Since Ralph Klein passed away on March 29, tributes have been pouring in from across the province and the country – he was colourful, a master communicator, a man of the people, a guy to have a beer with, a maverick, an original and so on and so on. The comments are revealing because they touch almost exclusively on character and personality and, indeed, Klein was all the things that people have said he was. There will be more of this in eulogies in the days to come, but that should not preclude us from assessing his substantive contributions, which, in fact, are limited.
If one were to list his most noteworthy achievements, cutting the deficit in the early 1990s would probably be at the top. He also overhauled the royalty regime to spur oilsands development, privatized licence registries, partly privatized liquour sales, deregulated the electricity market (with dubious results) and gave the province a flat-tax system (also with dubious results). That’s not much to show for 14 years in office, particularly for a politician who had everything going for him – a rare ability to connect with people, weak opponents in the Liberal and New Democrat parties and an amazing run of luck.
Not long after he took office, the economy began to boom; money flowed in from royalties, VLTs and an expanding population and tax base. The revenues were so strong that he was able to eliminate the deficit in 1995, three years after taking office and two years ahead of schedule. And then he lost control, to the point that when he retired in 2006, per capita program spending in Alberta was the highest in the country. Klein could have done great things with the province’s wealth – diversify the economy, build the Heritage Fund, invest in badly needed infrastructure, support the arts. Instead we all got Ralphbucks.
Klein never had an over-arching vision for Alberta. In fact, he never had a consistent ideology. Looking at his record, it’s clear that he was a middle-of-the-road pragmatist whose political antennae kept him attuned to the public mood, much like the 17th century French politician who said: “There go the people. I must follow them for I am their leader.” As well, Klein was a bully. His most infamous moments involve an early morning tussle at a shelter for homeless men and throwing a book at a Legislative Assembly page. (Klein loved his drink too, but so did Sir John A. Macdonald and he managed to build a country. That was a man with vision.)
History will remember Ralph Klein as a master politician, a winner of four consecutive majority governments, a guy whose street smarts and native intelligence propelled him to the premier’s chair. Too bad he didn’t do much when he got there. He could have been so much more.
