The UCP is calling on the NDP Livingstone-Macleod candidate Kevin Van Tighem to apologize..The UCP on Friday said Van Tighem compared companies in the province that employ people as “slave owners.”.UCP candidate for Edmonton-Decore Sayid Ahmed says what the Alberta NDP candidate said was really “messed up.”.Ahmed, who was born in Somalia, released a video about Van Tighem's remarks on Twitter calling them “horrific, hurtful, and outrageous.”.In his book, Wild Roses are Worth It: Reimagining the Alberta Advantage, Van Tighem compares Alberta's energy industry to slavery and energy workers to slaves, saying, “Alberta’s enslaved landscapes were never unemployed to start with. And most of the jobs we force them to do impair their ability to do their real work. That’s how slavery works; it makes bosses rich by stealing the energies of their slaves.” .In the same book, Van Tighem infers energy workers are ignorant and prejudiced, saying, “I don't like how the lure of oil money made kids drop out of high school and hurry off to the oil camps to make it big, giving up on the acquisition of knowledge and absorbing, instead, the prejudices of their mostly male co-workers.” .Further, Van Tighem called Albertans “angry, entitled rednecks” and “entitled, grabby, resource exploiters,” and said, “Oil sucks. And we're the suckers..UCP Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre candidate Jason Nixon said Van Tighem's comments are some of the worst attacks he's ever heard against Albertans and the energy sector, and he needs to explicitly apologize, which he has not yet done..“The comments made by Mr. Van Tighem are deeply disturbing. Clearly, Rachel Notley and her candidates still believe Albertans are 'sewer rats' and 'embarrassing cousins.' By refusing to explicitly apologize, the NDP are proving these views still run rampant in their party,” Nixon said..“I'm proud to be an Albertan. If Rachel Notley and her hand-picked candidate have such a problem with Albertans, why are they running to represent our province?”.The Western Standard has reached out to Van Tighem for comment, but so far this election the NDP has refused to talk to the WS.
