Service Alberta Minister and Morinville-St. Albert MLA Dale Nally on Monday joined speakers from anti-abortion group the Wilberforce Project and nonprofit Parents for Choice in Education at an event to encourage conservatives to run in school board and municipal elections.
Speaking to a crowd of about 60 patrons gathered at the Thirsty Rooster Eatery and Bar, Nally alleged that the St. Albert Public School Board campaigned against the governing United Conservative Party (UCP).
“The school board sent an email out to all the parents on the St. Albert public school board,” he said. “They were basically trying to say, as discreetly as they could, vote NDP.”
A principal at a St. Albert school later sent an email critical of the UCP, which ended with a call to vote NDP, Nally said.
Nally told the crowd that shortly after he was first elected as an MLA, a teacher from his son’s Grade 10 class accused the UCP of “hanging out with white supremacists.”
“The fact that they feel so compelled that they have a role to be able to say that, is what is inappropriate,” he said. “The best way to promote choice in education is to get involved, because when we get involved, then people like that principal that sent out that email won't feel as compelled to do that. Because there will be consequences. When we get involved, that teacher that felt compelled to tell kids that his dad hangs out with white supremacists, won't feel compelled to do that, because there will be consequences.”
The UCP unequivocally supports choice in education, he said.
St. Albert Public Schools denies accusations that it attempted to influence parents’ voting choices.
“We are a nonpartisan organization that has always advocated for what's best for students and for public education overall,” said Paula Power communications manager with the St. Albert Public School Division in an email. “While we encourage parents to become informed about the strengths of, and challenges facing, public education, St. Albert Public Schools would never encourage parents to vote for a particular political party.”
Power could not confirm or deny whether a school principal sent an email encouraging recipients to vote NDP.
"I would say that generally speaking, if that happened, one staff member does not represent the opinion/priorities of the board," she said.
Run in school board elections, join the UCP
Both the Wilberforce Project and Parents for Choice in Education advertised their training programs to teach Albertans to run in school board elections as board trustees.
The Wilberforce Project describes itself as “Alberta’s pro-life political organization committed to protecting girls, women and the pre-born from the harm of abortion.”
Parents for Choice in Education advocates for an education system that is “quality-oriented, choice driven” and “recognizes parental authority.” The group has expressed anger about pride events in schools, gay-straight alliances, school-based sex education, teachers unions and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
John Hilton O’Brien, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education and founding member and past president of the Wildrose Party, spoke at Monday’s event.
He said that school boards and municipalities are “the NDP’s farm team” and that the Alberta Teachers Association is “going to war” with members of the UCP and parents.
Parents for Choice claims to be non-sectarian. However, Hilton-O’Brien suggested Christian schools should be protected with a school voucher system and said that his nonprofit “will sometimes talk about religious concepts, but we're not using God talk” in its training materials. He also said the group’s course for prospective school board trustees is non-partisan.
Making a joke about Alberta Teachers Association board, Hilton-O’Brien, who Nally referred to as an "expert on choice in education,” suggested that transgender women are “men who are pretending to be women.”
Speaker Cameron Wilson, director of political action for the Wilberforce Project, told the audience that the province’s education system “seemingly fights against everything that is good, true and beautiful in Western civilization. It fights against the free market, it fights against religion, it fights against the family, it fights against the basic facts of biology.” He said that children are being indoctrinated as “ideological foot soldiers” to fight in “socialist battles.”
Some speakers at the event also encouraged audience members to join UCP constituency associations and attend the party's annual general meeting.
Attendee Shelley Mottershead came from Edmonton to attend the event and said she would be running as a trustee in upcoming school board elections.
“[Kids] are not learning basic facts like they should be,” said Mottershead, a former educational assistant. “I want to see children going back to basic things — phys ed, arts and all the core subjects. I think our school boards need to be neutral.”
Brandon Aboultaif, Nally's press secretary, said that Nally was invited to the event "in his capacity as the MLA for Morinville-St. Albert."
"As an MLA, it is his job to hear from a variety of Albertans holding diverse views and opinions, but this does not mean he shares all of those views and opinions," Aboultaif said.
The Gazette also asked Nally's office for clarification around his comments about St. Albert Public Schools but did not hear back before press time.
