Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

In December 2001, Klein showed up inebriated late one evening at an Edmonton homeless shelter. After berating some of the residents for not having jobs, he threw some money on the floor and left.

"I drink too much from time to time,'' Klein told reporters days later. "I'm going to resolve to control and curb my drinking. I have the support of my wife, my family, my caucus and my friends.

"I'm going to curb and control what I see as a problem. It will test my resolve and determination to do something right.''

:confused: :(

Rich.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Does your wife talk to you much?.....If not this may be the reason why :D

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

OK. :confused:

I fail to see the point of either of the previous posts. :confused:

Either I've been drinking or something astounding has happened and I missed it. :confused:

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Umm nor do I ..... but i HAVE been drinking :p

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

This guy is a clothes designer, isn't he?

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Obviously I think Ralph Klein is a crazed redneck and that he well represents his constituency, but I don't really see the point of reviving this incident.

Canadian politicians are given to heavy drinking and bizarre outbursts. Mel Lastman, then Mayor of multicultural Toronto declined to join a trade mission to Africa because when he thinks of Africa he thinks of himself cooking in a pot. Steven Harper sees a division between conservative cradle Canadians and pinko foreigners "You've got to remember that west of Winnipeg the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada: people who live in ghettoes and who are not integrated into western Canadian society." The BC Premier quite recently got busted for drunk driving, Brian Mulroney was entangled in a scandal over aeroplanes, Jean Chretien in one over advertising in Quebec.

The population of Canada isn't very big, so there's not much choice of people to be politicians and, on top of that, many politicians were formerly lawyers; inevitably they tend to corruption and buffonery. Klein isn't remarkable in that regard.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Ralph Klien was elected as Premier of Alberta due to his conservative fiscal policies at a time when Alberta was running huge budgetary deficits. Albertans got to choose between Klein's advocacy of large government budget cuts without tax increases or the imposition of a provincial sales tax as a means to solve the deficit issue. Albertans bought into Klein's motto that "no society ever taxed itself into prosperity" and made him their Premier.

At times Klein has made intolerant remarks over the span of his political career, but it is important to understand that Albertans supported their Premier in spite of those remarks and not partly because of them. Today, most Albertans appear to be rather tired of some of Klein's comments and will be happy to see him retire. He was great when it came to getting Alberta's fiscal house in order, but now it is time to pass the baton.

Klein isn't a lawyer, and certainly isn't corrupt... and thanks to Klein, Alberta has no PST... that's a claim no other province can make.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Erm, isnt that more due to the fact that Alberta is making pots of money from oil revenues? Which is due to geology and supply & demand in the oil markets rather than any particularly shrewd move on Ralph's part?

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

You dont think it was a shrewd move to stay in Alberta (where he is 'more accepted') than go into national Politics where we would be laughed out of 'The House'????

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Damn, and I was letting it drop rather than pointing that out!

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Steven Harper, Stockwell Day, Preston Manning, Art Hanger, Jason Kenney; Mr. Klein's not a loose lipped nutter by the standards of the federal conservatives.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

The differences being
Mrs Klein, the fact he actually believes in himself rather than merely pandering to his 'misinformed' electorate (ok so does Hanger) and he IS an alcoholic.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

I forgot Cheryl Gallant and that Myron Thompson; five star loons the pair of them. The idea that the MPs mentioned might be sober when they make their comments is really quite alarming; much more so than any substance dependency on Mr. Klein's part.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

I think its a particularly shrewd move for Ralph Klein to stay in AB - Shrewd for the rest of Canada that is! No, my comment was more (as dbd33 has picked up) that AB's current prosperity is largely due to factors outside of provincial politicians of any flavour.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

No, Alberta eliminated its budget deficit long before the big runup in oil/gas prices. Of course now with really high oil/gas prices, Alberta is running up huge surpluses.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

And having all the wheat and cattle didnt help in that?

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

A lot of eastern Canadians don't like the idea of having anyone from the west (especially if they are not bilingual) running the Federal Government.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Hell no, farming costs the province a lot in subsidies. Farmers are always crying.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

There is a long list of politicians out of eastern Canada who I can name that are a lot worse.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Oh g'wan then.

(Nb. I might have issue with your definition of 'Eastern' Canada).

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

OK
I'm unilingual, I live in the west and I'm not yet a citizen, and I dont like the idea of having someone in (Canadian) Federal Govt who is not bilingual.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Im sure it had nothing at all to do with sitting on all that oil;)

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Cretien was fluent in neither official language, and as far as i can tell "Steve" isnt that great in French.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

My point exactly.
Well actually no that wasnt my whole point. I mean even sitting as an MP.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Whenever a major industry tanks due to low prices, it is the bane of the economy, not the savour of it. During the 1980s tens of thousands working in Alberta's oil industry were laid off, and thousands lost their homes because the mortgages were worth more than the homes. Prices for oil/gas have been low more often that not over the last 25 years. It's only for the last few years that prices have consistently been high.

Alberta's low tax regime, prudent Government budgeting and business-friendly environment allowed it to survive over the lean times when events beyond its control - such as bad Federal Government policy (NEP) and low world oil/gas prices - harmed its economy.

Sure, now that world prices are high, Alberta has no trouble achieving a huge surplus, but Alberta managed to turn things around even when prices (for oil) were low.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

How about the entire list of politicians who are members of the Bloc and Parti Quebecois. How about Mike Harris' "****in' Indians" comment.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

. NO they lost there homes because for whatever reason they couldnt pay the mortgage.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Extrapolating that logic what you seem to be saying is that the reason the Scottish economy has historically been relatively poor is because of all the North Sea oil flowing through it in the 70s and 80s!

Perhaps the UK government should have cut it adrift as the scottish nationalists wanted!

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

you named one. :confused:

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Not necessarily because they "couldn't" but because they "wouldn't". Not everyone is willing to pay off a mortgage when their house is worth far less than the mortgage.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Massive layoffs in the most important industry of a country or province is never a good thing. I didn't realize that Ottawa's NEP (National Energy Policy) extended to the North Sea or the Scottish economy. :rolleyes:

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Ah, the great western canard; that when the economy of Alberta collapses it's somehow the fault of the feds and when it booms it's the work of the rednecks. It's not politics, it's just commodity prices, the Alberta economy will go bust again and it'll boom again. That's not something the politicians control but the consequence of having a resource based economy.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

If you say so.... dbd33. After all, you lived there for a long time and know all about the place.[/sarcasm] You don't even understand that Federal policy affected commodity prices so you have contradicted yourself. :D

BTW, your act of characterizing the people of an entire province as "rednecks" is far greater in extent than anything Klein ever said - talk about bigotry.

NEP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Energy_Policy

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

I understood the NEP well enough at the time. What I don't understand is the continued fervour about it. People cling to the alleged injustices of three decades ago as a talisman, the way the Irish speak of the potato famine; "Let them freeze in the dark" could be the state motto of Alberta. Maybe what's needed out there is lots of immigrants, people who don't have all this baggage. They could replace the cradle Canadians as they age out of the province.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

The Atlantic provinces donated cod to the prairie provinces, including Alberta, during the dust bowl period of the 1930s. When Alberta experienced a severe drought in 2001 and 2002, Ontario farmers donated cattle feed to Alberta farmers. I hang my head in shame when I hear Albertans saying, "Let them freeze in the dark."

In the spring of 2003, Ralph Klein's government considered whether or not to act on the (in)famous 2001 Firewall Letter from Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan, Ted Morton, Rainer Knopff, Andrew Crooks and Ken Boessenkool. Thank goodness the Klein government set up a sort of commission of enquiry to canvass opinion across Alberta. A handful of Members of the Legislative Assembly held a series of town hall meetings at which members of the public were invited to express their opinions.

The couple who chair the Calgary chapter of the Council of Canadians, and whom I know slightly, informed me a couple of days before the Calgary town hall meeting that it would take place. In a mad scramble, because of the tight deadline, I contacted my left-wing network. Several of them jumped through whatever hoops were necessary to register their names as speakers at the town hall meeting. Many of the speakers at the town hall meeting espoused conservative and separatist views. My friends were definitely in the minority, but they eloquently championed a vision of Canada as a team.

Calgary's town hall meeting was the last one in the province. When I listened to the news on the radio the next morning, I heard the chairmain of the commission saying that, while a majority of speakers at the town hall meetings had been in favour of the "firewall," there had been a minority that had been against the firewall and that minority had been significant enough that the commission could not in good conscience recommend to the government of Alberta that it pursue the firewall idea.

When I heard the chairman's words, I heaved a sigh of relief. I felt as if I had played a part in saving Canada.

I have seen you make a derogatory remark about Maude Barlow on this forum. But out here in Alberta it is people who think like Maude Barlow who introduce a bit of sanity into the province's politics, in my opinion.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Alberta contributes roughly $9 billion per year - a lot of cod tongues and hay - into the "equalization" program so that the "have-not" provinces can pay for their social programs. Klein, along with every other Alberta premier in past, has supported the equalization program .

The NEP was the origin of the "let them freeze in the dark" bumper stickers. It was estimated that this ill-advised Federal Government policy cost Alberta's economy up to $150 billion dollars. Tens of thousands of jobs were lost around the province, thousands of businesses and individuals went bankrupt, homes were lost, marriages broke down, and suicides occurred as a consequence. So if some Albertans in the past have appeared to be less than magnanimous, perhaps the rest of us should cut them a little slack. After all, on a per capita basis, the taxpayers of Alberta have put far more into Canada than those of any other province, and by an enormous margin.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

HTF can you say someone lost their home if they wouldnt pay their mortgage!!!!! If you dont pay your mortgage you FORFIET your home not loose it.
Unfortunately (I hope canada bob is watching me 'attack' someone else) the intelligent things you say always end up getting lost in the crap you come up with to ATTEMPT to win a point!

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

I well believe that Maude Barlow introduces relative sanity to Alberta politics.

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

:D

Re: Ralph Klein - classy guy ?
 

Forfeit, surrender or lose.... it's all just semantics... I wasn't concerned about the fine details just the overall point of the matter which was: people did badly. :(