Iris Sylvia Evans (born December 31, 1941) is a former Member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from sin ...

and Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations for the Canadian province. From November 25, 2004 to December 15, 2006 she served as Alberta's Minister of Health and Wellness in Premier Ralph Klein's cabinet. After Ed Stelmach assumed the office of Premier, she was named Minister of Employment, Immigration and Industry in his cabinet. After the 2008 Alberta provincial election, Premier Stelmach appointed Evans as Minister of Finance and Enterprise. She was moved over to Intergovernmental Relations in January 2010. A nurse by training, Evans was first elected to the legislature in 1997, representing the riding of Sherwood Park for the Progressive Conservatives. She previously held the portfolios of Minister of Municipal Affairs and Minister of Children's Services. Prior to being elected to the legislature, Evans served as a school board trustee, municipal councillor, and finally as the reeve of

Strathcona County Strathcona County is a specialized municipality in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region within Alberta, Canada between Edmonton and Elk Island National Park. It forms part of Census Division No. 11. Strathcona County is both urban and rural in ...

Parenting controversy

Evans sparked a controversy when speaking to the Economic Club of Canada in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

on June 17, 2009, when she answered a question by stating that good parenting means sacrificing income to stay at home while children are young, and that her own children, now grown with young children of their own, "understood perfectly well that when you're raising children, you don't both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise." In response to accusations that she had insulted working women, she later stated that she had not meant to "harm anybody or slam anybody's views on how they chose to parent or what choices they've made on the involvement in their families and parenting," suggesting that this demonstrated society's concern over parenting, and "So maybe its time for this debate ... maybe frequently we should examine what our choices are as families and see whether our choices are the ones that are working best for the child."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Iris 1941 births Living people Canadian Lutherans Canadian nurses Women nurses Women government ministers of Canada Finance ministers of Alberta Health ministers of Alberta Members of the Executive Council of Alberta People from Sherwood Park Politicians from Calgary Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Female finance ministers Women MLAs in Alberta 21st-century Canadian politicians 21st-century Canadian women politicians