Edmonton protesters put Jason Kenney on Santa’s naughty list

The light-hearted protest, which took place Saturday at the steps of the Alberta legislature, included handing out home-made coal, each having written on them a message about the province’s climate plan.

Event organizer Stephen Buhler, a member of the group Climate Justice Edmonton, told CBC that the tongue-in-cheek event was held to bring “some humour to these really, really dark times.”

When talking about the Premier, Buhler says Kenney “has been a bad boy this year, and we think he deserves coal for Christmas.”

The protest was intended to be for those who had been directly impacted by the province’s budget, including those who say they’ve been affected by budget cuts.

“The best thing [Kenney] could do is stop the austerity, stop the cuts. Not cutting these vital services that we all rely on. I think it’s super, super important,” said Buhler.

In response to the protest, the United Conservative Party’s official Twitter account posted that the protesters for Climate Justice Edmonton are “a group the NDP march with who are firmly committed to keeping our ‘fossil fuels in the ground.'”

“We won’t apologize for being proud of our energy sector and fighting for pipelines!” the tweet concludes.

Response to the tweet was mixed, with some loving the bold post from the party, and others criticizing it.

“We would like to remind everyone that it’s okay that Albertans can think differently. In fact, it makes us stronger,” said user Mark Malowany in a reply to the post. “There is no need to be obnoxious or argue unnecessarily around Twitter. Let’s celebrate together as Albertans.”