Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) President Gil McGowan said the Alberta United Conservative Party-affiliated Take Back Alberta (TBA) organization is made up of evangelical extremists and anti-environment and anti-indigenous people..“This is what the UCP has become,” said McGowan in a tweet..“We can’t let this gang take our province backward.” .McGowan included a link to a story Town and Country Today did about TBA holding recruitment meetings in Barrhead and Westlock on March 31 and April 1 as it prepared for the upcoming provincial election..TBA Executive Director David John Parker and Captain Mitch Sylvestre warned if the Alberta NDP win the next election, the province will no longer resemble what it once was..“They actively are attacking our energy industry, the industry that makes us one of the most prosperous places on Earth, and they’re not democratic,” said Parker.. Take Back Alberta meetingTake Back Alberta meeting .McGowan praised his hometown newspaper for covering the event..“Daylight is the best disinfectant!” he said..Parker said McGowan’s comments are false..“I don’t know anyone in Take Back Alberta that I’m aware of, certainly in an official capacity, that has even said anything negative about First Nations,” he said..“Now there’s a lot of people in Take Back Alberta [who] hate the UN, but there’s nobody against any of the groups he described.” .Parker described the NDP as “an anti-democratic socialist party that wants to restrict the freedoms of regular Albertans economically, socially.” .He encouraged people to become involved in the democratic process. If people disapprove of the outcomes in their society, he said people “need to change it.” .The AFL has a direct affiliation with the NDP because it's mentioned in the party's constitution..The NDP Provincial Council requires two members of the AFL to sit on it. One of those members is McGowan..McGowan won the federal NDP nomination for Edmonton Centre in 2015..He beat out candidates Reakash Walters and Mark Crawford to win the nomination..He went on to lose the election to Liberal candidate Randy Boissonnault..McGowan accused TBA of spreading hate and used Holocaust imagery to bolster his point on March 7..READ MORE: SLOBODIAN: Does Rachel Notley have the guts to condemn McGowan's Nazi slur on Albertans?.“For those tempted to follow the ‘Take Back Alberta’ crowd and their ilk, listen to Arnold (Schwarzenegger) first,” he said..He quote tweeted a video of Schwarzenegger speaking about the effects of the Holocaust.
