Political career
Before being elected in the 2008 Alberta General Election,Klimchuk also ran the 2001 and 2004 election campaigns of former Edmonton-Glenora MLA Drew Hutton. [1]
She was narrowly elected as MLA for Edmonton-Glenora in the 2008 election over Alberta Liberal Party incumbent Bruce Miller by 96 votes,less than 1% of votes cast. In the 2011 PC leadership election Klimchuk supported Gary Mar, [2] who was defeated by Alison Redford. Klimchuk was re-elected by a more comfortable margin in the 2012 election and was named Minister of Human Services on September 15,2014 in the first cabinet of Jim Prentice. [3] She has previously served as Minister of Culture and Community Services and Minister of Service Alberta. [4] [5] [6] Klimchuk was defeated in the 2015 Alberta general election as the Alberta NDP won every seat in Edmonton. [7]
She was considered to be part of the progressive or Red Tory wing of the PC Party. [8]
Personal life
Klimchuk has a long family history with the PC Party. Her father worked on Premier Peter Lougheed's first electoral campaign and was a classmate of Joe Clark's at law school. [8] Her public service experience prior to serving as a Member of the Legislature includes working as a researcher and writer for both Premier Lougheed and Premier Don Getty.She also assisted with the initiation of the Alberta Seniors´information phone line.
In the 1980s Klimchuk worked as a hair model,often entering competitions. [9]
Post-politics she became Director of Alberta Ballet. [9]
Klimchuk holds a bachelor of arts (special) from the University of Alberta in political science. She and her husband,Wade,have two children:Kyrsten and Keifer. [3]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
