Ms. Alison Redford - MLA for Calgary-Elbow

Heavenly Father we pray today for MLA Alison Redford representing the people of Calgary – Elbow.   We ask that You would renew her strength and vision for the work You have called her to do and help her to fulfill the many duties before her.   We pray for Your blessing, covering and protection be upon her and her family.   In Your Name, Amen.

Alison Redford was first elected MLA for the constituency of Calgary-Elbow on March 3, 2008.

Ms. Redford served as Alberta’s 14th premier from October 7, 2011, to March 23, 2014. Prior to serving as Premier, she served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General and as political minister for Calgary.

Ms. Redford 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. She and her husband, Glen Jermyn, have one daughter, Sarah.

Ms. Redford 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, she 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, Ms. Redford 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, she 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.