TWO MORE UCP MLAS SENT DECEIVING CHRISTMAS MESSAGES TO CONSTITUENTS WHILE VACATIONING IN HAWAII, LAS VEGAS

CALGARY - Alberta’s NDP has uncovered more examples of UCP MLAs sending Christmas messages to their constituents while secretly vacationing abroad during the COVID-19 shutdown.

UCP Calgary-Klein MLA, the Parliamentary Secretary Jeremy Nixon, complained about the difficulty of COVID-19 restrictions in his constituency newsletter dated December 23 — it’s believed he was in Hawaii at the time of the message.

UCP Calgary-Peigan MLA Tanya Fir told her constituents that Christmas this year would look different in a December 23 video — she has since admitted she was in Las Vegas.

“Albertans have been sacrificing so much this holiday season and it looks like UCP MLAs not only left their constituents behind to head off on sunny vacations abroad, but that they also tried to deceive them by posting holiday messages that give the illusion they were here following the rules like everyone else,” said NDP Deputy Leader Sarah Hoffman. 

In his newsletter entitled “What’s What with Jeremy” and sent by email on December 23, Nixon wrote that he hoped all Albertans, “will be able to work together to ease these (COVID-19) measures in 2021.” He stated that he missed hugging people more than anything.

In a video posted to her Twitter account on December 23, Fir told her constituents that she was in her riding and told them that Christmas would be different this year.

“These MLAs were thousands of kilometers away from their constituencies,” Hoffman said. “They lied and pretended to be following the same public health orders. We continue to call on the Premier to discipline these members who believe that they’re above the rules that apply to everyone else.

The revelations about Nixon and Fir come in the wake of an already-reported trip to Hawaii taken by Minister of Municipal Affairs Tracy Allard and reported trip to Mexico by Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pat Rehn over the holidays. Minister Allard is responsible for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine and the UCP missed its end-of-year targets significantly, vaccinating 11,000 or fewer healthcare workers when they had promised to administer a first dose to 29,000.

Minister Allard also posted a video online over the holidays from the Legislature rotunda. She said Friday that her staff posted it on her behalf while she was in Hawaii.

The Premier has refused to discipline his Caucus members or multiple staff who travelled abroad.

The NDP continues to call for Allard to be removed from Cabinet and a full disclosure of all UCP Ministers and MLAs that travelled abroad in conflict with government travel advisories, and the US Canada border being closed to non-essential travel.

“To the more than one thousand Alberta families who have lost a loved one to COVID-19 and everyone else who made sacrifices to follow the government orders and keep each other safe, a tan on a winter vacation for UCP MLAs is a slap in the face,” Hoffman said.