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Q: What were the highlights and lowlights of the past year?

A: The highlight was the part of the election where we became the official opposition, winning 17 seats. [The new MLAs] are just so earnest and they want to become good parliamentarians. The lowlights, obviously, our members in the general public and supporters had hoped for another outcome on election day based on what the polls were looking like. But Albertans are conservative and cautious; What I took from it is that they need to get to know us a little bit better.

Q: One of the criticisms of the Wildrose in the last couple of months is that you were losing the message because you were being too strident, too aggressive. Do you think that is a valid criticism and do you think that is an approach you would reconsider?

A: I would say that we got the balance right. If you look at the number of bills that came through the legislature, there were 10 of them and we supported seven. We have problems with three of them and put forward 50 amendments. We even supported 42 [amendments] put forward by the Liberals and the NDP and the PCs voted down virtually every single one. So if there is a complaint about partisanship, it’s not coming from our benches.

Q: Critics have tended to focus on the Lynn Redford stuff as an example that this has become personal. Do you think that Lynn Redford is a fair target of scrutiny?

A: Yes, she’s been part of government family for more than a decade. She’s been in a senior position with Alberta Health Services. When you look at her expenses, she was using government to attend political functions for the PCs. Should we have not talked about that because it was her sister? That would have been inappropriate as well. I think it’s absolutely fair game for us to look at what her expenses are … I don’t think you make exceptions because you think you’re going to hurt the premier’s feelings.