By Kamea Zelisko
Growing up I always had an affinity for Ralph Klein, who first became Premier of Alberta when I was only 12 years old. Since I'm originally from Edmonton, Alberta I wasn't really aware of his reputation here in Calgary, and this wasn't uncommon in the City of Champions. I remember the hoopla surrounding his win - statements such as "A Calgary Journalist and Mayor becomes Premier? This is ridiculous!" albeit with maybe a bit more curse words, were commonplace throughout Edmonton's blue collar community members, who generally hated any Calgary person who even dared to throw their hat in for the coveted provincial seat (not that I think this has changed much).
But the controversy surrounding Ralph is what made him so interesting. In fact, if it wasn't for him I'm not sure if I would have ever been interested in politics at all. Because of him as a young person I began to understand our provincial debt, and I knew it was a negative thing.
Ralph's hell bent desire to eliminate our province's monumental $23 billion debt is his most memorable and successful political achievement, and it came at a cost. And this cost hit home for me. My father was laid off from his job at the University of Alberta which lost huge amounts of funding as part of Klein's plan. Our family lived in turmoil over the next 10 years with my dad, who had always been a hard worker and steady income earner, now struggling to find and keep a job in Alberta's poor economy and tight purse strings.
I also remember the anger, resentment and daily political rallies in my home town, and while you would think all of this would make me have a strong hatred for this man, in reality that for me would be pretty illogical. You see, you can't lower debt without cutting costs, and while debates abound on whether or not Klein took the right actions, you can't debate the result - a debt-free, rich province which made the most of its only money making resource, and saved money for things like the Heritage Fund and of course the ridiculous Ralph Bucks.
More importantly, I look up to King Ralph and appreciate the man he was. A man who was genuine, (rarely reciting scripts like all of today's politicians); a man who did whatever it took to reach his goal; a man who knew how to break down a message so the regular every day Joe could understand it; a man willing to do whatever it took to reach his goal, and a man willing to receive whatever criticisms that resulted from the decisions he made. These are amazingly admirable traits. And for these reasons and many more Ralph Klein will always be remembered and missed. RIP King Ralph, you were one of a kind.
