Yearend interview with Premier Alison Redford
Posted Dec 22, 2011 8:16 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There was a time when Alison Redford didn’t think she was going to be premier; but then September came and things started to look up.
“It was well into September when I started to notice a different group of people engaging in the issues,” Redford tells 660News in a yearend interview. “Because our campaign had been about saying to people, ‘This is about choosing the premier of the province who’s going to be able to listen and understand what you’re thinking.'”
She says leadership race politics is usually about selling memberships, but she thinks the unsolicited buying of memberships by people who wanted to be part of the conversation is what really put her over the top.
Redford also spoke about the decision from the United States to delay the Keystone XL pipeline project until 2013.
“It was certainly a surprise,” she says. “I’m quite confident that if the process had simply continued as it had, that we would have seen the right decision be made based on the merits and I’m still very optimistic that we will.”
Redford took some heat in the fall for her decision to hold a short two week session of the legislature, but was happy with the work that got done.
“I hope we set a tone in terms of what I talked about the summer in terms of independence and transparency and giving Albertans a sense of confidence about the institutions of government,” says Redford, adding, “it’s a two and a half month period that I am proud of as leader of this party and believe we’ve really been active as a government.”
As for the tone of debate in the legislature, Redford says it’s sad there can’t be more focus on policy, but there’s a chance to right that ship in the upcoming provincial election.
“Let’s make this a provincial election that’s about the future for the province, let’s have a good tone, and let’s make sure Albertans have a chance to make good, solid choices about their own future,” says Redford.
