Not the warmest greeting for a Conservative leadership candidate as over 140 people took part in a rally outside Peter MacKay’s meet and greet at the Finlandia Club in Thunder Bay Thursday.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler says MacKay shouldn’t have tweeted encouragement to people who took down a rail blockade.
“I think we need to send a message to Peter MacKay that his hateful rhetoric is harmful. It’s irresponsible and it’s something that we all need to stand up against.”
A now-deleted tweet read “Glad to see a couple Albertans with a pickup truck can do more for our economy in an afternoon than Justin Trudeau could do in four years.”
When asked if he would apologize for his tweets, MacKay told reporters absolutely not.
“What I did was recognize that people took it upon themselves to move material that was blocking a railway. This was not a counter protest, it was not anything other than people doing something that I feel was the responsible thing to do”.
MacKay said he offered to meet with some of the leaders prior to the rally but it didn’t work out.
He had this message for those who rallied outside his event:
“I would like them to express themselves, they are welcome to do that, but impeding people’s access to important goods like propane, medicine, food, and blocking other people’s ability to get to work and travel. That’s not part of what I consider to be a peaceful expression and that’s why police are being called on to do their job.”
MacKay added he has a good working relationship with Indigenous leaders including his past experience as an MP in Nova Scotia and he’s met with leaders since he’s been on this campaign for the leadership race.
Meantime, MacKay says he wants to focus on running a positive campaign for the Conservative leadership.
“It’s about ideas. It’s about policy. It’s about solutions. I want to talk about how we get the country working again. I want to talk about the opportunities that are being missed, particularly in our natural resource sector. I want to talk about Canada being in a competitive place for investment, for innovation.”
