A link on the New Democrat Party’s (NDP) website is mysteriously missing, just hours after the UCP filed an election violation complaint.
On Wednesday, the United Conservative Party (UCP) released a letter that questioned the NDP’s relationship with provincial union bosses and alleged election law violations.
Subsequently, the NDP’s executive list on its website was mysteriously missing, with the link instead re-directing users to the party’s homepage.
The UCP’s executive director Dustin van Vugt later said the development isn’t likely a coincidence.
“We suspect the NDP is hiding their provincial executive because their executive is stacked with union officials affiliated with third party advertisers,” he said.
“It is odd that they would choose to hide this information from the public.”
Earlier in the day, the UCP’s letter sent to Elections Alberta alleged violations of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act. The UCP alleged that both the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) and the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) are illegally campaigning for the NDP.
The letter states that AFL’s President Gil McGowen indicated his union is running ad campaigns he said are paid for by “existing funds,” allowing him to keep the source of the funding hidden.
“Even if Mr. McGowan’s scheme were permitted (which it should not be), the AFL has quite obviously exceeded the $17,388 surplus that was reported in their 2019 election return,” the UCP’s letter reads.
The UCP’s letter further said the ATA “appears to be running an illegal third party campaign.”
A May 2 poll suggested that Premier Smith has surged ahead of the New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Rachel Notley — showing Smith had an 80% chance of winning a majority government.
As of May 8, the outcome shows the UCP has a 77% chance of forming a majority government.
