From love to hate: Redford’s controversial reign

Redford resigns leaving in her wake a controversial 29 months of PC leadership.

Kyla Bodley

Staff Writer

Public flogging is not something that you would see on the streets of Canada. However, when it comes to the tumultuous relationship between media and politics, any leader or party can be dragged through the mud and put on display to take a public lashing.

Alison Redford resigned as Premier for Alberta on Wednesday March stating that she would be officially out of office on Sunday March 23.

Photo Courtesy: flickr.com / Dave Cournoyer

As Alison Redford’s time in public office comes to a close, her controversial reign as leader of the Progressive Conservative party comes under scrutiny. She was brought to power on a platform of reducing poverty, boosting social spending and investing in education, however, once in power, she slashed spending, froze public sector wages of doctors and teachers, and, as Mount Royal University experienced, cut post-secondary budgets.

Beyond that, Redford has made some questionable choices that may have even made Ralph Klein blush. She has taken a beating for lavish spending, abusing power and for generally just not being a nice person.

Now as Redford steps down and points to in house fighting as her reason for abdicating her thrown, the question remains, was Redford a victim of a broken party intent on marring her reputation or was this a just ending to a political career smeared with scandal?

Wildrose leader, and direct opposition to Redford, Danielle Smith said in an interview with The Huffington Post, that “Redford failed because she couldn’t change a party that, after four decades in power, sees the spoils of the public purse as its birthright.” She further stated in a press release that the party itself is broken and cannot be fixed.

“For the second time in three years, the premier of Alberta has resigned, and for the third time in eight years, the PC party will be looking for a new leader,” said Smith.

Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi was quoted by the Calgary Herald as saying that Redford’s leadership reaches beyond her political decisions, that it “is also a human story. It’s about a real person, a good person, a person who loves this province and has worked and made incredible sacrifices…and it’s the story of a system that takes someone like that and chews them up and spits them out.”

This chewed up and spit out system is what has gotten people talking around the water cooler.

Marion Hudy, an Albertan resident and PC voter thinks that despite some poor choices Redford made, she had not done anything more shocking or scandalous than her male counterparts of previous years.

She feels that Redford, being a women in power, was scrutinized on her “bitchy” character more than her political decisions, saying “Ralph Klein, his spending and his plane trips were notorious and no one said Ralph Klein pay it back. It was what he was known for and people accepted it.”

Deputy Premier Dave Hancock is set to take the reigns as interim premier of the PC party.

We will see if times really do change with different leadership when election time comes.