Politics
Redman served as a trustee on the Waterloo County Board of Education from 1988 to 1994, and was a city councillor for the Kitchener City Council and the Regional Municipality of Waterloo from 1994 to 1997.
She was first elected to parliament in the federal election of 1997, defeating former Progressive Conservative MP John Reimer by over 10,000 votes. She was re-elected by comfortable margins in the elections of 2000, 2004, and 2006.
Redman served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of the Environment from 2000 to 2003. She was named Chief Government Whip and sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on July 20, 2004, an important role in a minority government situation. Following the Liberal defeat in the 2006 election, she was named Chief Opposition Whip.
In the 2008 federal election, she lost to Stephen Woodworth of the Conservative Party of Canada by 339 votes.
On November 17, 2009, upon a reconstitution of the Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition under Chief of Staff Peter Donolo, Redman was named Caucus Liaison, a role drawing on her "strong and deep ties with her former – and future – caucus colleagues."[2]
Redman was renominated as the federal Liberal candidate for the riding of Kitchener Centre in the 2011 election, yet lost again to Conservative Stephen Woodworth.[3]
She was elected to Waterloo Regional Council in the 2014 municipal election.[4] In 2018 she successfully ran for and became the chair of the Waterloo Regional Council, receiving over 62% of the votes.[5]