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Joe Shlabotnik

(5,604 posts)
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 06:33 PM Apr 2013

How should we remember Ralph Klein?

As the compliments poured in, it must be remembered that Klein was one of Canada's most aggressive neo-liberals. He served as premier of Alberta from 1992 to 2006. A blustering, error-prone alcoholic, Klein was forgiven for many of his personal blunders and escapades by frontier-mentality Albertans who believed in rugged individualism and small government.

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.
5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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How should we remember Ralph Klein? (Original Post) Joe Shlabotnik Apr 2013 OP
I won't remember riverbendviewgal Apr 2013 #1
I won't remember him fondly at all. polly7 Apr 2013 #2
The reason why Ralphie got off after the homeless shelter incident u4ic Apr 2013 #3
Shove him down the Memory Hole. IntravenousDemilo Apr 2013 #4
I used to work at a place with a family member of Ralphs arikara Apr 2013 #5

polly7

(20,582 posts)
2. I won't remember him fondly at all.
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 08:17 PM
Apr 2013

My brothers in Alberta thought he was the greatest thing ever. We couldn't talk about him much.

u4ic

(17,101 posts)
3. The reason why Ralphie got off after the homeless shelter incident
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 12:03 AM
Apr 2013

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.

arikara

(5,562 posts)
5. I used to work at a place with a family member of Ralphs
Wed Apr 17, 2013, 05:39 PM
Apr 2013

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.

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