It was a sad day for Albertans when former premier Ralph Klein passed away recently. He was a larger-than-life leader who reached a status that few politicians reach — he was a legend and an icon. He led the province from a fiscal basket case to fiscal surpluses and he did it his way — through common sense and political astuteness.
He also had that quality that no other politician seems to possess — he had the ability to admit he made mistakes.
When it came to the agriculture industry, Ralph never pretended that he understood how it worked. He was a city boy and the closest connection he had to agriculture was getting dressed up for the Calgary Stampede. His way of dealing with the industry was to let the minister of agriculture handle its trials and tribulations. But he did understand the critical role of agriculture in the economy by making sure ag ministers sat on senior cabinet committees that decided government priorities and plans.
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But more than that, he knew the core of PC Party support was rural and small-town Alberta. The epitome of that political shrewdness was when he appointed Shirley McClellan, the agriculture minister, as deputy premier. Perhaps Ralph had an intuition with that appointment; a powerful and decisive minister was going to be needed to deal with a huge calamity that was soon to befell the industry — the BSE crisis.
Ralph let Minister McClellan handle the crisis and provided her with all the support she could possibly need — including hundreds of millions in financial support. His common sense did get the better of him when he stated that BSE could have been avoided if ranchers had used the ‘shoot, shovel and shut-up’ principle. The media had fun with that insightful slip.
Ralph was at his best whilst at a media conference during the height of the crisis, when after enduring a barrage of truly inane questions on BSE by dumb city reporters he threw his notes into the air, declared it all crazy and stormed out of the room.
It was one of those times when one wanted to cheer him on for doing what many of us wanted to do in such an exasperating situation. I expect most farmers and ranchers knew instinctively he was one of them.
Ralph’s political and oratorical skills were astounding. Many years ago at a livestock industry lobbying event in Edmonton, Premier Klein unexpectantly dropped in and sat at my table. He was asked by the event host to say a few words to those in attendance.
Ralph, who didn’t know a Hereford from a harrow, asked us a few questions about the livestock industry and made a few notes on the back of a napkin. He then stood up and ad libbed a spellbinding speech with anecdotes and jokes for over half an hour with no more than a few notes as a reference.
The likes of Ralph Klein will never be seen again. He and his common sense will be truly missed.
