Premier Alison Redford received a standing ovation in her first speech as leader at the Alberta Progressive Conservative convention, Friday night.

Redford pledged to forge ahead with building a new and better Alberta while at the same time taking direct jabs at the opposition parties, particularly the Wildrose Party, the province’s official opposition.

“The people of Alberta faced a clear choice between two radically different plans for the future,” Redford told those in attendance at the party’s convention here in Calgary. “A choice between an Alberta that looked inward and sought to build walls, or the Progressive Conservative vision for a confident Alberta that builds bridges to the rest of Canada and welcomes the world.”

“And the choice was clear between a party that was firmly stuck in the past, or as Doug Horner” (Redford’s Minister of Finance) “likes to call them ‘the Socred retreads,’” added Redford before an eruption of laughter from the audience.
   
Redford reiterated that her government plans to build 140 family care health clinics across the province, but came up short on committing to balance the budget. With the price of oil in the doldrums, the Premier said:  “We’ll secure Alberta’s economic future with a balanced budget plan that doesn’t raise taxes.”

She also made no mention about a controversy last week in which the PC’s doubled the RRSP contributions of MLA’s $11,000 to $22,000.

Saturday, the 1,100 delegates will debate whether to remove automatic delegate status for Federal Conservative MP’s which some see as a growing rift between the federal and provincial parties.