Alberta Premier Rachel Notley pauses to look out a window at Coal Harbour during an interview in Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday December 6, 2016. Notley is in B.C. doing a series of one-on-one media interviews after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved the $6.8-billion Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project last week. The project will nearly triple the capacity of the pipeline that carries crude oil from near Edmonton to the Vancouver area to be loaded on tankers and shipped overseas. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Republished December 07, 2016 - 4:59 AM
Original Publication Date December 06, 2016 - 3:50 PM
VANCOUVER - Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says chants of "Lock her up" at a rally protesting her plans for a carbon tax reflect the views of extreme groups of people who have migrated to both conservative parties in the province.
Notley says that should be concerning to both the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties because people who are democratically elected shouldn't be confronted with threats of being jailed.
Notley made the comments in Vancouver, where she has been selling the federal approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C.
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean spoke at a weekend rally against the tax and at one point, when federal Conservative leadership candidate Chris Alexander referred to Notley, the crowd began chanting: "Lock her up! Lock her up!''
Notley says she knows with "complete conviction" that such views don't reflect the vast majority of Albertans or Canadians and are not a sign of Trump-style politics coming to Canada.
The refrain was often heard at U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's campaign rallies when he accused opponent Hillary Clinton of destroying email evidence in a congressional investigation.
On Tuesday, one of the candidates for the leadership of the federal Tories backed the chants, saying he would have joined in.
Brad Trost, the member of Parliament for Saskatoon-University, tweeted he "wanted to be there" at the rally and would have chanted along with the crowd.
The tweet came a day after both Alexander and Jean distanced themselves from the incident.
Alexander called the chant "offensive" and said he was mortified, although video of the event shows him smiling as it starts.
Jean denounced the chant along with anti-gay signs that were waved during the rally.
Trost also called interim Conservative Party leader Rona Ambrose "out of touch" in a separate tweet after she suggested those who were chanting were "acting like idiots."
-- with files from CKOM
News from © The Canadian Press, 2016