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Kevin Taft
Kevin Taft (born September 9, 1955, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) is leader of the Alberta Liberal Party and leader of the opposition in the Alberta legislature.
Taft was raised in Edmonton, Alberta. He has a B.A. and Master's Degree in Community Development from the University of Alberta, and a Ph.D. in Business from the University of Warwick in England. Prior to entering politics, Taft was a researcher and consultant for the provincial government. He was propelled into the public eye as the author of Shredding the Public Interest, a book published in 1997 which accused the Ralph Klein government of unnecessarily cutting funding for public services; Klein responded by accusing Taft of being a communist. The book spent 12 weeks on the Financial Post bestseller list, and was chosen as "Alberta Trade Title of the Year" by the Book Publisher's Association of Alberta. In 2000 Taft co-authored a book with Calgarian journalist Gillian Steward, titled Clear Answers: The Economics and Politics of For-Profit Medicine.
In 2001, Taft entered politics and was elected to the legislature as an Alberta Liberal MLA in the riding of Edmonton-Riverview , defeating Progressive Conservative star candidate and former city councillor Wendy Kinsella . Three years later in the spring of 2004 Ken Nicol resigned as leader of the Alberta Liberal Party and Taft was elected as leader. Taft was generally given credit for being more tenacious than the soft-spoken Nicol in his performance in the legislature during the lead up to the 2004 election, especially on issues such as public auto insurance, public accounts, and government contracts. Despite leading a party saddled with a $900,000 debt he helped his party more than double its seats in the 2004 Alberta general election to 16 from 7 before the election call, regaining seats in Edmonton as well as a remarkable breakthrough in the traditionally conservative city of Calgary.
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