XPost: can.politics, ab.politics, bc.politics   
   XPost: ont.politics, edmonton.general   
   From: {~_~}@nyet.ca   
      
   Bedtime stories at the Redford home:  'Where shall we fly to next week,   
   darling?'   
   __________________________________________   
      
   [This article has an actual photo of the list of flights she took with   
   her daughter - and the nanny]   
      
   CBC News Posted: Apr 14, 2014   
      
   Alison Redford flew daughter on dozens of government flights   
   Former Alberta premier’s nanny also on flight   
      
      
   Former Alberta premier Alison Redford flew her daughter on 50 separate   
   government flights, including one with her family’s nanny, a CBC News   
   investigation has found.   
      
   Redford also used government planes to fly to Jasper for two long   
   weekends with her daughter. On each trip, they were accompanied by a   
   friend of her daughter, a sheriff and an executive assistant.   
      
   The former premier’s public expense disclosures show Redford expensed at   
   least one weekend’s stay at the luxury Jasper Park Lodge — June 28 to   
   30, 2013 — for herself and her executive assistant.  It is not known if   
   Redford also expensed the second weekend — Sept. 28 to 30, 2012 — or   
   where the premier and her entourage stayed.   
      
   The reason for the trips provided by Redford on the public flight   
   manifests was listed as “meetings with government officials.”   
      
   In response to CBC’s story, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith called on the   
   Alberta government to sell the planes.   
      
   In a news release, Smith said the revelations show the Progressive   
   Conservatives can’t be trusted to use the planes only for government   
   business.   
      
   “It’s time this government got rid of the air fleet once and for all,”   
   she said.   
      
   Interim Premier Dave Hancock’s director of communications, Craig Loewen,   
   has refused to respond to repeated requests from CBC News since March 26   
   for an explanation of who Redford met with and what government business   
   she conducted on those long weekends in Jasper. Redford did not respond   
   to interview requests.   
      
   “It is hard not to assume the worst when you don’t have transparency and   
   honesty,” Wildrose finance critic Rob Anderson said in an interview.   
   “And what it looks like, right now, is that a government plane was used   
   to, essentially, take a family vacation.   
      
   “If that is not true, (if) that is not accurate, then Ms. Redford needs   
   to make sure that she puts out the details of that trip, and Premier   
   Dave Hancock needs to make sure that those details are put out there so   
   that we can confirm that the government airplane was not used,   
   essentially, for a family vacation at Alberta taxpayer expense,”   
   Anderson said.   
      
      
   Jasper flight timing troubling, Mason says   
      
   Redford and her entourage flew to Jasper from Calgary on June 28, 2013   
   and returned to Calgary on June 30. The government plane flew empty   
   twice, from and to Jasper, to facilitate the trip.   
      
   On that same weekend, the Alberta government assumed responsibility for   
   flood recovery for the devastated town of High River.   
   No Response   
      
   Former Alberta premier Alison Redford twice used government planes to   
   fly with her daughter to Jasper for long weekends. The reason she   
   provided: "meetings with government officials."   
      
   Redford did not respond to our interview requests.   
      
   For nearly three weeks, CBC News repeatedly asked Craig Loewen,   
   communications director for interim Premier Dave Hancock, to explain   
   what government business Redford had conducted.   
      
   New Democrat Leader Brian Mason said the timing of Redford’s trip is   
   troubling.   
      
   “I don’t think she was doing her job,” he said. “If she is off for a   
   long weekend in Jasper while the flood cleanup is still underway, the   
   provincial government is just taking responsibility and hundreds of   
   people are still out of their home, it doesn’t fit with the kind of   
   impression she tried to give of being really in charge, and out there   
   communicating with people about what was going on and making sure that   
   relief was getting to the people who needed it.   
      
   “You know you can’t do that from the Jasper Park Lodge,” Mason said.   
   “That is for sure.”   
      
   On Sept. 28, 2012, Redford attended the final day of the Alberta Forest   
   Products Association’s annual general meeting at the Jasper Park Lodge.   
      
   She also took a brief arts tour in Jasper the next day and then met   
   briefly with Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland. But it is not known what, if   
   any, government business she conducted on that long weekend.   
      
   A government plane twice flew empty to facilitate the premier’s   
   September long weekend in Jasper.   
   Nanny on flight   
      
   On March 4, about two weeks before her resignation, Redford held a news   
   conference in which she apologized for taking her daughter’s friends on   
   government airplanes on four occasions, and for using a plane to fly to   
   Vancouver for government meetings, but also to attend an uncle’s funeral.   
      
      
   Flight breakdown   
      
   Redford said she asked her staff to “comb” through her flights to find   
   any instances in which her daughter’s friends flew on flights. She   
   acknowledged those flights were inappropriate and promised to reimburse   
   $3,156.   
      
   But Redford made no mention of flying her nanny from Calgary to Edmonton   
   or of reimbursing that cost.   
      
   Flight manifests show that on Dec. 2, 2008, while Redford was justice   
   minister, she was accompanied on the flight by three government   
   officials, her daughter Sarah Jermyn, and a woman named “A. Escultero.”   
   CBC News has confirmed Angelita Escultero was, and still is, Redford’s   
   nanny.   
      
   Also during the March 4 news conference, Redford made no reference to   
   the appropriateness of taking her daughter on government flights.   
      
   Instead, she defended the practice, saying that, “at the end of the day,   
   I am the premier of Alberta. But I am also the mother to a daughter, who   
   I love to spend time with. I think many mothers can relate to that, and   
   I don’t always get to do that.   
      
   “And there are times where I have to do business that takes me away from   
   home, and I do bring Sarah with me, and you know that,” Redford said.   
      
   But opposition politicians say they had no idea Redford’s daughter had   
   flown on government planes dozens of times. There were also two   
   occasions in which Sarah Jermyn flew without Redford.   
      
   A review of the government’s flight logs reveals at least one other MLA   
   took their child on a flight.  On Feb. 14 and 15, 2014, the daughter of   
   Calgary Conservative MLA Sandra Jansen accompanied her on flights   
   between Calgary and Edmonton. Redford and her daughter were on the same   
   flights.   
      
      
   'Double standard'   
      
   Mason said Redford was wrong to use the government planes as personal   
   transportation for her daughter.   
      
   “There is a real double standard there and it really does get back to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)