Ralph Klein's folks have leaked to the Calgary Herald that he will announce he is stepping down in October 2007 at the Alberta PC Convention, which takes place at the end of this month.
This move is obviously to avert a potentially disastrous leadership review vote set to occur at that party meeting. Pretenders to the throne, especially former Treasurer Jim Dinning, have been anxious to get Klein out for years now, and the sentiments boiled over in a recent article in the Western Standard. In that piece an unnamed Klein friend said that the Premier's wife was the one holding him back from quitting because after he left she'd be "just another Indian."
The Klein years will be remembered as good ones for Alberta, but from a conservative perspective it's hard to find much to highlight in his record after his first term in office, in which he slashed spending and cut taxes.
The years after (approx. 1997-2007) will be remembered as coasting years during which social spending skyrocketed due to the vast oil revenues rolling into the Alberta treasury. I'll admit that Klein is a great politician whose folksy manner was a hit with Alberta. But the Premier has not acted conservatively -- aside from the recent healthcare announcement -- for close to a decade.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:23 PM
