CP

EDMONTON — A brouhaha over comments made about Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne in the Alberta legislature continued to escalate Friday with the Opposition Wildrose party suspending the MLA who made them. Earlier Friday, Wildrose house leader Nathan Cooper had said the party didn't regret calling Ontario a needy fiscal basket case, but did regret it was said to her face. The comments and questions were posed Thursday by Wildrose finance critic Derek Fildebrandt while Wynne was a visitor in the legislature at the invitation of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. But by late Friday, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean issued a terse, short news release saying Fildebrandt had been suspended from caucus for making "an unacceptable comment on social media that does not represent the values of the Wildrose caucus.''

Derek Fildebrandt was suspended from the Alberta Wildrose Party. (Photo: CP) Fildebrandt had responded to a comment made by one of his supporters on his Facebook page, who congratulated him on telling "the truth about Mr. Wynne or whatever the hell she identifies as.'' Fildebrandt replied: "Proud to have constituents like you,'' but later insisted he had misread the posting and said the insult against Wynne, who is openly gay, was "entirely against my views.'' "I feel terrible at the thought that anyone in the LGTBQ community thought even for one second that I shared those views,'' he wrote. "It's not appropriate or something that should be lightly joked about. My criticisms of Ms. Wynne are based on policy and not anything personal. It never should be personal." Suspended 'immediately' His apology appeared to satisfy Edmonton Dr. Kristopher Wells of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies, who tweeted "hopefully an important lesson learned and we can count on your full support for LGBTQ community in Alberta.'' But it wasn't enough for his party, according to the news release from Jean. "He has been suspended from our caucus immediately,'' said Jean. It was more trouble for the Wildrose, which came under widespread criticism for the attack on Wynne on Thursday. "It's certainly a challenge to make those changes on the fly." "The questions that we asked were fair, but certainly a more appropriate time could have been found, particularly when a visiting dignitary was not in the gallery,'' Cooper admitted Friday. "We didn't have a respectful tone yesterday. We express regret for how things unfolded. The intention was never to embarrass the (Alberta) premier or the premier of Ontario.'' Cooper said the plan, signed off by Jean, was to pose questions criticizing Ontario and Wynne's government, but with the expectation that Wynne would not be there. "It's certainly a challenge to make those changes on the fly,'' said Cooper.