Alison Redford's former chief of staff, Stephen Carter, believes this week's revelations by Alberta's Auditor General might jeopardize the Progressive Conservatives' four-decade rule in the province.
"I think you can hear Alberta voters in one voice saying 'we won't be fooled again,'" Carter told CBC Radio's The House.
The province's Auditor General, Merwan Saher, tabled a scathing report this week that concluded the former premier and her office used taxpayer money "inappropriately," with planes used for personal and partisan purposes. Redford, who had already stepped down as premier, also resigned her seat in the provincial legislature this week before the report was made public.
Carter, who served as Redford's chief of staff from the time she won the PC Leadership in October, 2011 until soon after her surprising victory in the 2012 provincial election, told The House guest-host Terry Milewski that what the Auditor General highlighted was part of a bigger pattern.
"This is not an isolated incident. This is a series of missteps by the PCs that dates back to (former premier Ralph) Klein and his use of the airplanes," he said.
Carter said he also believes other members of the government, including Finance Minister Doug Horner, will have to take responsibility for what happened.
Horner said this week he was not responsible for the use of the aircraft.
"As I said before ... the current policy that we have is that individual ministers are responsible for advising as to what the purpose of the plane is going to be, who is going to be on that plane, when it’s going to leave, what's going to happen," Horner said Thursday afternoon.
'I was aware of it': Carter
Carter said the issue of Redford's use of planes did come up while he was Redford's chief of staff.
"We did have the plane issue pop up when I was chief of staff. We did tell her that this is not something she should be doing," he said, adding that he tried to address it.
"I was aware of it, and we put an end to it. I suggest people go back and look at the flight manifests."