Alison Redford wins party leadership race

Alison Redford defeated two challengers to become the premier of Alberta after her Progressive Conservative Association chose her to lead the party and govern Canada’s third-largest regional economy.Redford, a lawyer and former minister of justice for the province, beat two other candidates, Gary Mar and Doug Horner, in the second round of voting restricted to party members. She becomes Alberta’s first female premier.Alberta voted for change,” said Redford in a webcast from Edmonton, the provincial capital. “Make no mistake, we are going to do things differently. We have a lot to do.”Redford, 46, takes over from Premier Ed Stelmach, 60, who announced he was stepping down in January after pressure from his cabinet, including former Finance Minister Ted Morton, mounted over a budget deficit and earlier missteps over royalties paid to government coffers by oil and gas companies.Redford was first elected in 2008 after ousting Craig Cheffins of the provincial Liberal party in the riding of Calgary Elbow, formerly held by ex-Premier Ralph Klein. She was born in British Columbia, received a law degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1988 and has worked in Serbia, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan monitoring elections and providing human rights training.The leadership campaign highlighted differences among the candidates over the future of health care spending, with Redford proposing to maintain the current publicly funded system while Mar favored allowing private funding options. The province also faces the possibility of volatile oil prices and the risk of a recession in the U.S., the largest market for Alberta’s energy exports, said Toronto-Dominion Bank Chief Economist Craig Alexander.Oil and natural gas production drives Alberta’s economy, generating about a third of the provincial government’s revenue and employing one out of six workers, according to government statistics. The Canadian Energy Research Institute expects Canada’s oil sands to attract C$2.08 trillion ($2 trillion) in investments and ongoing operational expenditure over the next 25 years.That investment will boost the population to 4 million in 2014 from 3.76 million now, the provincial finance ministry expects. While a larger population helps to bolster the economy, it also increases demand for education, housing and health care, which is publicly funded in Alberta, said Anthony Sayers, an associate professor of political science at the University of Calgary.“Alberta spends more per capita than any other province on health care, while the demand for health care keeps tracking upwards,” Sayers said in an interview. “This is a problem in light of the cyclical nature of government revenue from the oil and gas sector.”