REGINA – An NDP MLA has come under fire for sharing a campaign video on social media for a U.S. Senate candidate.
The Sask Party government sent out a news release accusing Regina Elphinstone-Centre MLA Meara Conway of having “used her MLA social media pages to campaign for a U.S. Senate candidate who has repeatedly attacked trade with Canada and advocated for tariffs that would hurt Saskatchewan workers, businesses, and exporters.”
Their release noted that the previous day Conway had “shared to her stories a campaign video authorized by U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.”
El-Sayed has drawn attention as the left-leaning “progressive” candidate in the Democratic Senate primary election in Michigan. El-Sayed won the primary this week and will take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election in November.
The video linked to by Conway had included the slogan “Abdul for U.S. Senate” and included one photo of him standing alongside former Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
In their news release the government linked to an article in the Michigan Advance that included quotes by El-Sayed on the trade issue. The government noted that El-Sayed had described NAFTA and CUSMA as: "a bit of a cancer on the American economy” calling it “a deal with the devil…"
They also pointed to a quote from El-Sayed saying: "If NAFTA and these trade deals are cancer, you need some chemotherapy."
The government’s release also took aim at El-Sayed for calling for more tariffs against countries like Canada to protect U.S. jobs.
“Saskatchewan people deserve to know why the NDP are sharing any campaign videos of American politicians, let alone one whose views run directly against Saskatchewan's economic interests,” their release stated.
The government's criticism of the NDP comes just days after the NDP had again accused the Sask Party of being too close to Trump supporters of tariffs, with the NDP pointing to Premier Scott Moe's attendance at the funeral of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham.
At a news conference in Saskatoon, NDP Leader Carla Beck was pressed by reporters about the social media posting by Conway about El-Sayed.
“There are times when it becomes abundantly clear to me how we got into the mess in some ways that we have in this province under this government, what they focus on,” said Beck. “I mean, here we have them focusing on an MLA‘s social media page and lighting their hair on fire about that, and failing to plan for the energy future in this province.”
Beck said her party has been “very clear about our position around tariffs, our opposition to tariffs. That includes all of our MLAs, and again I think this is about priorities. This is about focus and I think people in this province can judge. Would they rather have a government that’s focussed on you combing through social media of a opposition MLA or a government that’s serious and focused on some of the issues that frankly are going to not only impact us in the near future for generations to come? I know which kind of government I want.”
Beck added that “we’ve been very clear about tariffs, frankly a lot more clear than this government has, than Scott Moe has… boys, pick your priorities.”
With files from Jon Perez
