Wildrose Party incidents overblown: MLA

Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper, the Wildrose Party's house leader, says two events that embarrassed his party in the last few weeks are behind them and aren't a priority for local constituents.

Last week the party withdrew a blog post that compared the effect of the NDP government's carbon tax to the Holodomor, the genocide of millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s.

The party quickly took down the post. The approximately nine Wildrose individuals who combined on the post avoided reporters and the party issued an apology to Ukrainian Canadians.

Before that, in late May, the party briefly suspended one of its youngest members, Derek Fildebrandt, after he indicated approval of a comment by a constituent who made fun of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne's sexual orientation.

That followed sharp criticism of Wynne's government by Fildebrandt while Wynne was in the legislature gallery.

He questioned why Wynne, a Liberal, had been invited and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, the leader of a conservative-minded party, had not.

“Invite Premier Wall here! Invite Premier Wall," Wildrose finance critic Fildebrandt said to Premier Rachel Notley as she tried to answer a question.

He said Ontario had incurred huge debt to pay for capital and operating spending.

“Currently Ontario has the largest sub-national sovereign debt on the planet," Fildebrandt said.

“They're now even receiving equalization payments. It's an example of what happens when a government fails to get its spending under control."

He called Ontario's plans to reduce greenhouse gases a failure and asked Notley if she supported that plan.

During an interview with the Albertan, he stuck to his talking points.

In reference to the Holodomor post, he said, “yeah; certainly that's a very unfortunate event. I know that none of the authors of that article had intended to make that reference or to connect the two.”

In that case, Cooper was asked, why did those MLAs write the blog post making that comparison in the first place.

“They apologized unreservedly and I know that they spent some significant time over the last weekend with the members of the Canadian Ukrainian Congress and their apology was accepted,” he said.

Cooper was asked if he's worried if those two events might resurrect concerns among moderate conservatives that the Wildrose Party is too far to the right.

“I don't think that those things are helpful. But at the end of the day, all members will learn from that. It certainly was not an intentional connection and the apology was made and accepted, and I think it's positive that we moved forward from this position,” he said.

Cooper was asked how he could say the connection was not “intentional” when it was written right in the post?

“Well, I guess that is the part, the subject of discussion. I know that it wasn't the intention and they made the apology and I think that that apology's been accepted,” Cooper said.

Cooper was asked if the Fildebrandt matter has damaged his party.

“Well, I think we've moved on from that. Again, this is an opportunity for people to learn,” he said. “I think one of the spots of reflection if you will of the matter is that created a distraction and were internal matters.”

It was pointed out that the questions Fildebrandt asked and the comments he made about Ontario in the legislature weren't exactly “internal” because they were said in a very public place and Wynne was standing right in the gallery when those questions and comments were made.

“Yeah. But at the end of the day, you know, the things that Albertans are speaking – our constituents are chatting to me about aren't really around Derek Fildebrandt and those related issues,” Cooper said.

“They're about the carbon tax, they're about the fact that the government is driving in an ideological direction that isn't listening to Albertans -- doesn't seem to be concerned about what Albertans are asking for and speaking about.”

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