Anyway, it doesn't really matter. The reality is that VOCs were here before we even knew about them. Public health measures were the only answer, and most provinces utterly failed. Atlantic Canada had the same federal government, and is doing fine.
Everyone knew there were going to be variants, it wasn't a matter of if. There's countless COVID variants out there in the world, literally thousands identified.
Not saying provincial measures have been perfect, but Atlantic Canada doesn't have the travel of the other parts of the country, and the provinces don't control airports and many other ports of entry, which is how any virus will enter.
The feds were very quick to get financial benefits out last year, to their credit, but throughout 2020 they were behind the 8-ball on a lot of things pertaining to dealing with the actual virus itself. They're just really slow.
Someone like Doug Ford was doing a surprisingly good job and better than Trudeau, at least until the vaccine rollout which ON has effed up.