Sherman demands that Redford fire Carter, Griffiths
Edmonton – Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman says Premier Alison Redford must fire her Chief of Staff and require her Municipal Affairs Minister to either immediately apologize to the President of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) or resign.
Redford’s Chief of Staff Stephen Carter claimed in a tweet yesterday that AUMA president Linda Sloan had “…lied. Maliciously,” when interviewed for a Calgary Sun story about the provincial budget on the weekend. Three years ago, Carter was forced to leave the Wildrose Party after he mocked former Premier Ed Stelmach’s Ukrainian accent.
And Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths sent the AUMA a letter notifying the AUMA that the entire PC Caucus was boycotting the organization’s annual breakfast Thursday in protest against Sloan’s criticism of the PC government.
“This kind of sick, arrogant abuse of the provincial government’s power is exactly what we’ve been talking about for months. The PCs act like political warlords, swaggering around the province, swinging their power around and threatening people into submission and silence,” says Sherman.
“The province has a sacred responsibility to treat municipalities with great respect, as friends and partners in the delivery of a high quality of life to Albertans.
For the Premier – who portrays herself as a liberal thinker – and the entire PC Caucus to insult the province’s towns and cities by staying home on Thursday is one of the most arrogant political moves I have ever seen.
In any other jurisdiction, this would be a scandal of huge proportions.
Sadly, this kind of arrogance is something we have been forced to become more and more used to.”
“It’s time for a whole new attitude,” says Sherman.
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