Former minister Leela Aheer joins UCP leadership race

“The entire leadership race for me is about regaining Albertans’ trust. We owe that to people. We owe them the opportunity to be able to get in front of them and explain to them who we are, and to be able to be truthful about the mistakes that have been made, because there’s been plenty. I think that happens with any party,” she said.

Aheer was first elected under the Wildrose Party banner in 2015. After winning a second term in 2019, this time with the newly-created United Conservative Party, she was named Alberta’s minister of culture, multiculturalism, and status of women.

Aheer was shuffled out of her cabinet post in 2021 not long after openly criticizing Kenney for a dinner he held on a patio linked to a government office space in Edmonton known as the Sky Palace which violated COVID-19 restrictions.

When asked Tuesday about the government’s strained relationship with health care workers Aheer said Alberta needs to increase spaces in universities, attract international professionals and that Alberta’s doctors and nurses are owed a “huge apology.”

“I think I’ve spent the last two years talking to doctors and nurses and frontline workers across the province just explaining my deep gratitude because of the way that we proceeded and how they felt as a result of the direction that we have gone,” she said.

“There’s not enough apology in the world. There’s not enough that we can say in order for those incredible people that understand how grateful we are.”