Canada
Related: About this forumHow should we remember Ralph Klein?
No matter how rude or insulting Klein became, he was a darling of the mainstream media. When a drunken Premier berated poor unemployed men at midnight at a homeless shelter, telling them to get jobs and throwing money at them, he was forgiven by media and right-wingers because, well, it was Ralph and that's just the way he was.
However, the homeless shelter incident is a clear sign of how the establishment and its media viewed the plight of the poor with indifference.
Klein's true legacy is a string of anti-social policies and programs. Klein was possessed by the unnecessary goal of eliminating the debt in what was becoming the country's most wealthy province. In just over a decade he paid down the debt of $23-billion, killing the government pension plan, privatizing liquor stores and license offices, and cutting in critical areas such as health care, education and social services. Klein slashed thousands of job, and showed nothing but contempt for the tens-of-thousands of protestors who fought against his ideology-driven fanaticism.
More at: http://rabble.ca/news/2013/04/how-should-we-remember-ralph-klein
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Finally some fresh air amidst the Ralf Klein lovefest thats been consuming the media for the last few days.
riverbendviewgal
(4,251 posts)That is a fact
polly7
(20,582 posts)My brothers in Alberta thought he was the greatest thing ever. We couldn't talk about him much.
u4ic
(17,101 posts)was because he 'tearfully' admitted to being an alcoholic a couple of days later. Great PR stunt, even if it was true.
I lived in Alberta during his reign. He was a jackass through and though. His popularity bewildered and sickened me. The only good thing he ever did, inadvertently, was get the pathetic provincial disability rates raised after insulting someone in the lead up to the 2004 election. Something along the lines of "she didn't look disabled, she was smoking and wearing a cowboy hat".
That got the rates media attention, and the outrage basically forced him to increase it.
IntravenousDemilo
(5,431 posts)Fuggedaboudim.
arikara
(5,562 posts)I won't specify what kind of a creep this person was. Its a story that very few know about and has the potential to hurt other people who've suffered enough.
But I've always looked at Ralph wondering... right wing nuttiness and all.