Alison Redford Q&A: "Until it's over, you never know"

Alison Redford spoke to reporters after giving her victory speech in Calgary on Monday.

Q: What's your priority now?

AR: "I'll be making some decisions within the next 10 days to two weeks with respect to cabinet and that sort of thing and then we'll move on with working with our caucus colleagues and continue to advance the agenda."

Q: A lot of people are surprised tonight. Are you?

AR: "I said all along that what I was hearing after the debate was that Albertans were very focused on who needed to be leading this province as we have this very unique position within Canada and the world. My sense was we were going to see a result something like the one we saw tonight. But, of course, until it's over, you never know."

Q: When did the tide turn?

AR: "I think for me the most important part was the debate. I knew all along that we were going to deliver the same message, the message of positive change about the future. From my perspective, that began to resonate with Albertans after the debate and part of that was the record participation in watching the debate. I understand 250,000 households watched the debate. That was the best way for us to sort through a lot of the political rhetoric and be able to talk about what the policy platforms were, for people to see the leadership candidates and for us to move ahead."

Q: Did strategic voting help your party?

AR: "I don't know .... it would probably be better to ask someone else partly because I've been watching the results fairly generally tonight. But I've always said that we were never focused on that, we were focused on delivering a positive, constructive plan that made sense to the people of Alberta to build our future - and that's what i think happened tonight."

Q: What does it say about Alberta?

AR: "I think it's fairly exciting. I think it shows that Albertans are passionate about our place in Canada and our place in the world. it also shows that people were prepared to trust the political process, that they want us to set a direction and that's what we've done."