Cripps ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature for the first time in the
1979 Alberta general election. She won the electoral district of Drayton Valley to hold it for the governing Progressive Conservative caucus. She was easily re-elected in the
1982 Alberta general election with a larger plurality defeating two other candidates. She was run for her third and final term in the
1986 Alberta general election. Cripps won the biggest margin of victory in her political career. After the election she was appointed Associate Minister of Agriculture by Premier Don Getty. She served that until her retirement at the dissolution of the Legislature in 1989. ==References==