Conservative activists are comparing Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government to Alison Redford’s PCs following the revelation that ministers and officials accepted Edmonton Oilers playoff tickets from a man involved with a multi-million-dollar government contract.
The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Alberta cabinet ministers and government officials attended Stanley Cup playoff games in a Rogers Centre suite as guests of Sam Mraiche, whose company was part of the deal to obtain children’s medicine from a Turkish pharmaceutical company during a shortage in 2022.
Former MLA Drew Barnes was first elected under the Wildrose banner led by Smith in 2012, which pitched itself as an alternative to the increasingly corrupt PC government.
“In 2012, Danielle and many of us felt called to Edmonton to represent everyday Albertans and end cronyism, drastically reduce and reform lobbying, reduce the size and reach of government,” Barnes told True North.
“I would ask Smith and the UCP caucus to embrace those values.”
The 2012 election was won by Redford, but she was forced to resign just two years later after she racked up thousands in travel expenses which included flying her daughter’s friends around on a government plane. She also spent millions of taxpayer dollars to renovate the top suite of the Queen Elizabeth Building to use as her own private quarters, later nicknamed the ‘sky palace.’
Nadine Wellwood, spokesperson of the 1905 Committee which takes a critical view of Smith’s tenure, said the government’s behaviour is what most Albertans thought Smith would eliminate.
“This is far too familiar a story for most, as it seems the old PC days are back,” she told True North.
“Now every Albertan is wondering how many more special favours have been granted to political elites; and what deals are being made in back rooms in exchange for such favours?”
The Globe also revealed that Smith took in an Edmonton Oilers playoff game in Vancouver in a private box with tickets from Sam Jaber, who sits on the board of Invest Alberta, a Crown corporation designed to promote, identify, and pursue investments in the province. Redford was named to that board in June, to outcry from conservatives.
Alberta Affordability and Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf is the only minister named in the Globe article for accepting tickets from Mraiche. He said he received clearance from the ethics commissioner before joining colleagues, including other ministers and government officials, in the suite.
Last year, the UCP passed legislation allowing the premier’s chief of staff to determine what gifts political employees can accept. The legislation also raised the threshold of acceptable gifts to $500 from $200.
Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi said he wants Smith to disclose all staff and politicians who have accepted tickets, who the tickets came from, and who paid for travel. He wants to remove the ability for the premier’s chief of staff to approve gifts and called on the government to disclose all the accounting from the children’s medicine deal.
“Having ministers and staff sit in lobbyists’ luxury boxes while we are facing an affordability crisis in this province not only looks bad, it shows they’re living in a different world than the average Albertan,” Nenshi wrote on X.
Mitch Sylvestre, a conservative organizer and the president of the Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul United Conservative Party constituency association, said he is “disappointed and saddened” by the revelation. Sylvestre, a longtime Smith supporter, said those involved have jeopardized the government.
“I’m completely astounded at how this has happened, and how those people would not know better,” he said.