TORONTO

An Alberta business group is coming to town to campaign against Toronto Centre NDP candidate Linda McQuaig because of her anti-oilsands comments.

The Alberta Business and Taxpayers Coalition (ABTC) will be in the downtown riding next month to urge voters to support anyone but the NDP star candidate. The group pledged Wednesday to knock on doors, drop literature and robocall against McQuaig.

Late last week, McQuaig said meeting the country’s climate change goals could mean “a lot of the oilsands oil may have to stay in the ground.”

In response, the ABTC fired off a letter to NDP Leader Tom Mulcair urging him to dump McQuaig as a candidate.

McQuaig’s campaign declined to comment Wednesday and the federal NDP campaign didn’t return a request for comment.

ABTC executive director Craig Chandler said the group plans to arrive in Toronto Centre in mid-September and stay until election day.

“This is an opportunity for us as Albertans to say we’re kind of ticked off that we do pay a lot of the bills and we don’t feel appreciated,” Chandler told the Sun. “She seems to be the star candidate so, you know, if she’s the star candidate we’re going to go in there and try to make a difference ... basically, we just don’t want her to win.”

Chandler said they’re not coming in to say, “We hate Toronto or we hate the East.”

“We’re just saying we’re frustrated,” he said.

“Imagine if a western Conservative candidate stated that we needed to cease operations or even have a moratorium on nickel production in Sudbury; Steel production in Hamilton or shutting down the auto sector in Brampton, Windsor, Etobicoke, Oakville, Ingersoll, Oshawa, St. Catharines, Alliston, Cambridge or Woodstock?”

Although he admitted he’s probably going to vote Conservative, Chandler insisted he’s not working for the Tories.

“We have not been paid by the Conservatives, we have not been sent by them,” he said. “So if the Liberals win that seat and she loses, we’ll actually see it as a victory.”

Letter to Thomas Mulcair