Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec says she was surprised when former premier Alison Redford announced her resignation last Wednesday, March 19, but expects it won’t have a significant impact on the running of the province.
She said the last couple of weeks have certainly been difficult, but in the end the Progressive Conservative Party will be able to bounce back from this and continue on with the business of governing Alberta.
“I think the good work of government gets lost with all of the controversy, which, when you look at the $44 billion budget, is kind of sad,” she said.
Redford has been under fire for months over the $45,000 bill associated with travel to Nelson Mandela’s funeral in South Africa.
After initially declining to pay back the cost of the flights, Redford announced she had paid back the $45,000 on March 12. Opposition MLAs and even some MLAs within her own party said the payback and apology was too little, too late.
Calgary backbencher MLA Len Webber left the part to sit as an independent the next day. On March 17 MLA Donna Kennedy-Glans, an associate minister in the government, also resigned.
Kubinec said while there was speculation that many other MLAs were planning similar moves in response to the mounting controversy, she was not among them.
She did concede that Redford made some mistakes, but said she wasn’t going to judge too harshly.
“There were some issues that came up that perhaps could have been dealt with differently, but we’re all human,” she said.
When pressed, Kubinec noted that Redford was in the dark about some of the decisions surrounding the travel plans to South Africa, as her staff are responsible for making them.
“Not that I’m trying to denigrate anybody else who made (the decisions), because they were made very quickly — I think they found out Friday and they needed to be there Saturday,” she said.
“So, things could have been handled differently.”
As for the coming leadership race, Kubinec said without anyone having put their name forward yet, it is too soon to speculate on who might succeed Redford at the helm — although she did rule out taking a run at the leadership herself.
As for Dave Hancock, who was selected by the PC caucus to be their interim leader and who was sworn in as premier on March 23, Kubinec said he’s the right man for the job.
“He’s got a lot of experience, he’s a very rational clear-thinker, he expresses himself very well and he’s had experience in many different ministries,” she said. “He’s the man to lead us through to the next leadership.”
And in the meantime Kubinec said she’s looking forward to continuing with the business of governing the province, citing the benefits of legislation introduced in this sitting such as legislation to provide new-home warranties and to amend the estates act.
“There are people there who are dedicated to doing the good work and I know that’s what I’m going to concentrate on,” she said. “That’s the kind of work that we want to continue to do.”
