http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/05/31/edmonton-donations-t
obacco-company-progressive-conservatives.html
Alberta’s Progressive Conservative government was accepting thousands of
dollars in donations from a tobacco company while it was preparing to sue
the tobacco industry for $10 billion in health care costs, CBC News has
learned.
Financial records filed with Elections Alberta and obtained by CBC News
show that in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011, the PCs accepted $23,575 in
donations from National Smokeless Tobacco Ltd., distributor of products
like Skoal and Copenhagen. The company didn’t donate to the party in 2008.
The PC party still accepted donations in 2011 even as the government was
facing pressure to sell investments in tobacco companies and developing its
tobacco reduction strategy.
“Is this why the government took so long to go to court against the tobacco
companies?” asked Edmonton-Centre Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman. “To be
gentle it’s an irony. To be more fierce about it, it’s a hypocrisy.”
National Smokeless Tobacco also donated $850 to Wildrose last year.
Les Hagen, the director of anti-tobacco group Action on Smoking and Health,
says political parties should return the money and stop accepting donations