Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Alison Redford defended Alberta’s oilsands last week after lawyers working for Saudi Arabia threatened CTV with legal action for airing paid advertisements by the lobby group Ethical Oil.
Ethical Oil is a pro-oilsands group led by Alykhan Velshi. A book called Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada’s Oil Sands by Ezra Levant inspired the organization to refute “inaccurate and unfair” criticisms of the oilsands, according to www.ethicaloil.org.
“At the heart of this matter is the fact that we produce our oil in a regulated environment. Alberta spends significant money in research and development towards the protection and enhancement of the environment, doing things in a cleaner way than ever before and in ensuring that our petroleum industry promotes a safe work environment,” said Redford in a press release.
“We are on the cutting edge of some very interesting and innovative technologies here. Why shouldn’t our resources be considered first by our trading partners?”
Redford spoke out on the issue because it matters to Albertans, she told the Journal.
“Ezra Levant has a certain perspective,” she said. “He has a certain agenda that he is trying to advance that’s partly about the issues and also partly about, rightly so, his particular perspective on free speech, which I don’t disagree with.”
The advertisement pulled under threat of legal action criticizes oil from Saudi Arabia for coming from a country that does not allow women to drive or leave the home or work without a male guardian’s permission.
“We bankrolled a state that doesn’t allow women to drive,” a female narrator said in the ad, which can be viewed online at www.ethicaloil.org. “Why are we paying their bills and funding their oppression?” the narrator asks.
The ad concludes that “ethical oil” from Canada’s oilsands is a “better way.” While CTV has not aired the ad at press time, Sun News network is playing the ad and Ethical Oil has lobbied the federal government to “investigate a foreign dictatorship trying to censor what Canadians can and cannot see on their televisions,” the website reports.
Redford’s campaign for leadership continues to build momentum, according to campaign staff. Campaign worker Stephen Carter said membership sales for Alison Redford have been “unbelievable.”
“We thought it was busy last week just before the first vote. This second vote is out of control,” he said from the campaign trail in Friday. “We’re being inundated from a number of large groups that want to move memberships for us.”
He said large religious and ethnic groups have come on board, as well as people interested in health care and education, with the strongest support in Edmonton and Calgary. “Edmonton is really taking off for us.”
The campaign is planning a “whistle stop” tour this week with possible stops in the St. Paul area and central Alberta, but details could not be confirmed at press time.
Redford expanded on her democratic reform platform last week by adding fixed election dates to her campaign promises. She also pledges to form an independent commission to review MLA compensation within 90 days of taking office to determine fair pay for MLAs, chairpersons, whips, ministers, party leaders and the premier.
“Whether it will be higher or lower, I don’t know, but the point is that it shouldn’t be political,” she said. Democratic reforms “matter a lot to me and I intend to do something about it, so I wanted to be as detailed as I could.”
She would end special payments for simply serving on a government committee and ensure severance payments for defeated or retiring MLAs are comparable to other jurisdictions, as well as block payment of severance payments to former MLAs who remain on the government payroll.
