Don Getty

Donald Ross "Don" Getty, OC AOE (born August 30, 1933) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 11th Premier of Alberta between 1985 and 1992. A member of the Progressive Conservatives, he served as Energy Minister and Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister in the government of Peter Lougheed before leaving politics for the private sector in 1979. He returned to politics six years later to contest the leadership contest resulting from Lougheed's retirement. He defeated two other candidates, and became Premier November 1, 1985.

As Premier, Getty was faced with an economic slowdown and falling energy prices, which hit Alberta's petroleum-dominated economy hard. Faced with mounting government deficits and increasing unemployment, he cut social spending and intervened with government money to prevent businesses from failing. Several of these interventions backfired in high profile fashion, failing at their intended objective and costing scarce public funds as well. While some analysts argue that Getty's fiscal program laid the groundwork for Ralph Klein's later balancing of the provincial budget, on Getty's departure from office the government's debt had reached $11 billion, setting the stage for his successor to characterize the Getty years as an era of wasteful and excessive spending.

Premier of Alberta

The Premier of Alberta is the first minister for the Canadian province of Alberta. He or she is the province's head of government. The current Premier of Alberta is Rachel Notley, who was sworn in on May 24, 2015.

The Premier of the province deals with specific areas relating to Alberta and Alberta's relation on the national scene. The Premier acts as a representative for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) are in turn the representatives of the people of Alberta.

Duties and functions

To be effective, accountable and in line with custom, the premier does hold a seat in the Legislature, so the Premier serves as the MLA for a riding, and is elected as the MLA by the constituents of that constituency. As with most government leaders in a parliamentary system, the Premier usually wins his or her own election as MLA easily. However, on occasion, a Premier has not been re-elected to his seat in a general election, forcing him to run in a by-election in a constituency that comes empty by the resignation of the sitting MLA or other incident. The most recent case of this was Don Getty, who lost his Edmonton-Whitemud seat in the 1989 election and then ran and was elected in a by-election in Drumheller-Stettler. In 2014 Jim Prentice was elected party leader without holding a seat in the Legislative Assembly, thus becoming premier, and won a Calgary-Foothills by-election in order to gain a seat in the Assembly.

Dirty Projectors

Dirty Projectors are an American musical group, consisting of David Longstreth (vocals, guitar), Amber Coffman (vocals, guitar), Haley Dekle (vocals), Nat Baldwin (bass), Olga Bell (vocals, keyboards), and Michael Johnson (drums). They have released seven full-length albums.

History

Early years and Rise Above (2002–07)

Longstreth's first album, The Graceful Fallen Mango, was released in 2002 under his own name and introduced his distinctive use of song arrangements and his combination of lo-fi and hi-fi production. The album was a project that Longstreth began as a freshman while studying at Yale University. With the help of Adam Forkner of Yume Bitsu, Longstreth recorded and released The Glad Fact on the Western Vinyl label under the name "The Dirty Projectors." In 2005, the band released The Getty Address, a concept album about musician Don Henley that features extensive orchestral and choral accompaniment. The diverse, stripped-down New Attitude EP followed in 2006 and featured inklings of the band's later vocal interplay and guitar work.