Rosman Valencia, Calgary-East NDP Candidate Supports Illegal Anti-Pipeline Protests

NDP candidate for Calgary-East, Rosman Valencia, seems not to have a strong liking for the oil and gas industry that drives the Alberta economy. It has been a problem the Alberta NDP has been trying to avoid, candidates that are seen openly wanting to see the phase-out of the energy industry.

Valencia has already shown himself to be a radical on social issues; referring to Alberta as a “racist society” while he himself associates with anti-semites, and looks up to radicals like Ibram X Kendi and Angela Davis. 

Now it was discovered that Valencia, on his own Twitter, account retweeted content accusing the police of wrongdoing for blocking food/medicine from entering an illegal anti-pipeline protest zone in British Columbia. This was part of protests against the pipeline being built on Wet’suwet’en reserve land, which the tweet Valencia retweeted called a “climate-changing pipeline” implying things like the pipeline were responsible for the flooding in 2021. 

These protests were, in fact, illegal, as the protesters were occupying the pipeline’s construction site, in order to prevent development from moving forward.

And not only is Rosman Valencia indicating he holds a deeply negative view of Alberta’s oil and gas industry, but he also has little respect for Indigenous governance as he is supporting a protest on Wet’suwet’en land against a pipeline that was approved by the democratically-elected band council. 

NDP leader Rachel Notley needs to be clear on whether the views of people like Rosman Valencia and Calgary-Elbow NDP candidate Samir Kayande, who said “Hydrocarbon must go away,” would be offside in an NDP government.