| Living in Alberta, it’s hard to escape the feeling that the province is governed by an absolute monarchy, with Premier Ralph Klein exercising his divine right to be king under a long-reigning Progressive Conservative dynasty.
On Monday, November 22, Albertans go to the polls again, but before the election campaign even got under way the media and political pundits had already predicted that Klein’s Tories would win another landslide victory. Even the opposition parties were conceding that there wasn’t a chance in hell they’d form the government.
And Klein himself has never been more blatantly self-confident in his 11 years as premier – to the point, many feel, where he is becoming outright arrogant. The former television reporter who began his political career as a down-to-earth "little guy" mayor in Calgary, has started to act more and more like a testy, high-handed monarch who’d rather gamble and glad-hand with supporters than seriously talk policy with his fellow first ministers and the opposition, or even lend an ear to his lowly subjects.
His cockiness seems to be well-founded. In an October 30 Ipsos-Reid poll, the Conservatives, who have now been in power in Alberta for 33 straight years, had 50-per-cent support from Albertans. That was almost double the support the Liberals, who were in second place, received.
But do Albertans love Ralph the way they used to? Yes, many are likely pleased with the fact that the economy is zipping along at a frenetic pace and the debt is paid off. But Klein has made some pretty spectacular gaffes in his last term as premier, beginning with his late-night drunken visit to an Edmonton homeless shelter in 2001, where he ended up telling a group of homeless men to get jobs and then threw money at them. Recently, Klein angered many Albertans with his comments suggesting some Assured Income For the Severely Handicapped (AISH) recipients are exploiting the $850-a-month program.
Klein has also been under fire for not being upfront with Albertans on health care. This summer he promised he’d be consulting with people in the province on promised health-care reforms before the election, but then he changed his mind. Now he says he won’t discuss possible health-care reforms until after the election, despite having suggested during the federal election that such reforms might violate the Canada Health Act.
The Alberta Liberals, NDP and Alliance all claim Klein is arrogant and out of touch, and that claim is starting to resonate with some voters, as Fast Forward discovered when interviewing people at Chinook shopping centre recently.
Bob Freeman, a former president of the Calgary southeast constituency association for the Reform Party and a Grade 10 classmate of Klein’s says he won’t be voting Conservative this time around and will instead cast a protest vote for the Alberta Separatist Party.
"Lately I think (Klein) has become arrogant. I think he’s tired and it’s time to move on," says Freeman.
Freeman thinks Klein’s policies have been too tough on seniors and he says Klein should have a plan for health care rather than "just playing it by ear." He predicts Klein will be "getting a bit of a kick in the pants" in this election.
Andrew Bosman says he’s voted for Klein in the last three elections, but he’ll be voting Liberal this time as a protest vote.
"The last half-year, I think he’s failing quite badly in a number of areas. The way he comes across is quite arrogant. He’s failing to discuss current problems," says Bosman. "His short temper shows through."
Bosman says he’s always liked Klein as a person, but he didn’t like his recent AISH comments. And he found Klein’s behaviour this spring in front of the legislature’s public accounts committee to be "childish." In that infamous episode, Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman asked the premier to account for government spending and, instead of answering her questions, a belligerent Klein just barked repeatedly, "Are you calling me a liar?" and "You don’t believe me?"
Bosman says the Alberta Conservatives are starting to resemble the scandal-tinged federal Liberal party, referring to the auditor general’s recent criticism of the provincial government for awarding almost $400,000 in contracts to Kelley Charlebois, a friend of Health and Wellness Minister Gary Mar. The auditor general said there was no documentation about what work Charlebois performed for the government. "That was a major fiasco," says Bosman.
But plenty of Albertans are sticking with Ralph in the upcoming election. Lorne Sanborn says he’ll vote for Klein because there are "few viable alternatives," and because he’s grateful that the provincial debt is "no longer hanging over my children."
"He’s got some weaknesses but he’s probably an 80-per-cent solution," says Sanborn. "I believe he’s in touch with the basic Albertan. He understands what the basic Albertan needs."
And the rural love affair with Klein still appeared unwavering when Fast Forward interviewed people at a Tim Horton’s in Olds, an hour north of Calgary.
"I like him as premier because he has a backbone and stands up for Alberta’s rights," says teenager Brandy Charchuk. "He’s the one trying to put an end to the BSE crisis."
"I really feel he’s done an excellent job," adds Marnie Sturgeon. "He has been able to pay down the provincial debt and now he wants to take the surplus… and reinvest it back into Alberta, and I really like that."
Calgary Herald columnist Don Martin, who has written a biography of Klein aptly entitled King Ralph, predicts the Conservatives will saunter to victory on November 22. But Martin, who has been following Klein since the latter was mayor of Calgary in the 1980s, says he sees a different Ralph on the throne today.
Klein has always "shot from the lip before his brain is fully loaded," says Martin, but now he’s showing more anger and lashing out at the media more often than before. "There’s a nasty edge to it that wasn’t there before," he observes. "He’s not the warm, fuzzy premier anymore…. I just sense he’s tired and cranky."
The fact that Klein has stopped drinking may be a factor. "When he drank he was more of a social animal," says Martin. "Now he goes home and watches TV…. He’s probably not as engaged in voter thinking as he used to be." Martin thinks he’s just "going through the motions" without any vision or inspiration, and is probably only running again in this election because "he wants to be the birthday boy at the big party (Alberta’s centennial) next year."
Mount Royal College policy instructor Keith Brownsey believes Klein has always been "arrogant and belligerent" since his early days as a politician. He refers to one notorious incident during Klein’s tenure as environment minister, when he gave an eco-protester the finger. But Klein remains popular in the province due to the simple fact that "he portrays himself as the everyman and a populist," says Brownsey, and people buy that myth. "They like him. They don’t connect him with the problems they face. They perceive him as protecting their interests."
At the University of Calgary, communications and culture professor David Taras says the premier is less inclined to back down or apologize than he was in the past, and has lost his sense of direction as leader. But Taras says that, even though Albertans have widespread concerns about hospital waiting lists, under-funded universities, electricity deregulation, auto insurance and the unresolved BSE crisis, they often don’t blame Klein for their problems because of his "folksy charm."
"For many people he’s larger than life. He’s a kind of icon of the province," says Taras. "There are very few politicians who get that kind of respect."
Rod Love, Klein’s former chief of staff, vehemently disagrees that Klein is more arrogant or out of touch and claims he’s as popular as ever.
"Ralph Klein is the same guy I met 25 years ago. I don’t sense any arrogance," says Love. "His personal popularity is the highest of any premier in the country and I think he’s going to get a big, brand-new mandate in the next couple of weeks.
"On November 23, track down (Alberta Alliance leader) Randy Thorsteinson and (NDP leader) Brian Mason and say, ‘What was all this horseshit about how he’s lost his touch, he’s not interested, he’s not popular?’"
Recent outrageous behaviour in the court of King Ralph
· Premier Ralph Klein decided to only attend one day of a three-day national first ministers’ conference on health care in Ottawa in September. And on the one day he deigned to show up, he left a first ministers’ dinner at the prime minister’s residence early, in order to go gambling at a casino in Hull.
· Klein told a campaign rally in early November that he’d met a couple of women on AISH who were "yipping" at him about the need to increase income for the disabled above $850 a month "They didn’t look severely handicapped to me. I tell you that much," he said, before going on to rant about the need to prevent undeserving candidates from receiving money from the program.
· Klein didn’t see any ethical issues arising when his former chief of staff, Peter Elzinga, accepted a job as lobbyist at Suncor Energy at a time when the oil-sands giant is fighting increased royalty payments on one of its projects. "My sense is that this is a media issue, that it’s not a public issue and I haven’t heard from anyone," said Klein. "I don’t see a problem." Elzinga is also the chair of Klein’s re-election campaign. |
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