She jumped before she was pushed. Alison Redford knew her days as Alberta’s premier were numbered. The pressure on her to quit had become an irresistible force, even for a politician with a reputation for being an immovable object.
Her popularity was too low, her caucus too mutinous, her party too divided.
Even someone as smart, ambitious, capable and just plain stubborn as Redford could not weather the storm.
When Redford summoned the news media to the legislature Wednesday evening for an “important announcement,” local Conservative party presidents were holding meetings in Edmonton and Calgary to discuss writing letters asking Redford to resign.
The letters would have had no legal weight. The presidents could not force a premier to quit, but their missives would have hit the premier’s credibility like a ton of bricks. She couldn’t have survived.
Redford’s staff says the meetings did not factor into the timing of her announcement. Regardless, she beat them to the punch.
Knowing her days were numbered, the only thing Redford could control was the number of the days she had left — three. By announcing she will vacate the premier’s office Sunday, Redford makes a clean and sudden break. No long wistful stroll into the sunset akin to her two predecessors who sat around as premier for months after announcing their departures.
Redford stood at the same spot, possibly using the same podium, where she was sworn in as premier on Oct. 7, 2011.
It was a poignant reminder of the exuberance and novelty surrounding the new premier. Not only was she the first female premier, she was an agent of change, someone who won the Progressive Conservative leadership race with virtually no caucus support. She was not part of the old boys’ network, literally.
But that’s not how it turned out. By the end of her incredibly short run as premier, Redford had been painted as a spendthrift premier who was running the province into debt while jet-setting around the world on the taxpayers’ dime.
The PC party and many MLAs felt they could not win the next election under her leadership. Two MLAs had already jumped from the government caucus and more were openly musing about following.
No Alberta premier has faced a caucus revolt as personal and as public as this.
And it’s a reminder that after 43 years in power, the PCs have no compunction about forcing out a leader they don’t like. They’ve done it before. Former premiers Ed Stelmach and Don Getty were both forced to quit by party grumbling. Ralph Klein had his departure date moved up when party members gave him a dismal 55 per cent approval rating.
As the biggest dog in Alberta’s political hunt, the PC party can be vicious.
But on Wednesday, the dog was muzzled.
The rotunda in Alberta’s legislative building was crammed with journalists, cameras, government workers and MLAs from every party — all of them gobsmacked by the suddenness of Redford’s departure.
We suspected it would come to this, just not this quickly.
Her office says she will stay on as an MLA, but she obviously wants to get out of the way as quickly as possible.
The leadership race hasn’t been officially declared, but you can bet it’s already underway. Names being tossed around: cabinet ministers Doug Griffiths, Ric McIver, Thomas Lukaszuk and Diana McQueen.
The longest faces on Wednesday belonged to Wildrose party MLAs. They had dearly hoped Redford would have stayed on until the next election, making their job of defeating the government easier. Now, the Wildrose and the other opposition parties will have to do battle with the devil they don’t know.
