March 05, 2009

OTTAWA  (05 March 2009)  –  “This past weekend Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff spoke to the Liberal Party of Canada’s Alberta ‘branch’ in Edmonton,” states Leon Benoit, Member of Parliament for Vegreville-Wainwright. “I guess he thinks Albertans will listen to what he says, and forget what he has done.”

• Mr. Ignatieff is the father of the carbon tax, which he advocated in his 2006 leadership campaign. ("Agenda for Nation Building,” pg. 15)
• He signed his name to the documents supporting the infamous Coalition, a coalition that would have shut Alberta out of government and ignored Alberta’s interests. (December 4, 2008)
• He agreed to form a Coalition with the NDP and Bloc Quebecois, both of which are strongly opposed to Alberta’s oil sands.
• And, he defended the idea of forming a Coalition with a party whose sole aim is to destroy Canada.  He even defended the Bloc, saying, “they are not traitors, they are not enemies of Canada." (Montreal Gazette, January 16, 2009)

“To me it is clear that Mr. Ignatieff does not have Canada’s – and certainly not Alberta’s – best interests at heart,” concludes Benoit. “It’s easy to say what people want to hear, and that’s why I tend to place far more credence on the record of people’s actions rather than their statements. Mr. Ignatieff has so far proven to me that Alberta’s interests are not a priority for him.”