Premier Alison Redford, Calgary-Elbow

Heavenly Father today we pray for our Premier, Alison Redford.  We pray for good health for her, and your protection.  We pray that she will find time in her many responsibilities for refreshment and relaxation.  We are thankful that her desire is to build a province with a good quality of life for all Albertans.  We pray for your wisdom as she leads the government of Alberta in the legislature and also for her constituents of Calgary-Elbow.  We pray in the name of Jesus.

Premier of Alberta, President of Executive Council, Chair of Agenda and Priorities Committee

Alison Redford was elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party on October 1, 2011 and sworn-in as Alberta’s 14th premier on October 7, 2011.

Alison was born on March 7, 1965 in Kitimat, British Columbia and grew up all over Canada and overseas before settling in Calgary as a teenager. She graduated from Bishop Carroll High School in Calgary and completed her post-secondary education at the University of Saskatchewan College Of Law in 1988. Alison and her husband, Glen Jermyn, have one daughter, Sarah.

Alison has been actively involved in both provincial and national politics since the 1980s. She served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Right Honourable Joe Clark when he was Secretary of State for External Affairs, and later worked in the Prime Minister’s Office. In this capacity, she organized a series of national consultations facilitating public input on federal white papers concerned with foreign affairs and defense. In Parliament, she was also the Principal Legislative Advisor to the Secretary of State for External Affairs.

Returning home to Calgary from Ottawa, Alison articled at Rooney Prentice. She then worked in a small partnership before opening her own law firm, gaining practical experience as a small business owner.

Throughout the 1990s, Alison worked as a technical advisor on constitutional and legal reform issues in Africa for the European Union, the Commonwealth Secretariat and both the Canadian and Australian governments. Her work in Africa focused on human rights litigation, education programs and policy reform initiatives.

In 2005, Alison was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as one of four International Election Commissioners to administer Afghanistan’s first parliamentary elections. She also served as an advisor to the Privy Council Office on Canada’s future involvement in Afghanistan.

Over the course of her career, Alison has also undertaken assignments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Namibia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the Philippines.

Before seeking elected office in Alberta, she managed a judicial training and legal reform project for the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme People’s Court in Vietnam.

Alison Redford was first elected MLA for the constituency of Calgary-Elbow on March 3, 2008 and named Minister of Justice and Attorney General on March 12, 2008. In this role, she led the Safe Communities Secretariat. In January 2010, she was also named political minister for Calgary.

As Premier, Alison Redford seeks to improve quality of life for all Albertans, while working to build a province that is prosperous, fair and inclusive.

May 14, 2012