With an election announcement imminent, Alberta Premier and United Conservative Party (UCP) Leader Danielle Smith is questioning whether NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley’s husband is using union funds to pay for attack ads against the UCP.
Arab’s LinkedIn page also indicates he works for the Alberta NDP as “political campaign manager.” He also sits on the governing board of Notley’s NDP.
One statement, on April 30, says Smith is “Risky. Unpredictable. Focused on all the wrong things. Alberta needs a premier who is competent and trustworthy. Not Danielle Smith.”
In a statement on April 29, the UCP said: “What the premier would like to ask Ms. Notley, who is married to a communications representative for CUPE, is why is her husband’s union spending massively on third-party attack ads to elect the NDP, and how is it legal.”
Union Defends Notley’s Husband
CUPE is part of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), but AFL president Gil McGowan said Notley’s husband has no official role.“It’s just a personal smear,” McGowan said, noting that Arab is “supporting his wife, which is nothing other than laudable.”
This is not the first time questions have been raised about Notley’s husband. When Notley was premier, CBC reported in June 2015 that a phone call made to Arab’s cellphone was returned by Premier Notley’s staff.
Notley said her husband didn’t write the press release and it was an accident.
“It was one that accidentally went out because of the IT infrastructure where he is,” she said at the time.
Notley, a former lawyer, said there was no conflict of interest caused by her husband’s role with the labour union.
“It doesn’t actually violate any of the province’s conflict of interest laws or guidelines,” wrote Simons. “But this isn’t about ethics. It’s about optics.”
“Politically, the damage was done. It created the impression the union was exerting undue influence on NDP policy and called into question the ability of Notley’s government to play hardball with her husband’s employer come contract time,” wrote Simons.
“No premier’s spouse should work for an organization that’s always going to be in the midst of controversy, that’s always going to be lobbying or opposing the government on some issue or other,” she said at the time.