EDMONTON, Alberta – They come from many walks of life: They are young, the majority of them women, employed at coffee shops or studying at university. One is in hot water for explicit photographs on her Social Media accounts depicting recreational drugs, punk music, and sexual inappropriateness. No, we are not talking about the casting call for Big Brother Canada, people, we are talking about many of the freshly elected NDP MLAs.
For all of you Albertans who have ever wondered how some of the NDP MLAs were recruited for the recent Alberta election – where the NDP propelled itself to a 53-seat majority – wonder no more. 2P News has uncovered a Kijiji ad that was allegedly used to recruit new staffers.
According to 2P News, the advertisement was posted in every category under the Jobs heading on Kijiji included general labourer, hair stylist, customer service, child care, and dog walkers.
2P News reporter Yu Mii was able to screen capture the ad on her smartphone and she has included it below (zoom image to read text if you’re on a smart phone).
An almost identical article was found on popular job search sites, but it was removed within a few hours after the poster learned that all of those replying were educated and asked challenging questions about the listing, which the anonymous poster, who goes by the handle Orange Blossom couldn’t answer.
Trevor Horne, a 24-year old barista at a St. Albert-area Starbucks making minimum wage, was asked about the Kijiji listing, and he has this to say.
Well, I must be frank with you. I saw the ad, and I was intrigued. The $127,000 base salary is quite a bit more than what I make here at Starbucks and the only qualifications were a legal name (got it) and to be over 18 (got it). So I replied, and this quirky-looking lass with a phony smile came to see me with some paperwork to sign, but she didn’t allow me to read what I was signing.
The next thing I know, I’m watching election night and I see my name on TV with the numbers next to it going up more than the numbers next to the other names. I had no clue what was going on – at first I thought I had won some sort of contest. I didn’t even know why my name was on TV next to an orange block that had the letters NDP on it. – Trevor Horne, talking to 2P News just outside of his former job
Trevor Horne is one of tens of Albertans who believe that they were duped into running as an NDP MLA under false or unknown pretenses.
Thomas Dang came forward to 2P News with a story detailing a meeting with an old creepy-looking blonde in a back-alley who wanted him to sign some paperwork related to joining a start-up video game company called En Dee Pee Gameworks. The 2nd-year computer science major at the UofA said he was lured by a 30% stake in the startup, whose ideas had already garnered interest from gaming behemoths EeAa Games and Ninsplendo, so he immediately signed without reading the contract.
The day after the elections, his mother called him up from the basement to tell him, “Thomas son! Thomas son! Put doooowwn your video joystick and run up here now! You have new job with government!!! Pay you lots of money. You can move to your own house now, and take your big TV and computer games with you. Get out!”
2P News attempted to reach Mrs. Ratchet Notley for comment on the Kijiji ad, but as has been the case recently, she or her office did not return our calls.