Saskatchewan political group expanding campaign against Liberals

They’ve been up in Regina for a while: Billboards showing Regina-Wascana MP Ralph Goodale shaking the hand of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and imploring voters to get Goodale out of office.

Now, the group behind that billboard is expanding across the country.

The Canada Growth Council is the parent group, with its outreach arm putting up the billboards in Regina called WestWatch.

Derek Robinson is the group’s spokesperson and is also on its board. He said the ultimate goal of the group is to stand up for growth and prosperity in Canada.

“I think our short-term mission is to hold a lot of the Liberal MPs to account who were supposed to stand up for the west — they were supposed to stand up for growth and prosperity and they have failed miserably to do that,” he said.

Robinson explained the group is targeting swing ridings with its billboards, and it’s targeting ridings where it believes the Liberal MPs have failed to “stand up for the west.” These include ridings in Calgary and Edmonton.

The group has also just put up billboards in Ontario, and Robinson said it’ll soon have some in Winnipeg as well.

The billboards in Regina target Goodale, a long-time MP.

“(Goodale is) someone who used to stand up for the west and used to stand up for Saskatchewan but hasn’t been doing that as of late,” Robinson said. “We think it’s time for him to go — and we also think his boss has been doing quite the terrible job.”

Robinson feels that voting out Goodale will send a message to the Trudeau government, as Goodale is a top adviser.

980 CJME has reached out to Goodale’s office for comment but didn’t receive a response before time of publishing.

Left-wing political ads sparked inspiration

WestWatch was launched at the beginning of the year. Robinson said the group saw the left-wing ads during the last federal election, and it continues to see the ads around Regina against the Saskatchewan Party by unions. He said it’s frustrated by the ads and wanted to do something to counter them.

The Canada Growth Council’s board is made up of Robinson, Eric Clark, and Tyler Willox. They have a past with the Sask. Party and Robinson said they’re proud of their political history.

“We believe in democracy and people standing up for what they believe in,” Robinson said. “We want to stand up for western interests and growth and prosperity across our nation, and so we are involved and we don’t shy away from that at all.”

The group is a registered third party with Elections Canada. In its first and only of its required statements, the group reported $15,000 in donations, including $10,000 from E. Craig Lothian and $5,000 from a holding company with Clark’s name on it.

The Canada Growth Council will have to file another statement within a few weeks, and Robinson said, thus far, the group has had 50 large and small donations from different places across the country.

— With files from Nathan Meyer and Lisa Schick

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an amended version of the story, with corrections for Lothian’s name and the amount of his donation.