Former Alberta premier Alison Redford said on Wednesday that she will never run for public office again, breaking her silence since her controversial resignation in 2014.
Redford, who was in Ottawa Wednesday for a speech about a Canadian energy and environment strategy, made the comments on CTV’s Power Play.
“I won’t ever run for office again,” said Redford.
Redford resigned as premier in March 2014 following a series of government spending scandals. She took some time away from the public scene after the resignation. Since then, her former party -- the Alberta Progressive Conservatives -- experienced a major fall from grace when the province elected Rachel Notley's NDP after four decades of PC rule.
The former premier said she has come to terms with the fact that she is a polarizing figure in some circles. She offered some advice to others hoping to get into public life, based on her experience.
“I think that it’s important to know that when you get into public life that it is going to be a very trying time and that you need to be prepared to deal with that,” said Redford. “People have opinions. I understand that.”
Change for Alberta
Redford said she saw signs of change coming for Alberta long before Notley was elected in May.
“I think even when I started to get into politics, people talked about the fact that the demographics of Alberta have changed. We have a lot of people in Alberta who didn’t grow up in the province, a lot of young people who are only voting for the first time. And I think you’re starting to see those people sort of stretch the possibilities a little bit.”
While Redford credited the sitting Conservative Alberta MPs of having a strong relationship with their ridings, she said NDP and Liberal candidates that can expect to do quite well on Oct. 19. She did not, however, draw any connections between the changing political scene in Alberta and the national political map.
A recent Nanos Research poll found that the majority of Canadians -- 69 per cent -- are ready for change in the upcoming election. That number is unchanged from a similar poll in August, but increased from July, when a Nanos poll found that 66 per cent of voters wanted change.
This poll was based on a land-and-cell line random survey of 1,000 Canadians between Sept. 12 and Sept. 15., as part of an omnibus survey. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Preparing for a ‘no’ to Keystone
One day after U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton announced her opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, Redford said Canada needs to be prepared for the possibility that the project may not happen.
“At the end of the day we still want to get pipelines done and if Keystone’s not going to go ahead, then let’s really get behind what we think can work and make sure we can protect that market access.”
Redford acknowledged Clinton’s comments calling Keystone a distraction from the larger efforts to fight climate change, saying it’s important to consider those concerns.
“Whether it’s First Nations consultation, climate change, energy conservancy, energy literacy, we’ve got to bring all of this together and have everyone around the table want to talk about this and try to get it right,” said Redford.
