Good-bye, Ralph

I was recalling all the large cities I have lived in across five provinces, where politics was always front page news. For the life of me, my Premiers, MLA's, and MP's, are faceless and nameless. That's why the retirement of our Alberta Premier, Ralph Klein, leaves me feeling quite sad and disappointed.

Comments from Rick Bell, Calgary Sun, April 3/06:

Ralph was Ralph, one of a handful of politicians almost always known by first name alone. Countless opposition types tried to get people to call him Premier Klein, to demystify the man. Never worked.

It was all so natural. Ralph's World. King Ralph. Balancing a budget by cuts alone? Ralphonomics. The four-year Tory campaign to fix the financial mess it caused? Ralpholution. What better name for the recent $400 cheques (to each man, woman and child in Alberta) than Ralphbucks.

When Ralph uttered a phrase, it immediately entered the political vocabulary. Everybody had heard a Ralph story, even if it was 12th hand. Some quip, some anecdote proving he had not lost the common touch, always circulated. Ralph's popularity always outstripped that of the party.

Ralph was the politician said to have learned his life lessons in Calgary's beer parlours. Ralph was the plain talker who knew what average Albertan Martha and Henry (as he called them) were thinking. Ralph was the rumpled rogue on the billboard. Ralph was the one Tories told us cared and Tories told us listened.

The Tories insisted Ralph always did what he said he'd do. Ralph would never blink. The party faithful even named a beer after him.

Reports say the party's shocking rebuke isn't about Ralph, but about the timing of his departure. So it comes as no surprise all the e-mails and calls to the office of the premier and the digs of cabinet ministers and Conservative backbenchers alike, ask one question. What did you do to Ralph and why did you do it? (Is it right to blame leadership candidates for Ralph's demise? Of course, and the truth is they did it effectively and well.) It seems the Tory caucus can offer sustained applause for their leader and at the same time carry a knife.

I'm glad that Ralph will head into history as a maverick straight-shooter who says what he thinks and does what he promises and doesn't give a dang about the consequences. I'll miss him.