Dateline: 10/07/11
Alison Redford came from behind to win the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, replacing Ed Stelmach as Premier of Alberta. A bilingual human rights lawyer and former Alberta Justice Minister, Alison Redford is a big change for the Progressive Conservative Party which has been in power in Alberta for 4o years. Not only is she the first woman to be Premier in Alberta, she is also a centrist, and a definite switch to the progressive side of "progressive conservative."
Alison Redford started her leadership campaign without the support of any of her former cabinet colleagues, and only one MLA. She campaigned on the theme of "change" and she means both generational change and attitudinal change. Some of her promises go directly against current policies. She has promised to call an inquiry into allegations of doctor intimidation and queue-jumping in the provincial health care system. Redford also plans to restore the $107 million cut from education funding, which resulted in teachers jobs being lost and class sizes increased.
2011 to present
March 7, 1965 in Kitimat, British Columbia. Moved to Calgary as a teenager.
LLB - University of Saskatchewan
Human rights lawyer
Alberta Progressive Conservatives
Calgary-Elbow
Alison Redford has been a conservative since high school in Calgary, when she was president of the Progressive Conservative Youth of Alberta. After graduating from law school, Alison Redford worked as a senior policy advisor for Joe Clark when he was Secretary of State for External Affairs and then Prime Minister. She was also principal legislative advisor to the Secretary of State for External Affairs. In the 1990s, Alison Redford worked as a technical advisor on constitutional and legal reform issues in Africa. In 2005, she was appointed by the UN Secretary General as an International Election Commissioner for the administration of Afghanistan's first parliamentary elections. She also worked as an advisor to the Privy Council Office on Canada's future involvement in Afghanistan. Alison Redford was first elected to the Alberta Legislative Assembly in the 2008 Alberta provincial election. She was appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Alberta shortly after the 2008 election. She resigned from both positions in 2011 to run for leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party. Alison Redford won the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in October 2011, replacing Ed Stelmach and automatically making her Premier of Alberta. She was sworn in as Premier of Alberta on October 7, 2011.
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