47 Replies to “Ralph Klein 1942 – 2013”

  1. What, exactly, is with the question mark (DOD) in the posted CTV obituary? While we’re on the subject of systematic journalistic malpractice, that mistake surely must rise (or fall?) to the same level.

  5. Ralph was a cranky, pushy little man behind the scenes, but he was smooth as silk in public and got done what needed to be done and nothing seemed to phase him. I admired him always.
    We needed him then, but we sure could use him right now!
    R.I.P. Ralph.
    Ya dun good. ☺

  6. Thank you for your service Ralph. God bless and best wishes Colleen and family.

  7. The best Liberal Conservative the Province of Alberta has known.
    A man who had an instinct for finding a fight and coming out on top!
    Condolences to Colleen and the Family.
    We will always remember you Ralph!

  8. I always liked Ralph and the fact that he wasn’t afraid to speak his, often, politically incorrect mind.
    RIP, Mr. Klein.

  10. set you free “On Good Friday, no less.”
    I can hardly wait till Sunday. No that was Lougheed.

  11. Don’t expect him to return on Sunday.
    I liked Ralph Klein, one of the better politicians this Country has seen,and a refreshing change from the usual mealy-mouthed bunch that take up politics in this Country.
    R.I.P. Mr.Klein.

  12. @David Southam: Was it just the date of death? Presumably they may have not known the exact date, could’ve been yesterday instead of today for all they knew.
    I first saw Mr. Klein in person in 2005 towards the twilight of his career at a local Chamber of Commerce dinner. He was definitely the centre of the room, and his oratory skills were inspiring. I can’t agree with his last few years, when he allowed special interests to pop up and multiply by handing out money to them, but the singular fact that the problem was a result of us having money to spare with no debt still amazes me.
    Alberta is beset by Liberals-in-Conservative clothing today, but it feels weird that one of our best, if not the best premiers was a Conservative in Liberal clothing.

  14. Thanks Ralph, you saved the province from insolvency and gave us our economic independence back – which we use to tell Ottawa greed heads to get stuffed.
    We won’t forget you. I hope there’s plenty of draft beer, chicken and chips where you are now.
    First Iggy leaves for Pittsburgh now Ralph has left – the province has lost big time.

  15. Interesting parallel…
    Ralph did throw the money-changers out of the temple (bureaucratic cutbacks)

  16. Met him personally more than once. A true man of the people he was the real deal. RIP Ralph and all the very best to his lovely family.

  19. Actually Kate, its a pretty crummy, shallow obit. Unfortunately I haven’t the time to elaborate immediately, but I will within the next day.

  20. A good person. One of the very few that didn’t go into politics for personal gain and with inflated ego. R.I.P. Ralph. You were a rare breed indeed. A true leader.

  22. Wow – huge losses for our province this week.
    CYA Iggy – you have been finally set free to win the BIG cup! Go get em.
    RIP Ralph – the King Eddy Hotel in heaven got it’s best friend back today! Enjoy the beer and horse races and thank you for being the best and most honest politician I ever voted for, both as Mayor and Premier.
    My sincerest condolences to wife Colleen and family.

  24. Ralph missed an oppertunity. He had the support to tell Ottawa and the East to go stuff it. He could have threatened to take Alberta out of Confederation, just like Quebec, and forever shifted the balance of power to the West. Ralph with all your good actions, there was an oppertunity that was missed. Sad.

  25. I first heard of Ralph Kline when he told the truth about eastern trash coming out to Calgary. I liked his style and his direct approach. He was probably hated by the political class because he kept up his contacts with ordinary people instead of ascending into the rarified atmosphere of the self-selected “elite”. He was one of the few politicians, had he ever gone to Ottawa, that would have not suffered brain rot as a result.
    We need more like him. The best premier that Alberta’s ever had.

  28. I loved what Ralph Klein did for Alberta, and by extension for all of Canada, and I hope fervently that his legacy is one of being a great Canadian.
    I wish his family the most sincere of condolences.
    Woodporter

  29. Over the years, I shared more than a few beers with Ralph, both when he was a reporter and as Mayor, at the St. Louis hotel in Calgary. A decent, caring guy…what you saw was what you got.
    He was a rare breed among politicians…someone who was actully genuine.
    He will be missed.
    RIP Ralph.

  30. “its a pretty crummy, shallow obit”
    I thought it was pretty good. An effective leader today has to be willing to to some things outside the box or slay a few dragons and I thought Cosh nicely showed that Ralph did that. The comments under the obit illustrate exactly the kind of dragons a leader has to face. It is instructive to read those comments and find out that there are people who still believe that government spending is the cure for every ill.

  32. Even after this comment the people from Castor AB still loved Ralf.
    “I’ve been to Vulcan where I’ve been vulcanized, Carbon where you get carbonated and Standard where you get standardized. Ernie Isley’s invited me to Castor … and I’m not looking forward to it.”

  35. RIP Ralph…you done good. We sure could use more like you both up there in my old home and especially doWn here where I am now.

  36. RIP Ralph
    more accomplishments in any one year than Layton had in a lifetime.
    including thrashing the lieberals 4 times.
    and being a mayor and living in his own house , not just a councilman living in faked subsidized housing
    a real conservative with conservative values

  37. In the comments of Colby Cosh’s eulogy some jackass is whinging about how his brothers and sisters, who made a good living making a show of “helping” the scum Calgary and Edmonton, were horrified when Mr. Klein put their bread and butter on buses to Vancouver, having guessed, correctly, that 99.9 percent of them were not worth the bother or expense of trying to help.
    That the jackass is still bitter about that is proof that Mr. Klein did the right thing—except, perhaps, for having the final destination of the coach be Vancouver and not the lawn out front of the National Assembly in Quebec City, who’d sent their scum and lunatics out west to spite the English in the first place.

  38. I what to hear Gord’s take, but I thought the latter two thirds of the Cosh obit were entirely on point about what Ontario is facing in the next decade or more (and what Alberta and the U.K., for example, are apparently going to have to go through again, along with the rest of the Western world for the first time), whether the self-appointed elites and their fellow travelers on the Toronto Star editorial board like it or not.
    And the dumb arguments continue to be made. You don’t have to search very diligently through the Toronto-based media to find what passes in that echo chamber for “financial” insight: “Why would we sell the LCBO when we get all that money off it?” “We”? Who’s “we”, exactly? Besides which, I haven’t heard Mr. Hudak say that he’d lower taxes on alcohol sales. On the contrary, those taxes would remain in place — a rather obvious point, I would have thought. So what the province would be doing (primarily) is grabbing the net present value of the future after-tax corporate profit stream (OMG, the LCBO would pay corporate taxes!) and paying off some of the $280 billion provincial debt, which has been brought to you courtesy of Messrs. Rae and McGuinty. At the same time, a much more dynamic, productive and market-focused organization would emerge under the new owners, which, according to Mr. Hudak, could well be the public-sector pension funds. So it’s not like public sector employees wouldn’t receive a significant potential offsetting benefit from such a move. This approach will need to be implemented across the board in the provincial public sector in Ontario, just as Mr. Klein implemented it in Alberta, according to Mr. Cosh.

  39. Aizlynne said: “RIP Ralph – the King Eddy Hotel in heaven got it’s best friend back today!”
    Ralph will be spinning in his grave if he was ever associated with that “hippie hang out” for “Eastern bums and scums”. He rarely went there or the Cecil hotel. But for years, as a reporter and as mayor, he could be seen at the Cecil Hotel every Friday night after work (right behind city hall) gulping their chicken and chips and buying draft beer for the house.
    I was fortunate enough to share a draft with Ralph on a few occasions when I worked near by. He was the most personable guy I ever met and he had time to talk with anyone. He really made you feel your opinion and problems were important to him – and they were = he took many an issue to city hall he had learned of in small talk with “just folks”. He really had his hand on the public pulse. Alberta’s greatest populist politician. I think his passing signals the end of populism in Alberta politics and a shift to cold technocratic statism.
    Ralph put the St. Louis on the map – so sad that old downtown land mark sits idle. Maybe it’s fitting it disappears with Ralph.

  40. I loved the way Ralph challenged the establishment but did not appreciate his attitude towards Reform and what Reform could have meant to Western Canada. I alwats wondered how much Mannings decision to move Reform into Eastern Canada had to do with hostility at the provincial government level. I was one of those few Reformers who thought Reform should have taken provincial governments over in the West and forced Western interests to the national level in that way rather than winning a national campaign.

  41. Reply to David Southam, re: LCBO privatization rant.
    I wish I could take this conversation to another thread so as not to detract from the sincerity of these tributes to Ralph – however he DID privatize the ALCB RETAIL operations – but the Alberta government monopoly on import/warehousing/distribution of domestic alcohol is still firmly in place. In Alberta it is now easier for someone to become an import agent and import foreign liquors/wines/beers but they must use an Alberta liquor monopoly carrier and bond the shipment with the ALCB and pay duty and tax before release – they do drop-ship to your retail outlet if you wish. Retailers of domestic sudz, booze and vino must still order from government warehousing ops. The bottom line is that there is more variety available to consumers but prices have increased significantly as th retailer adds their mark up to the government mark up.
    Hudak is making a typical greenhorn bone head mistake of throwing the baby out with the bath water. The LCBO is the largest, most successful liquor import/retail monopoly on earth. They make substantial revenues for government, offer decent variety and excellent pricing. All that needs be done to the LCBO is to reduce tariff and taxes and dissolve the small portion of its import/retail monopoly which holds the specialty and niche markets. The LCBO does try to offer specialty customers variety but it is very limited and they should turn this over to private agents/retailers who can better service this market. Import wine, high-end liquors and craft beer importers and private retail outlets are needed. It should be easier for agents to import and distribute specialty items. It should also be easier for domestic craft/micro brewers, vinters, distillers to retail privately .
    As far as the domestic guzzle beer, patio wine and hard booze market are concerned, the LCBO does a great job of distribution and low pricing (best in Canada and far better than the US) as well as giving good revenue streams to the government. We don’t want to lose that – we do want specialty crafters of import and domestic wines, beers and liquors to distribute privately so they can compete with the mega brewers and corporate distilleries and their retail monopoly at the LCBO and Beer Store.

  42. Sorry-typo – I meant to say Ralph hung out at the ST.LOUIS not the Cecil every Fri PM

  44. Occam, Ralph did indeed go to the King Eddy from time to time in the evening when there was a band in town he wished to hear. I saw him there myself, once. But the St. Lois was indeed his regular hangout.

  45. First met Ralph in 1967 – a long story best left for another time.
    I supported his mayoral bid in the early 80’s and was vilified for doing so, hindsight has proven correct – the old boy network at city hall was stymied – for a time anyway.
    Ralph was a real mensch – he had the unique ability to turn his personal foibles and failures to personal advantage, endearing himself to the common people. WYSIWYG at its best.
    Sadly, Alberta’s prosperity has changed the political landscape. After all the heavy lifting was done the takers emerged from the political periphery – we’re back in deficit territory for the foreseeable future.

  46. After Ralf’s drunken escapade in the homeless shelter I spoke to about a dozen guys who were there at the time. To a man everyone of them said not only did they agree with what Ralf said about them but that given the opportunity they would vote for him as well.

  47. Good recovery Occasm…I doubt Ralph would have ever patronized the Cecil. They used to have a sign on the entrance door “Check all knives and motorcycle helmets with the bartender”. It was a rough place…probably gone now…

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation