She was the PC leader of Alberta and the 14th Premiere of that province.
Alison Redford is a former Premier of Alberta and MLA for Calgary-Elbow. She is married with one daughter, Sarah. She is currently a lawyer working in private practice, as well as being involved in international consultancy roles on behalf of the World Bank.
Redford has lived in Alberta since the late 1970s and the beginning of her teenage years. She was involved in both provincial and national politics since being a senior in high school in the 1980s. After becoming a lawyer, she was consistently involved in advisory and regulatory aspects of government policy, serving as Senior Policy Advisor to Joe Clark, Secretary of State for External Affairs as well as in the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada. While in those roles, she facilitated public input on federal white papers that informed foreign and defence policy.
Alison worked as a technical advisor on constitutional and legal reform issues throughout the 1990s, in international-focused roles. These saw her work for the European Union and the Commonwealth Secretariat as well as the Canadian government in places such as Uganda, Namibia, the Philippines Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. These roles were in the field of on human rights, education and policy reform. Her experience as a UN-appointed election commissioner assisting Afghanistan in its first parliamentary elections, as well as advising the Canadian government on its relationship with Afghanistan, helped her in her post-political career as an international consultant in that country.
After being unsuccessful in an attempt to enter the national political arena she succeeded in rising into the world of elected officialdom on a provincial level as a Progressive Conservative MLA for Calgary-Elbow.
She is best known for her period as Alberta’s Premier, from 2011 to 2014. This ended ignominiously as a slew of expenses scandals engulfed her office and lead to immense pressure from within her own party to resign. She attempted to remain as a backbench MLA, but further scandal saw her resign that too.
Following her resignation, investigations by Canadian media and the government’s auditor general revealed even greater discrepancies in Redford’s travel expenses than had been first suspected. While she avoided any criminal investigation, the legacy of her brief period remains tainted and it led the Albertan provincial government to take a series of measures such as selling the government’s fleet of jets and putting a cap on gifts.
Outside of politics, Redford has resumed work in international consultancy, especially concerning energy and fossil fuel extraction. This has seen her take roles in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She also continues to practice law in Alberta.