Albertastan t-shirts hit the market, creator to donate funds to Stollery

It was just a matter of time before they were bound to go viral and already “The People’s Republic of Albertastan” t-shirts have already gone viral.

The fad began after Justice Minister Peter Mackay had tweeted “it’s Albertastan now”, after the provincial election referencing how the voters ended the P.C. dynasty electing an NDP government.

The hashtag #NewAlbertastan immediately went viral providing some much needed fodder to those online.

Graphic Designer Laura Lynn Johnston thought it would be a cool thing to make a t-shirt out of and is going to donate the funds to the Stollery Children’s Hospital.

“Two years ago, when the floods were happening in Southern Alberta there was a similar situation that was happening, there was a request from a friend for a t-shirt,” she said.

It all stemmed from a pundit’s comment that read had the same thing happened in Edmonton, the city would be a “smouldering pit in the ground surrounded by twittchy-eyed machete, wielding savages.”

She turned that into a shirt, it blew up on Twitter and people responded to it, taking hold of the joke.

Johnston at the time donated her funds from the first venture to the Red Cross Flood Relief Fund.

Given some of what happened in the last week, she decided to try it again and donate the funds.

“It was kind of a fun joke that we could get on board with,” said Johnston.

Anyone one the sight can choose what style and colour they’d like.

“Last night (Wednesday), it was more popular,” she said. “I had tweeted an image of the mock-up and there was roughly 70 retweets and just as many favourites,” she said.

Johnston adds she’s just glad people are having fun with the whole project.

Anyone who’d like to place an order, can find it here.