a defining feature of the REP era. Retail employees, restaurant servers, and gym staff — typically young, low-wage workers — bore the brunt of public anger over policies they had no role in creating.
The Protests
Anti-restriction protests became a regular fixture in Calgary throughout 2021. Weekly marches down Stephen Avenue and through the Beltline drew hundreds, sometimes thousands, of participants. Protesters carried signs comparing vaccine mandates to apartheid and the Holocaust — comparisons that many found deeply offensive but that reflected the genuine fury of those who felt their freedoms were being stripped away.
Counter-protests also emerged, with healthcare workers and their supporters staging demonstrations outside hospitals, pleading with the public to get vaccinated and support restrictions that would protect the healthcare system.
The polarization reached toxic levels. Social media became a battlefield. "Plague rat" was hurled at the unvaccinated. "Sheep" and "fascist" were thrown back at mandate supporters. Nuance became impossible. Anyone who expressed uncertainty about any aspect of pandemic policy was immediately sorted into one camp or the other.
The Political Fallout
The REP ultimately contributed to Jason Kenney's political downfall. His party's base — largely rural, libertarian-leaning Albertans who elected him on a platform of less government — viewed the vaccine passport as a betrayal. A leadership review in May 2022 saw Kenney receive only 51.4% support — a result so weak he stepped down as leader, paving the way for Danielle Smith's ascension to the premiership.
Smith ran explicitly on repudiating the Kenney-era COVID restrictions, championing her Alberta Sovereignty Act and positioning herself as the candidate who would never impose mandates. Her victory reflected a province that, by 2022, was deeply traumatized by the pandemic experience — not just by COVID itself, but by the policy responses and the social divisions they created.
The Scars That Remain
The REP was lifted in February 2022, but the divisions it exposed — and deepened — have not healed. Trust in public health institutions is at historic lows in Alberta. Relationships destroyed during the vaccine debate have not been repaired. And the next time a public health emergency requires collective action, Alberta's social fabric may be too frayed to respond effectively.
"We learned that Albertans will come together in a crisis — flood, fire, economic collapse — but a pandemic is different," said political scientist Dr. Lori Williams of Mount Royal University. "A pandemic requires sustained, coordinated behaviour change over months and years. And Albertan individualism, which is the province's greatest strength in many contexts, became its greatest vulnerability."
Whether you supported the REP or opposed it, the experience left a mark on Alberta that extends well beyond public health. It revealed fault lines in how we think about freedom, community, responsibility, and the social contract itself. And those are questions that Calgary and Alberta will be grappling with long after COVID-19 fades from the headlines.
WestNet News welcomes reader perspectives on the pandemic experience. Contact us at news@wnactionnews.com.
