The Not So Great Legacy of Ralph Klein

They say you are not supposed to speak ill of the dead.

So I'd rather not say anything about the life and legacy of Ralph Klein.

But unfortunately we live in a very sick democracy. A country corrupted by leaders like Stephen Harper.

So when I see the MSM falling over themselves to see who can write a more glowing  or fawning obituary, I believe some balance is required.

For they can gush like geysers and call him  "an extraordinary ordinary man" who was " fair, down-to-earth, beloved," the "greatest polician of his generation," a "great leader" and a "great Canadian."

But if you consult a more neutral record, the truth is quite different.

His government took a knife to funding for arts and health programs, going so far as to demolish hospitals, laying off thousands of nurses, and selling off the provincial public telephone company, AGT to private interests. Klein's social and environmental views were seen by opponents as uncaring.

For he was also a brutish right-wing Con who went after the poor and the sick. He was a tool of the dirty oil gang, and a mortal enemy of the environment.



He was an irresponsible redneck who called on farmers to cover-up an outbreak of mad cow disease. A callous bigot who went to extraordinary lengths to deny the equality of gay Albertans.

In June 2003, an Ontario Superior Court Charter ruling removed federal restrictions on same-sex unions being recognized legally as marriage. Klein repeated a promise to use the Notwithstanding Clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to veto any requirement that the province register same-sex marriages.

Klein called for a national referendum on the issue of same-sex marriage. Following the federal Parliament's approval of same-sex marriage in 2005 via Bill C-38, Klein announced initially that his government would fight the distribution of same-sex marriage licences.

A vulgar, drunken boor, who called Easterners "bums," threw money at the feet of homeless people to humiliate them, once said this about Belinda Stronach:

"Belinda roasted me as a Conservative, but of course now she's a Liberal.. and I wasn't surprised that she crossed over; I don't think she ever did have a Conservative bone in her body.. well, except for one." (Referring to Peter MacKay, her former boyfriend)

Then refused to apologize.



A man who was a model for NOBODY.

With an economic legacy no Canadians should celebrate. 

Ralph Klein’s revolution changed the course of Alberta politics and had a major impact on Canada’s makeup as a whole, helping shift the political landscape firmly to the right and establishing a low-tax, small-government culture that has since been adopted by governments across the country.

For we are now living with that legacy in the monstrous shape of the Harper Cons. And it's killing this country.

So while Klein might have been a Great Alberta Leader, unlike Peter Lougheed he was NOT a great Canadian one.

And the problem is that in a country whose democracy the Cons have so corrupted, when you start calling people like Klein great leaders.

You end up with leaders like Stephen Harper.

Or leaders like this one...



Crass, brutish, Con demagogues, who would drag our highest ideals into the gutter, and turn our societies into JUNGLES.

And if Canadians hold their leaders to such low standards, they will end up living in a horrible country they deserve.

Oh well. I'm sorry I had to correct the record, and write these things about a dead man. I'm sorry Ralph Klein's last years were so miserable. I'm sorry for his family and all those who loved him.

But surely if Klein really was an "extraordinary ordinary man" or the "People's Premier" he  would agree with me eh?

A life is the sum of EVERYTHING you do.

Democracy demands honesty.

And the truth will set us FREE...

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