Are you a frustrated Albertan trying to avoid giving your money to businesses who bankroll Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party? Now there’s a map for it.
The Alberta Federation of Labour has launched the web site www.boycottUCPdonors.ca, featuring an interactive map of all the businesses who have made donations to pro-UCP Political Action Committees (PACs) since before the last provincial election.
AFL’s stated goal for the website is to give Albertans the information they need to make informed consumer choices.
“These are the businesses that have been bankrolling the UCP agenda – an agenda that is kicking Albertans when they’re down,” says AFL president Gil McGowan. “Why should a nurse, a teacher or a firefighter buy a car from an auto dealer who wants them to be fired or have their wages cut? Why should Albertans who believe in a strong public health care system and a strong public education system patronize a business that is cheerleading cuts and privatization? Why should workers spend their hard-earned money in establishments run by people who want to suppress their wages, eliminate their overtime, silence their voices and limit their rights?”
“By bankrolling the UCP’s destruction agenda, these businesses have made it clear that they don’t support ordinary Albertans, so why should ordinary Albertans support them?”
McGowan says the website is all about empowering individual Albertans.
“The Albertans who voted for the UCP in the last election trusted Jason Kenney to make their lives better,” says McGowan. “But now, a growing number of people are fed up. They’re looking at what the UCP is doing to doctors, municipalities, schools, and post-secondary institutions. They’re looking at the UCP’s corporate tax giveaways. They’re looking at the attacks on basic workplace rights and democratic freedoms. They’re looking at all of these things and saying: ‘That’s not what I voted for.’ With this website, we’re giving Albertans a tool that will allow them to do something about it.”
In the lead up to the last election, wealthy donors and businesses poured millions of dollars into pro-UCP PACs like Shaping Alberta’s Future that supported the UCP’s election effort and acted as cheerleaders for Jason Kenney’s agenda of slashing public services, attacking worker rights and undermining democratic freedoms.
“Information is key. These days, many people want to be informed and shop at local businesses that align with their values,” says McGowan. “And they want to boycott the businesses that don’t align with their values, it’s as simple as that. Until Albertans can vote in an election, the www.boycottUCPdonors.ca website will help them vote with their wallets.”
