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One employee visited Jim Prentice at a campaign stop last Wednesday in Drumheller, where she lives. In a recorded conversation, the employee confronts Prentice, asking why she should vote for a premier who ended her job.

“I’m sorry about that, but the decision to close the young offenders decision is a decision that had to be made,” Prentice tells her, in a clip posted on Facebook. “If you lost your job at the Calgary Young Offender Centre, I can’t convince you that’s a good thing… taking care of at-risk kids is a priority.”

The employee spoke Sunday to the Herald on the condition of anonymity. Public sector workers in multiple provincial ministries have told the Herald that since the writ dropped, they have been from speaking with the press, including on issues not related to the election.

“I really felt blown off that he didn’t want to take those questions. He didn’t want anything to do with me; blew me off and had another conversation with somebody else. I wasn’t there to attack him or anything like that. I just wanted to know what he had to say regarding it, because he keeps talking about how youth and child are a big priority,” said the employee.

A spokesperson for Prentice said the employee never followed up.

“In the interest of having a private and more substantive discussion about them at a later time, a member of the tour team provided her with an email address to reach the campaign. We have not heard back as of yet, but we are of course willing to discuss her concerns further should that change,” wrote Mike Storeshaw.