Alison Redord issues a public 'selfie' with Mandela

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Alison Redford should be shriveling in shame after her public exploitation of her past involvement with Nelson Mandela in the creation of a post-apartheid legal system for South Africa.

Redford's comments came during the same week that her Alberta Progressive Conservative government rammed through two last-minute bills that imposed a collective agreement on provincial employees, and zapped Peter Lougheed’s long-ago promise to send contract disputes to binding arbitration.

Nelson Mandela would be outraged at Redford’s attack on public sector employee unions.

In 1990, in a triumphant tour of the United States following his release after 27 years in jail, Mandela, a die-hard supporter of labour unions, personally visited the United Auto Workers union in Detroit.

He claimed kinship with them.

Here’s what he told them:  “Sisters and brothers, friends and comrades, the man who is speaking is not a stranger here,” he said. “The man who is speaking is a member of the UAW. I am your flesh and blood.”