Episode 70: Who was the most unpopular Premier in Alberta history?

I’d rephrase that as to who is the most dishonest premier in Alberta’s history. It could be a tie. Don Getty, Ralph Klein and the failure running things in Alberta right now, are tops. Let’s say that bribing people with their own money, in the form of $400, cannot undo the epic amounts of shenanigans, that caused Alberta financial hardship, which lingers to this very day. This is Ralph Klein’s legacy.
– rip off royalty rates for the oil in Alberta, which lost Alberta nearly $600 billion.
-the pilfering of the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, and not topping it up, like it was supposed to be.
-the giving away of Alberta’s oil to foreign oil barons.
-the $240 million Alpac scandal, which is an example of Ralph Klein pilfering the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, as that’s how he paid for it.
-the Swan Hills waste treatment plant fiasco, which now has costs of $5 billion.
-the $180 million Miller West Pulp Mill scandal.
-blowing almost $500 million, trying to bailout West Edmonton Mall.
-The $400 million B.S.E bailout disaster.
-The $100 million A.I.S.H scandal, (which was complete with Ralph Klein and his colleagues, laughing at and mocking the handicapped on TV).
-The $125 million ambulance amalgamation disaster.
-making Albertans pay for the Stockwell Day defamation lawsuit costs.
-the $34.5 billion electricity deregulation failure.
-the $7 billion to $10 billion PPA fiasco, that is in addition to electricity deregulation.
-saddling Albertans with a $260 billion cost for cleaning up abandoned oil wells in Alberta.
-the flat tax that Albertans never got to vote on, has lost Alberta major amounts of further revenue, in the billions of dollars range.
Infrastructure in Alberta was left in such a neglected state, that when Ed Stelmach became premier, he had to contend with an infrastructure debt that was at least $40 billion. The infrastructure debt in Alberta is still sizable.
Healthcare and education were never looked after, and nurses and teachers were given pink slips in droves (laid off).
Hospitals and schools were never given the attention they deserved, and maintenance of them was forsaken.
Privatization and deregulation ventures made matters more worse.
When Albertans try to say how good Ralph Klein was, they should be shown this.
If Albertans want to give adulation to the UCP, it’s rather futile to do so.
The UCP are also blowing billions of dollars away, while cutting away the essential services we hold dear, in an attempt to bolster more privatization. In 2023, the dubious premier of Alberta, gets a very large political pension, from being a lifer in politics, while Albertans have a big mess that will take decades to fix up.