[Dion]

Stephen Carter talks about why Redford failed

Stephen Carter, who managed Redford’s 2011 leadership campaign, said the premier got caught up in the trappings of office, forgetting the people who helped her obtain the PC leadership and the voters who gave her party the mandate to govern two years ago.

“To me, that is the Greek tragedy of this. That is her human failing, and she allowed her human failing to get in the way of her potential opportunities,” said Carter, who was a key strategist during the Tory’s election victory in April 2012.

Specifically, that failing is: “The expectation that the world owed her this,” he said.

In 2011, Carter said he jumped at the opportunity to run Redford’s bid for the provincial PC job, believing she was a leader in the vein of beloved longtime Alberta premier Peter Lougheed.

“She, to me, was a person ... who could change the province for the better and step into Lougheed’s shoes,” he said.

Redford criss-crossed the province in a modest Hyundai and had a common touch then, Carter recalled.

“In many ways I think I saw the real Alison Redford,” he said.
Who is she today?

“I don’t really know,” Carter said.

But while support from so-called “red Tories” helped Redford take the PC leadership, there was a disconnect: she started the campaign with the backing of only one sitting MLA.

And after the PCs won the 2012 election, caucus never acted on the vision Redford laid out for voters, Carter said.

“I watched my friends, my colleagues, my peers, complain about schooling, health care, post-secondary education — issues that Alison Redford got elected on, but couldn’t get through. And that’s very disappointing,” he said.

Carter said he doubts Redford’s successor will be able to do it again because the party’s problems run deeper than who the leader is.

“This is a party that exists solely to govern and to win and has lost its way. They’ve forgotten to respect the voters of Alberta,” he said.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/po...396/story.html