Alberta's Wildrose (Canada's Tea Party) Compares Carbon Tax To Ukraine's Terror Famine Of 1930s

[hatrack]

Wildrose, the main opposition party in Canada’s Alberta province, apologized Friday for comparing the majority National Democratic Party’s (NDP) carbon tax policy to the Ukrainian genocide in the 1930s that killed millions of people from a famine caused by Soviet agricultural policies. The comparison was made in a post on Wildrose legislative assemblymember Rick Strankman’s blog, which has since been deleted. Canadian news outlets quote the post, titled “How much is too much?” as having said:

[American economist and author Thomas] Sowell points out how the early settlers to North America considered all lands common property with no incentive for an individual to produce… The same situation existed in Russia during the 1930s resulting in the starvation of nearly six million people that lived on the most fertile land on the planet. The Alberta government’s carbon tax in its current form will not and can not [sic] create incentive for anyone exporting products outside of Alberta.

The province’s economic development minister, Deron Bilous, who is of Ukrainian descent, said he was “offended” by the “absurd” comments. He noted that members of the province’s 300,000-strong Ukrainian community are either survivors of the atrocity — known as the Holodomor — or descendants of those who suffered. The 1932-1933 failure of collective farming policy in Ukraine resulted in between 3 and 7 million deaths. The party issued an apology on Friday, saying in a statement that: “The Holodomor was an atrocious and intentional act that saw the deaths of millions upon millions of Ukrainians.”

EDIT

The Wildrose party has a history of controversy. Last year, party leader Brian Jean rejected the consensus that tar sands oil is dirtier than other fuels. Two months ago, Strankman caught fire for questioning the science of climate change in a meeting with Economic Development Minister Bilous. In response, the Environment Minister pointed out that half a dozen Wildrose members ran on a platform of rejecting the science. Climate denial is still political suicide in Canada.

EDIT

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/06/06/3784938/carbon-tax-genocide-comparison/

[MisterP]

1. they're appealing to all the Prairie Ukrainian-Canadians

I'd think Wildrose'd be for VIA Rail, though: last time they tried to get them to board the plane to Edmonton they opened fire with their sidearms after the airport authorities tried to trick them into feeding themselves to that big silver devil-bird

they're still stuck in "Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark!"