Former justice minister enters Alberta PC leadership race

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She’s pro-choice and a supporter of gay rights and has built a distinguished international legal career while juggling the demands of a young family – Alison Redford conforms to few stereotypes of an Alberta conservative.
The former justice minister, who on Wednesday entered the race to take over the long-governing Progressive Conservatives, is a social liberal who hopes to spark a new era for the party at a time when many want to move it to the right.

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VideoStreetwise - Stelmach stepping downMs. Redford has been expected to run since Premier Ed Stelmach announced last month he'd step down. Her strong résumé, extensive support in Calgary (home to many of the province's political power brokers), platform to turn the province into a “world energy capital” and immense fundraising potential, are seen as giving her strong footing to become her party’s next leader and, as such, the next premier – the first woman to hold either post.
She will, however, have challenges. One is experience – she has been an MLA since just 2008 and is somewhat unknown outside of Calgary (to begin making inroads, her announcement was in Edmonton).
And then there are her Red Tory views, which are offset by her position as a fiscal hawk (she’s biting her tongue about next week’s deficit budget) but would define the party as a big-tent destination to counter the rightward slant of its chief challenger, the Wildrose Alliance.
“It’s got to be big tent. It’s Alberta. Alberta today is not Alberta of 20 years ago in every possible way,” Ms. Redford, 45, told The Globe and Mail, adding, “I don’t know what an average Albertan is any more.”
Before she was elected, she worked as a lawyer in both the federal and provincial governments, for the European Union and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Ms. Redford, a married mother of an eight-year-old daughter, said that change includes the evolving face of family units and the inclusion of gay and lesbian citizens – and Albertans are “good with all that.”
“The social issues that face Albertans aren’t those issues. They’re mental health issues. [They’re questions like] how are communities dealing with supporting each other when there are challenges. Do people have jobs? Are their roads working? What’s the tax situation? It’s the same issues everywhere.”
Another challenge she faces is the rural vote. Fellow contenders Ted Morton, Doug Horner and Doug Griffiths all have rural ties. Ms. Redford has few, but doesn’t shy away from acknowledging it.
“I think that I have a different view of this province than they do. And I think part of that comes from the fact that I’ve lived in an awful lot of places in the world,” she said.
She also sought to brush aside Danielle Smith, the Leader of the Wildrose Alliance, as a “doctrinaire.”
Albertans need a leader with the “ability not just to say what they stand for, but to demonstrate that they’re able to solve problems that may arise in the future,” Ms. Redford said, adding, “And I think the people of Alberta will have to decide who is best capable of doing that.”
David Taras, a professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal College, said Ms. Redford is in good shape early in a race that won’t end until September, but will have to work hard to raise her profile.
“She has to sell herself to rural Alberta, she has to sell herself in the north, she has to sell herself to Edmonton, and that’s her challenge – or opportunity,” he said.
Her fate will also depend largely on whether former cabinet minister and Calgarian Gary Mar, now the province’s advocate in Washington, steps into the race as many expect he will. If he does, the two will jockey for the same support and donations.
Ms. Redford made her announcement one day after Mr. Griffiths joined the race, pledging strong leadership and a voice for young families. Both bring cleaner slates than Mr. Horner and Mr. Morton.
Mr. Horner is a Northern Alberta farmer cut from the same cloth as Mr. Stelmach, who has middling popularity. Mr. Morton is a polarizing social conservative who opposes gay marriage and abortion.
Mr. Griffiths, 38, has no experience as a minister but has hefty backroom support and a strong online following. Ms. Redford is a technological neophyte; her campaign team bought her an iPad and has begun teaching her how to use Twitter.
The two will battle to be seen as the fresh face of the party that has governed since 1971. It reinvented itself with the election of another Calgarian in 1992, Ralph Klein. Ms. Redford is hoping it will work again.
“Albertans are so diverse,” she said. “We’re all different. And what we can represent as a party is that: that everyone can be part of this.”