NDP’s Rachel Notley targets radical Take Back Alberta group

It’s hard to imagine David Parker, founder and de facto leader of the Take Back Alberta political action committee, was very happy to hear Opposition Leader Rachel Notley signal clearly last week that the NDP considers his group a legitimate target in the election campaign already unofficially under way.  In Grande Prairie to speak with supporters and media, Ms. Notley called on Premier Danielle Smith to make it clear just how much she agrees with views of radical preacher Artur Pawlowski and “the very extremist views advanced by her key support group, Take Back Alberta.”

Mr. Parker, who has been called “the power behind the throne” on which Ms. Smith now sits uneasily, has bragged about forcing former UCP premier Jason Kenney out of his job. 

TBA, as the far-right group registered with Elections Alberta as a third-party advertiser has come to be commonly called, is actively seeking to dominate UCP constituency associations throughout the province. 

It now controls half the UCP’s governing board positions and is bound to try to seize control of the remaining nine board seats when it gets the chance. 

“Albertans deserve to know whether they are on the verge of selecting a premier whose views are deeply extreme and offside with the opinions of the vast majority of Albertans,” Ms. Notley said during the news conference, in response to a question from Dean Bennett of the Canadian Press.

“She has to stop slipping and sliding and ducking and diving and changing her story every day,” the NDP Leader and former Alberta premier continued. “Albertans deserve better from someone who is seeking to lead the province. 

“A number of the view espoused by Art Pawlowski as well as many of the folks within Take Back Alberta, who support him, who were critical to Danielle Smith becoming leader of the UCP, are very concerning.”

Ms. Notley asked: Which of their extremist views are not acceptable to her, and which ones are? “She needs to speak openly … in very clear detail.”

Referring to the investigation launched April 10 by Alberta Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler into whether the premier interfered with the administration of justice, Ms. Notley added: “I would also like to make the point that it is unprecedented, really, that you’ve got a candidate for premier going into an election who is under the cloud of an ethics investigation, the outcome of which we very possibly will not see until after the election.”

After a…