Ralph Philip Klein was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 2006.
90 Facts About Ralph Klein
2.
Ralph Klein was born and mostly grew up in Calgary, Alberta.
3.
Ralph Klein later worked as a teacher and principal at the Calgary Business College, and later public relations with non-profits.
4.
In 1980, Ralph Klein turned his attention to politics and as an underdog was elected Mayor of Calgary, where he oversaw the boom and bust of the oil industry in the 1980s, expansion of the CTrain, and the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.
5.
In 1992, Ralph Klein was elected as leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and went on to lead the party to a majority government in the 1993 Alberta general election; Ralph Klein continued the Progressive Conservative dynasty and won three more majority governments afterwards.
6.
Ralph Klein was born in Calgary, to Philip Andrew Ralph Klein and Florence Jeanette Harper.
7.
Ralph Klein's father, Phil, was born in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, grew up poor and rode the rails during the Great Depression in search of work.
8.
Ralph Klein's parents separated when he was five or six years old and he spent time living with his maternal grandparents in the Calgary's north end, and Rocky Mountain House with his mother.
9.
Ralph Klein grew up in a working-class part of Calgary and dropped out of high school in grade 11, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force reserves, then completed high school later in life.
10.
Ralph Klein attended Calgary Business College studying accounting and business administration, and later served as a teacher and principal of the college.
11.
Ralph Klein remarried three months after his divorce to the Victoria-born Colleen Evelyn Hamilton, a single-mother with two children working as an accounting clerk with Imperial Oil and as a bartender by night.
12.
Ralph Klein rose to public prominence in Calgary as a radio and television personality between 1969 and 1980.
13.
Ralph Klein was the Senior Civic Affairs reporter with CFCN-TV and CFCN radio.
14.
Ralph Klein built a reputation for thorough reporting and gritty, street-wise "down and dirty" reporter who could see through rhetoric.
15.
Ralph Klein's reporting style left him ostracized from the journalist community and provoked jealousy amongst the CFCN news group.
16.
Ralph Klein routinely skipped morning assignment meetings, rarely checked in, yet still would still appear in the afternoon with a new story.
17.
The 1973 oil crisis created an economic boom in Calgary, and Ralph Klein reported on stories which emphasized the lower-class, outcasts and challenges faced by those who did not benefit from urban renewal.
18.
Ralph Klein produced compelling and vivid stories about biker gangs which were both open and critical about the organizations, all the while building strong relationships by both living and partying with the gangs.
19.
Ralph Klein finally made contact from jail after he was arrested by RCMP officers after a bar fight with a government official.
20.
Ralph Klein continued to work with members of the Blackfoot, who introduced him to the indigenous religion, and provided him with a spiritual advisor.
21.
Ralph Klein voiced his dissatisfaction through a monthly column in Calgary Magazine, his topics included his displeasure with the city's heavy-handed "block busting" and expropriation tactics, the polluted state of the Bow River, transportation planning and the Ctrain, weakness of open government and freedom of information, but always ended his columns with a note of optimism and a challenge to his readers to think of how to improve the city.
22.
Ralph Klein's campaign started on rocky footing, he had little funds and limited knowledge of how to run a campaign or organize volunteers.
23.
Ralph Klein hired his friend Webster MacDonald, a lawyer, and labour organizer Ted Takacs to run co-manage his campaign, but neither was particularly adept.
24.
The Ralph Klein campaign continued to grow, although remained strained financially, with Ralph Klein only raising a total of $22,000.
25.
Ralph Klein's other opponent, Petrasuk was a prominent lawyer with a large ethnic voter base and significant fundraising capabilities.
26.
Ralph Klein's victory on October 15,1980, came as a shock to many in the city including his own father who refused to believe the news, and shortly afterwards Ralph Klein was installed as the 32nd Mayor of Calgary, and the second Mayor of Calgary to be born in the city.
27.
Ralph Klein was re-elected twice, first in 1983 and again in 1986.
28.
Ralph Klein oversaw the development of the Calgary's light rail transit system which began operation on May 25,1981, shortly after Ralph Klein's first term began, and expanded as the city has increased in population.
29.
Ralph Klein gained unfavourable national attention by blaming eastern "creeps and bums" for straining the city's social services and police.
30.
Ralph Klein supported the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Brian Mulroney in the 1988 federal election.
31.
Ralph Klein received an offer from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to join the federal Progressive Conservatives which included a cabinet appointment, but Ralph Klein's wife Colleen was not receptive to the move.
32.
Ralph Klein made the transition from municipal to provincial politics, and was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for the riding of Calgary-Elbow in the 1989 general election.
33.
Ralph Klein won the election, defeating Liberal candidate and lawyer Gilbert Clark and two others with 49.6 per cent of the vote.
34.
Ralph Klein dealt with several high-profile controversial issues including the Oldman River Dam, Alberta Pacific pulp mill and Swan Hills Waste Treatment Plant.
35.
Ralph Klein faced strong competition from Edmonton MLA and Minister of Health Nancy Betkowski, and seven other candidates.
36.
Ralph Klein campaigned for Progressive Conservative leadership in part by making arguments similar to Liberal leader Decore's.
37.
Ralph Klein favoured a near-immediate balancing of the provincial budget and rapid debt repayment thereafter, and declared his government "out of the business of business".
38.
Ralph Klein was criticized throughout the leadership campaign by reporters, politicians and other candidates for his hand's off approach to governance and notability for partying.
39.
Ralph Klein came second in the first ballot on November 28,1992, with 16,392 votes, one behind Betkowski.
40.
The second ballot occurred on December 5 with three candidates, Ralph Klein received an overwhelming majority with 46,245 votes compared to Betkowski's 31,722, and was elected leader of the Progressive Conservatives, and one week later was sworn in as the Premier of Alberta on December 14,1992.
41.
Ralph Klein's success at the leadership convention was a surprise to political observers, and occurred despite numerous endorsements from the Progressive Conservative caucus for Betkowski.
42.
Ralph Klein's victory has been attributed to populist support from rural Albertans who purchased memberships between the first and second ballot.
43.
Ralph Klein was appointed the 12th Premier of Alberta on December 14,1992, following his surprising victory.
44.
Ralph Klein's party captured all but two seats in Calgary, while being shut out of Edmonton entirely.
45.
Ralph Klein achieved his strongest government in 2001 election, winning 62 per cent of the popular vote and 74 of the 83 seats, the largest majority government since the Peter Lougheed era.
46.
Ralph Klein's premiership faced its first financial challenge with the MLA Pension Plan, with public outrage growing with the generous payments and "double-dipping" where former cabinet ministers were able to draw immediate pension payments while sitting as backbenchers.
47.
Ralph Klein attempted to defuse the issue by amending the plan, but when that didn't satisfy the public, he eliminated the pension plan entirely, with MLAs moving to the same general public service pension plan, the bold action was unexpected and added to his credibility.
48.
In 1993 Ralph Klein followed up on the 1991 government economic strategy paper Toward 2000 Together which was the basis of his 1993 provincial election with the Financial Review Committee whose 1993 report promised to balance the provincial budget by 1997 without raising taxes.
49.
The Ralph Klein government initiated the sale of the provincial Crown Corporations and investments, including the public telephone company, AGT, alcohol sales, Alberta Energy Corporation, and provincial ownership stakes in other business entities.
50.
Ralph Klein sought to reinvent government in Alberta as a streamlined and efficient operation which heavily relied on privatization and contracting.
51.
At the 2004 Calgary Stampede, Ralph Klein announced that the province had set aside the necessary funds to repay its public debt in 2005.
52.
Political analyst David Taras of Mount Royal University argued that although Ralph Klein was popular, he failed at public policy.
53.
In 2003, as the global price of oil increased Ralph Klein first contemplated government oil royalty payments to Albertans.
54.
In 1994, the Ralph Klein government introduced the Regional Health Authorities Act to the 23rd Legislature which amalgamated the 204 hospital boards into 17 regional health authorities.
55.
In 2000, the Ralph Klein government introduced the Health Care Protection Act to the 24th Alberta Legislature concerning partial privatization of healthcare evoked large protests at the Legislature.
56.
Ralph Klein blamed the two sitting NDP MLAs for fighting the reform, inciting the protests and forcing him to back away from the reform that he still supported.
57.
The Ralph Klein government continued to search for efficiencies in health care, and in early 2002 the Premier's Advisory Council on Health led by Don Mazankowski released its framework for reform report often referred to as the Mazankowski Report.
58.
In July 2005 Ralph Klein delivered a speech on the "third way" of health care which would lie between the American system and the Canadian system.
59.
Ralph Klein proposed a series of provincial health care reforms that would potentially violate the Canada Health Act.
60.
Ralph Klein responded by exclaiming, "I don't need this crap" and throwing the Liberal health care policy book at a seventeen-year-old page who had delivered the book during question period in the Alberta legislature.
61.
Ralph Klein changed Alberta's royalty system so that oil companies paid only one per cent of their profits to Alberta until they recovered the cost of the project.
62.
Alberta-Pacific received a loan of $264 million from the Alberta government through the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund in what Ralph Klein called a "sweetheart deal".
63.
Ralph Klein made national headlines during the announcement when he flipped off an environmental activist who was protesting the government's the approval.
64.
Ralph Klein defended his actions by noting that it was the protester who made the offensive gesture first.
65.
Ralph Klein repeated a promise to use the Notwithstanding Clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to veto any requirement that the province register same-sex marriages, however the government recanted as legal scholars questioned whether the action have been constitutional.
66.
Contrary to many media reports which annoyed Ralph Klein, this was a position of the Alberta Legislature which passed the Marriage Amendment Act in March 2000 defining marriage exclusively as an opposite-sex union and attempted to insulate the decision by invoking the Notwithstanding Clause.
67.
In December 2004, Ralph Klein called for a national referendum on the issue of same-sex marriage.
68.
Supporters argued in response that Ralph Klein was merely choosing appropriate priorities for limited government funding.
69.
Ralph Klein was opposed to the Kyoto Accord, since Alberta was a major producer of oil and natural gas, and he felt that environmental measures would hurt the economy.
70.
Pressure mounted on Ralph Klein to set a firm date and, following such a request from party executive director Peter Elzinga, Ralph Klein announced on March 14,2006, that he would be tendering his resignation on October 31,2007.
71.
Ralph Klein later proposed that his resignation would take effect in early 2008 after a successor is chosen at the party's leadership election.
72.
Ralph Klein announced this timetable days before party delegates were to vote in a review of his leadership on March 31,2006.
73.
At a press conference on April 4,2006, Ralph Klein announced that as a result of the lukewarm vote for his continued leadership he would submit a letter in September to Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party urging it to convene a leadership contest.
74.
Ralph Klein said he would resign as party leader and premier after a successor was named, and would assist the new leader in their transition to premier.
75.
Ralph Klein officially handed in his resignation as party leader on September 20,2006, officially kicking off the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party leadership race.
76.
However, Ralph Klein remained premier until the new PC Leader, Ed Stelmach, assumed office on December 14,2006.
77.
Ralph Klein resigned his seat in the legislature on January 15,2007.
78.
On January 18,2007, the law firm Borden Ladner Gervais announced that Ralph Klein, who is not a lawyer, would join their firm as a senior business adviser who would bring "valuable insights to our clients as they look to do business in Alberta, in Canada, and in North America".
79.
On March 27,2008, Ralph Klein was created an Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honour by the Government of France.
80.
On March 20,2010, Ralph Klein appeared on his own television game show called On the Clock on the Crossroads Television System network.
81.
Ralph Klein was hospitalized in September 2011 due to complications from COPD and dementia.
82.
Ralph Klein would be made an Officer of the Legion of Honour by France in 2008.
83.
Ralph Klein received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005, The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 and was appointed to the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2010.
84.
In 1980, shortly after he was elected Mayor of Calgary, Ralph Klein was made an honorary Blackfoot Chief under the name "Oots-squi-peeks" meaning "Blue Bird", one of only two to be honoured as such.
85.
Ralph Klein found the spiritualism inspiring and prepared mentally for provincial elections in sweat lodges, carried an eagle feather in his briefcase and hung sweetgrass braids in his office.
86.
Ralph Klein was commonly spotted at casinos, with a preference for private card rooms, video lottery terminals and horse racing.
87.
Ralph Klein publicly admitted to having a "borderline gambling addiction" wagering hundreds on nights in the casino, having lost up to $7,000 in a single night.
88.
An argumentative Ralph Klein was shuffled out of the centre while he tossed money at a homeless man on the way out.
89.
Ralph Klein called alcohol "the devil" and an "awful beast", but did not go as far as acknowledging he suffered from alcoholism.
90.
Ralph Klein admitted to being intoxicated at many moments in his life, visibly during his 2001 general election party, a month earlier when he introduced former US President Bill Clinton, and at the public memorial for Calgary sportscasting legend Ed Whalen.