Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
name	Ralph Phillip Klein
order	12th
office	Premier of Alberta
term start	December 14, 1992
term end	December 14, 2006
predecessor	Don Getty
successor	Ed Stelmach
office1	Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Calgary Elbow
term start1	March 20, 1989
term end1	January 15, 2007
predecessor1	David John Russell
successor1	Craig Cheffins
office2	Alberta Minister of Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs
term start2	June 1993
term end2	September 15, 1994
predecessor2	Peter Elzinga
successor2	Ken Rostad
office3	Alberta Minister of the Environment
term start3	March 1989
term end3	December 14, 1992
predecessor3	Ian Reid
successor3	Brian Evans
office4	32nd Mayor of Calgary
term start4	October 27, 1980
term end4	March 21, 1989
predecessor4	Ross Patterson Alger
successor4	Donald Adam Hartman
birth date	November 01, 1942
birth place	Calgary, Alberta
party	Liberal PartyProgressive Conservative
spouse	Hilda Hepner (divorced), Colleen Klein
children	One with Colleen, two step children by Colleen, two children with Hilda Hepner
profession	Journalist
alma mater	Athabasca University
signature	Ralph Klein Signature2.svg

Ralph Phillip Klein, AOE (born November 1, 1942) served as the 12th Premier of Alberta. He served as leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives from 1992 until his retirement in 2006. His tenure as premier ended when the Alberta Progressive Conservatives' new leader, Ed Stelmach, assumed office December 14, 2006, exactly fourteen years after Klein first became Premier. His nickname is "King Ralph", which is a reference both to his political longevity and his perceived autocratic style of leadership.

Early years

Klein was born in Calgary to Phillip Andrew Klein (born 1917) and Florence Harper (1924–2004). His parents separated when he was 6 and he lived with his maternal grandparents in the city's northend. Remarried twice, Gray died in 2004. Klein grew up in a working class part of Calgary and dropped out of high school. He joined the RCAF reserves. Completing high school later in life, Klein attended Calgary Business College, and later served as president of that institution. He later studied at Athabasca University. He was public relations official at Red Cross and United Way's offices in Calgary from 1963 to 1969. From 1969 to 1980 he was a television reporter.

Mayor of Calgary

Klein rose to public prominence in Calgary as a radio and television personality. He was the Senior Civic Affairs reporter with CFCN-TV and CFCN radio. Klein gained his first political experience when he was elected mayor of Calgary, Alberta, on October 15, 1980. While he was mayor, the city was enjoying an economic boom, attracting many unskilled labourers from all over the country. Klein gained unfavourable national attention by blaming eastern "bums and creeps" for straining the city's social services and police. Calgary hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics during his tenure as mayor. Prior to entering provincial politics, Klein considered himself a Liberal Party supporter, although he did support the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Brian Mulroney in the 1988 federal election.

Entry into provincial politics

Klein made the transition from municipal to provincial politics, becoming a member of the legislative assembly for the riding of Calgary Elbow in the 1989 general election. He was named the minister of environment in Don Getty's government. Klein retained the style "the Honourable" for the duration of his membership in the Executive Council of Alberta).

Offensive gesture

Klein made national headlines again as environment minister when he flipped off an environmental activist who was protesting the government's decision to allow the Alberta Pacific Forest Industries Inc. (Al-Pac) pulp mill to be constructed near Athabasca. Klein defended his actions by noting that it was the protester who made the offensive gesture first.

A supporter of Klein's later purchased the rights to the only still photograph taken of Klein with his middle finger raised, presumably to prevent his opponents from being able to legally publish or display it.

Premier

Getty resigned as Premier and party leader, as polls showed the opposition Liberals well ahead. Under former Edmonton mayor Laurence Decore, the Liberals had made major gains by criticizing the Conservatives' fiscal responsibility, the province's rapidly rising debt, and the government's involvement in the private sector which resulted in some companies defaulting on government loans. Klein campaigned for the leadership in part by making arguments similar to Decore's. He favoured a near-immediate balancing of the provincial budget and rapid debt repayment thereafter, and declared his government "out of the business of business". Klein was elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party on December 5, 1992, and became the Premier of Alberta on December 14, 1992. He led the party to victory in the 1993 election, winning 51 of the 83 seats in the legislature, and almost 45% of the popular vote.

He was re-elected in 1997, this time with 51% of the popular vote and winning 63 of the 83 seats in the legislature. He got his highest amount of support ever in the 2001 election, winning 62% of the popular vote and 74 of the 83 seats.

His government took a knife to funding for arts and health programs, going so far as to demolish hospitals, laying off thousands of nurses, and selling off the provincial public telephone company, AGT to private interests who renamed it Telus. Klein's social and environmental views were seen by opponents as uncaring. Supporters argued in response that Klein was merely choosing appropriate priorities for limited government funding.

Klein was opposed to the Kyoto Accord, since Alberta was a major producer of oil and natural gas, and he felt that environmental measures would hurt the economy. The successive government initiated a massive carbon-capture project.

In 2003, mad cow disease was discovered in a cow in Alberta. The cow was inspected, found to be substandard and removed so that it would not be fed to animals or humans. The carcass was turned to oils and the head sent to the United Kingdom where the case of mad cow was confirmed. Klein said, "I guess any self-respecting rancher would have shot, shovelled and shut up, but he didn't do that," referring to the farmer in northern Alberta whose animal was found to have the disease when it was taken to a slaughterhouse. Exports of Canadian beef cattle had already been stopped at the U.S. border, with other countries already following suit. Alberta ranchers were selling beef for as low as one dollar per pound in Calgary. In July 2003, Klein offered to pay $10 billion to any Japanese citizen who came to Canada and became ill due to beef traced back to mad cow. Japan had been a key stumbling block to getting the U.S. border reopened because it made clear it might rethink taking U.S. beef if it had Canadian beef mixed in with it. Klein called on the federal government of Canada for support, citing the response to the Toronto SARS crisis in previous months. Federal assistance did subsequently arrive.

In late June 2003, Klein and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, widely reported to be friends, met to discuss the beef ban and the route of an Alaskan oil pipeline, which Klein vehemently argued had to be integrated with the extensive Alberta pipeline system. This was popular with Cheney and other advocates of North American energy independence in the oil industry.

At the 2004 Calgary Stampede, Klein announced that the province had set aside the necessary funds to repay its public debt in 2005. The debt stood at about C$23 billion when Klein took office, and its repayment was one of the most significant long-term goals of Klein's premiership. Klein was re-elected for a fourth term in the 2004 provincial election held on November 22, 2004 with a reduced majority, as he only won 47% of the vote, and only 62 out of the 83 ridings.

In June 2003, an Ontario Superior Court Charter ruling removed federal restrictions on same-sex unions being recognized legally as marriage. This being very unpopular in Alberta, Klein repeated a promise to use the Notwithstanding Clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to veto any requirement that the province register same-sex marriages. Contrary to many media reports which annoyed Klein, this was a position of the Alberta legislature itself, passed five years earlier, and not a new position of his own. In December 2004, Klein called for a national referendum on the issue of same-sex marriage. This plan was quickly rejected by the government of Paul Martin and by federal Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper.

Following the federal Parliament's approval of same-sex marriage in 2005 via Bill C-38, Klein announced initially that his government would fight the distribution of same-sex marriage licences. However, he later recanted, stating publicly that there was no legal route to oppose the federal act (neither via the notwithstanding clause nor the province's power over civil marriage), and the government reluctantly acknowledged the marriages.

In September 2005, Klein announced that each Albertan resident would qualify for a Prosperity Bonus as a result of an oil-driven budget surplus.

Controversies

One comment Klein made on the radio, that a particular judge should be "very, very quickly fired," was brought before the Supreme Court of Canada in the ''Provincial Judges Reference'' (1997) for raising concerns about judicial independence. The court merely said the comment was "unfortunate."

In the late 1980s Klein was photographed in a Calgary bar drinking with two members of the Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club, later to be patched over to the Hells Angels. Years later, this photo was used against him by the Hells Angels when he objected to them patching over two motorcycle clubs in Alberta in 1997.

An alcoholic, Klein, under the influence, in the company of his entourage, once verbally abused homeless people, and threw change at them at an Edmonton-area shelter. After the incident, Klein pledged to either severely curb or stop drinking, and did not acknowledge having another drink for the balance of his premiership. Klein resisted calls to acknowledge his drinking problem as alcoholism.

In February 2006, the ''Western Standard'' magazine came under fire for printing comments about Klein's wife Colleen Klein, who is Métis. A column by Ric Dolphin, arguing that Colleen Klein has too much influence over her husband, quoted an unnamed source who said "Once she stops being the premier's wife, she goes back to being just another Indian."

Reacting to comments made in March 2006 by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty opposing any two-tiered health care system in Ontario that Klein has proposed in Alberta which would allow quicker access to surgery for those who pay, Klein stated "I'm no doctor, but I think that Mr. McGuinty's got a case of premature speculation".

On March 1, 2006, Klein got into trouble for exclaiming "I don't need this crap" and throwing the Liberal health care policy book at a page during question period in the Alberta legislature. The same booklet later sold on eBay for a reported $1,400, signed by Alberta's Liberal Leader Kevin Taft, with the caption, "Policy on the fly". Earlier in the question period he also had to apologize for calling Liberal leader Kevin Taft a liar on the floor of the legislature, which is considered unparliamentary language. His apology consisted of saying, "Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I won't use the word 'fib.' I'll say that he doesn't tell the whole truth all the time - most of the time."

During a charity roast on November 9, 2006 Klein made a lewd joke at the expense of former Conservative Member of Parliament Belinda Stronach: "Belinda roasted me as a Conservative, but of course now she's a Liberal.. and I wasn't surprised that she crossed over; I don't think she ever did have a Conservative bone in her body.. well, except for one." (Referring to Peter MacKay, her former boyfriend, who is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.) Klein refused to apologize for the remark stating that "a roast is a roast is a roast is a roast", while his spokesman pointed out that "Ms. Stronach roasted the premier two years ago and made remarks about his weight, his clothing and even his flatulence".

In a July 9, 2007 interview on Business News Network, Klein criticized PM Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty for their mishandling of the Income Trust issue and for not keeping their word on Income Trust taxation. According to the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors the change in tax rules cost investors $35 billion dollars in market value.

Leadership review and retirement

Prior to the 2004 election, Klein had stated his intention to serve only one more term in office. Pressure mounted on Klein to set a firm date and, following such a request from party executive director Peter Elzinga, Klein announced on March 14, 2006, that he will be tendering his resignation on October 31, 2007. He subsequently stated that his resignation would take effect in early 2008 after a successor is chosen at the party's leadership election.

Klein announced his timetable days before party delegates were to vote in a review of his leadership on March 31, 2006. The drawn-out schedule for his retirement, along with his announcement that any cabinet minister who wished to run for leader must resign by June 2006, generated a large degree of controversy, including criticism from cabinet minister Lyle Oberg who was subsequently fired from cabinet and suspended from caucus.

When the leadership review ballot was held, Klein won the support of only 55% of delegates, down from the 90% level of support he had won at previous reviews and far lower than the 75% Klein felt he needed in order to continue. The result was described as a "crushing blow" to Klein's leadership.

In the weeks prior to the vote, Klein had said he would resign immediately if he did not win the leadership review by a "substantial" margin. In the hours following the vote, Klein released a statement thanking delegates for their support and saying he would take several days to consider his future.

"Given the results of this vote, I intend to meet with party officials and my staff to discuss my next step," he said. "I will do this as quickly as possible and announce a decision about my future shortly.

At a press conference on April 4, 2006, Klein announced that as a result of the lukewarm vote for his continued leadership he would submit a letter in September to Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party urging them to convene a leadership contest. Klein said he would resign as party leader and Premier after a successor was named, and would assist the new leader in their transition to Premier.

Klein officially handed in his resignation as party leader on September 20, 2006, officially kicking off the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party leadership race. However, Klein remained premier until the new PC Leader, Ed Stelmach, assumed office on December 14, 2006. He resigned his seat in the legislature on January 15, 2007.

Later life

On January 18, 2007, the law firm Borden Ladner Gervais announced that Klein, who is not a lawyer, would join their firm as a senior business adviser who would bring "valuable insights to our clients as they look to do business in Alberta, in Canada, and in North America".

In a July 9, 2007, interview on Business News Network, Klein criticized Conservative PM Stephen Harper and Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty for their mishandling of the Income Trust issue and for not keeping their word on Income Trust taxation. According to the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors the change in tax rules cost investors $35 billion dollars in market value. Stephen Harper specifically promised "not to raid seniors' nest eggs" during the 2006 federal election.

On March 27, 2008, Klein was created an Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honour by the Government of France. The creation had been approved by the Government of Canada on November 24, 2007.

On March 20, 2010, Klein appeared on his own television game show called ''On the Clock'' on the Crossroads Television System network, which is available across Alberta and Ontario on cable and nationwide via satellite. Klein, shown perched on a golden throne, evaluates the responses and awards "Ralph Bucks" to the contestants whose answers he found the best. The person who has the most Ralph Bucks at the end of the game is declared the winner.

On December 15, 2010, it was reported that Klein is suffering from COPD, a lung disease. His long-time friend Hal Walker commented that Klein is "not well."

On April 8, 2011, it was reported that Klein is suffering from Pick's disease, a form of progressive dementia.

Honours

Klein holds the Order of La Pléiade from the Assembly of La Francophonie.

He received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005 and was appointed to the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2010.

Klein was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor by France in 2008.

Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from University of Calgary in 2011

See also

List of Alberta premiers

Wikinews:Alberta premier Ralph Klein joke outrages Liberal MP Belinda Stronach

References

Bibliography

External links

CBC Article on Western Standard Controversy

"The loose tongue of Ralph Klein" - Quotes by Ralph Klein

Category:1942 births Category:Leaders of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta Category:Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Category:Premiers of Alberta Category:Living people Category:Mayors of Calgary Category:Members of the Alberta Order of Excellence Category:People with dementia Category:Athabasca University alumni Category:Officiers of the Légion d'honneur

pdc:Ralph Klein de:Ralph Klein (Politiker) es:Ralph Klein eo:Ralph Klein fr:Ralph Klein nl:Ralph Klein (politicus) ru:Клейн, Ральф uk:Ральф Кляйн

Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
honorific-prefix	The Honourable
name	Belinda Caroline Stronach
honorific-suffix	PC
riding	Newmarket—Aurora
parliament	Canadian
term start	2004
term end	2008
predecessor	''New riding''
successor	Lois Brown
birth date	May 02, 1966
birth place	Newmarket, Ontario
party	Liberal (2005-present)
otherparty	Conservative (2004-2005)
spouse	Donald J. Walker (div.)Johann Olav Koss (div.)
residence	Aurora
profession	Executive Vice-Chairman, Magna International
footnotes	}}

Belinda Caroline Stronach, PC (born May 2, 1966) is a Canadian businessperson, philanthropist and former politician. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Canadian House of Commons from 2004 to 2008. Originally elected as a Conservative, she later crossed the floor to join the Liberals. From May 17, 2005 to February 6, 2006, she was the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal in the government of Paul Martin. According to Canadian protocol, as a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, she is styled The Honourable Belinda Stronach. After leaving politics, she served executive vice-chairman of Magna International, Canada's largest automobile parts manufacturer until December 31, 2010, and chair of The Belinda Stronach Foundation, a charitable organization.

Background

Stronach was born in Newmarket, Ontario, the daughter of Magna International founder and chairman Frank Stronach and the former president and chief executive officer of the company. She graduated from Newmarket High School and attended York University in 1985, where she studied business and economics, but dropped out after one year to work at Magna. She speaks English and German fluently.

Business and public life

Stronach was a member of the board of directors of Magna from 1988 until 2004. She became a vice-president of the company in 1995 and executive vice-president in 1999, until her appointment as president and chief executive officer. She has chaired the boards of Decoma International Inc., Tesma International Inc., and Intier Automotive Inc., all in the auto parts sector. She was a founding member of the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council and served on the Ontario Task Force on Productivity, Competitiveness and Economic Progress. She is a director of the Yves Landry Foundation, which furthers technological education and skills training in the manufacturing sector.

In February 2001, she was appointed chief executive officer of Magna, succeeding Donald J. Walker (who became CEO of Magna spinoff Intier Automotive Inc.), and in January 2002, she also became its president. While CEO, the company added 3,000 jobs in Canada, 1,000 of them being in the Newmarket-Aurora area she would later represent in Parliament. Under her leadership Magna had record sales and profits each year. Though he held no formal operational role during that time, Frank Stronach remained as Chairman of the Board.

As a CEO, Stronach was widely viewed as more conciliatory to organized labour than her father, who was noted for his strong opposition to unions at Magna. While head of Magna, she ceased fighting the United Auto Workers in a dispute before the National Labor Relations Board, and the union organized numerous Magna workers in the United States.

Philanthropy and honours

In 2001, the ''National Post'' named Stronach as the most powerful businesswoman in Canada. In the same year, the World Economic Forum named her a "Global Leader of Tomorrow". ''Fortune Magazine'' ranked her #2 in its list of the world's most powerful women in business in 2002. She was also named one of Canada's "Top 40 Under 40". In April 2004, ''Time Magazine'' ranked her as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Stronach is honorary chair of the Southlake Regional Health Centre fundraising campaign and a former honorary chair of the Howdown fundraising campaign. In 2003, she received one of Canada's oldest and most distinguished awards, the Beth Shalom Humanitarian Award, presented in recognition of outstanding achievement in humanitarian service.

On November 9, 2006 she co-chaired the Millennium Promise Convention in Montreal with Canadian television personality Rick Mercer. This event was a national campaign to enlist Canadians to help protect children in Africa from the ravages of malaria. Together, Stronach and Mercer co-founded Spread the Net, a grassroots organization that raises money to buy insecticide-treated bed nets for families in Africa, reducing the risk of acquiring malaria by mosquito bite. For her efforts, Stronach received an honorary degree from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario in 2009.

Personal life

Stronach is twice divorced; her first husband was current Magna CEO Donald J. Walker and her second was Norwegian speed skating legend Johann Olav Koss. She has two children from her first marriage, Frank and Nikki.

Cancer diagnosis

On June 23, 2007, the ''Toronto Star'' reported that Stronach had been diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, a form of breast cancer, in April 2007, and had undergone a mastectomy on June 19 in an undisclosed Toronto hospital.

According to a September 14, 2007 article from CTV News, Stronach travelled to the United States for breast cancer surgery in June 2007. According to the article, Stronach's spokesperson Greg MacEachern said that the hospital in the United States was the best place to have this type of surgery done. The article also says that Stronach paid for the surgery out of her own pocket. Stronach raised over a million dollars in funds for the Belinda Stronach Chair in Breast Cancer Reconstructive Surgery, at the University of Toronto, following her own breast surgery.

Political career

Early political career

In the 2000 Canadian Alliance leadership election, she supported Preston Manning. In his memoir ''Think Big'', Manning recalls Stronach at his second-ballot campaign launch in Toronto delivering "a substantive introduction in which she clearly explained why she wanted the Alliance and my candidacy to succeed", and he later thanked her for "unflagging support" in that campaign.

Conservative leadership bid

Throughout the summer and into the fall of 2003, talks were undertaken by officials of the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance with respect to a merger of those parties. Vote-splitting between the two right-wing parties had enabled the Liberals to dominate Canadian politics for a decade. Meetings between the parties were overseen by a facilitator, who was later revealed to have been Stronach. She was among many who had called for PC leader Peter MacKay and Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper to undertake the merger talks in the first place.

In 2004, Stronach contested the leadership of the newly formed Conservative Party. As a candidate for leadership of the new party, she drew a great deal of publicity to the race. However, many in the media saw her first foray into politics as sophomoric. Some critics accused her of being a "manufactured candidate", dependent on a high-priced network of professional campaign staff and Magna associates.

Some of the media reaction to Stronach's candidacy was criticized. Casting Stronach as an "heiress" with a "coddled career" — to the point of joking comparisons to Paris Hilton — and the attention paid to her physical appearance and personal life, was described by a commentator as patronizing and sexist. The Canadian media, though generally considered to exercise much greater reserve and discretion about the private lives of public figures than the media of other countries, paid considerable attention to rumours and innuendo about Stronach's personal life.

Supporters touted her youth and style, corporate experience, private life as a "soccer mom", and her potential to win new and swing voters, especially moderate, socially progressive voters in the province of Ontario.

On February 11, 2004, she declined to participate in a debate between the Conservative party candidates, leaving Tony Clement and Stephen Harper to debate each other on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast. She later also skipped a March 14 debate on the Global Television Network. She argued that she ought only to participate in party-sponsored debates, rather than picking and choosing among those organized by outside sponsors. Critics saw this as her way of avoiding a debate with the other two candidates.

In her major speech at the leadership convention on March 19, 2004, she promised to serve only two terms if she became Prime Minister, and to draw no salary. She made a major gesture of "throwing away the script", but then undercut this when she was seen referring to cue cards. On March 20, 2004, she finished second to Harper with 35% of the vote.

In the 2004 federal election, she was narrowly elected as the MP for Newmarket—Aurora by a margin of 689 votes over Liberal Martha Hall Findlay. She was appointed the International Trade critic in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet.

Political positions as an MP

Before crossing the floor of the House of Commons, Stronach represented the socially liberal face of the Conservative Party. Along with Peter MacKay, she was seen as giving the Conservatives a more progressive image.

Stronach was generally to the left of her Conservative caucus colleagues, supporting abortion rights, gun control and same-sex marriage. During her Conservative leadership campaign, she called for a free vote in parliament, with votes cast individually and not along party lines, on same-sex marriage. She spoke and voted in favour of same-sex marriage when the issue came to the House of Commons in 2005; a position she re-affirmed as a Liberal in 2006. Social conservative elements in Canada were critical of Stronach, calling her a "Red Tory". During Stronach's leadership campaign, REAL Women of Canada said: "If Ms. Stronach is elected as leader of the Conservative Party, social conservatives will no longer have a voice in Canada." Stronach, for her part, promised after the leadership race that she would do her best to keep the party from moving too far to the right. She cited discomfort with Stephen Harper and the Conservatives policies as one of her reasons for crossing the floor.

Stronach supported trade with the United States but said she would like to re-examine and review parts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to ensure, in her view, that Canadians can stand on a more equal footing with U.S. competitors. During her leadership campaign she said the country needed to consider changes to the Medicare system that would respect the principles of the Canada Health Act "as our standard, not our straitjacket".

Crossing the floor

In May 2005, Stronach suggested publicly that forcing an early election, especially before passing that year's federal budget, was risky and could backfire on the Tories. Harper wanted to force an early election in the wake of testimony at the Gomery Commission damaging to the Liberals. The Tories planned to bring down the government by voting against an amendment to the budget that the Liberals had made to gain New Democratic Party (NDP) support. Since this would be a loss of supply, it would have brought down the government.

However, on May 17, 2005, two days before the crucial vote, Stronach announced that she was crossing the floor and joining the Liberal Party. Her decision to join the Liberals was facilitated by former Ontario Liberal Premier David Peterson. Stronach immediately joined the cabinet as minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and minister responsible for Democratic Renewal. In the latter portfolio, she was charged with overseeing the implementation of the Gomery Inquiry recommendations, upon their release.

Her decision to quit the Conservative Party came after an uneasy relationship with Stephen Harper. In a press conference after leaving the party, she said that Harper was not sensitive to the needs of all parts of the country, and was jeopardizing national unity by allying himself with the Bloc Québécois to bring down the government. She also stated that the party was too focused on Western Canada and "Western alienation" instead of having a broader and more inclusive focus. Her disdain for Harper was obvious in her press conference with Martin; she never once referred to him by name, only as "the leader of the Conservative Party."

Stronach's move shifted the balance of power in Parliament and allowed Martin's Liberal minority government to survive for the time being. On May 19, 2005, two crucial confidence motions were voted on in the House of Commons. The first vote, on Bill C-43, the original budget proposal approved by all parties, was passed as expected, with 250 for and 54 against. The second vote was on a new budget amendment (Bill C-48) that included C$4.6 billion in additional spending the Liberals negotiated with NDP leader Jack Layton, to secure the support of NDP MPs. It was on this amendment that the Conservative/Bloc alliance planned to bring down the government. However, the vote resulted in a 152-152 tie. It then fell to the Speaker, Peter Milliken, to cast the deciding vote, which he cast in favour of continuing debate, resulting in the survival of the government. The vote carried with a final count of 153 for and 152 against.

The Liberals used Stronach's defection to paint the Conservative Party as being too extreme for moderate voters in Ontario. The Liberals enjoyed a modest upswing in the polls after earlier being damaged by testimony from Gomery Commission. Some political pundits suggested that shortly after Stronach's defection would have been the ideal time for the Liberals to call the election, as Stephen Harper had lost some of his momentum after narrowly failing to bring down the government. Instead, the Liberals were forced into an election when they were brought down by a vote of non-confidence later that year, after revelations from the Gomery Inquiry damaged their popularity. Columnist Andrew Coyne suggested that while her defection helped the Liberals in the short-run to stay in power, it also made Martin appear as a "grasping conniver willing to do and say anything to hang onto power".

Reaction to Stronach's move

Stronach's party switch mere days before the confidence vote made her the target of criticism within the Conservative Party and in the media in general. Many were cynical about her reasons for leaving and believed that her move to the Liberals was motivated more by ambition than by moral or political principles. In a press conference following the announcement, Harper speculated that Stronach had left the party simply to further her own career. At the same time, others praised Stronach for having the courage to leave a party in which she no longer felt comfortable.

Considerable media attention was paid to Peter MacKay, MP, and the deputy leader of the Conservative Party, with whom Stronach had a relationship of several months. Interviewed the day after Stronach's departure from his party, he stated that he had learned of her intention to cross the floor mere hours before the public announcement. In an interview conducted at his father's farm, MacKay showed discernible emotion.

The day after Stronach crossed the floor, the reaction in Newmarket—Aurora was mixed. Some of her constituents were upset and expressed a sense of betrayal. Protesters picketed her riding office for several days, demanding a by-election. However some of her constituents supported her move because they did not want an election and supported the budget.

Stronach's move to the Liberal Party and the speed with which she was given a senior-level cabinet position renewed calls from both parliamentarians and the general public for legislation to prevent such "party-hopping." One month after Stronach crossed the floor, a private member's bill was tabled that would require a by-election to be held within thirty-five days of a member of parliament quitting a party. According to this proposed legislation, the MP would have to sit as an independent until the by-election. The legislation never became law.

NDP MP Pat Martin requested an investigation of Stronach, speculating that she had been promised a senior cabinet post in return for her defection. The Ethics Commissioner of Canada, Dr. Bernard Shapiro, refused to investigate her floor-crossing, citing that it was a constitutional right of a Prime Minister to appoint opposition members to Cabinet.

The Conservatives targeted Stronach for defeat in the 2006 election as part of their larger goal of a breakthrough in Ontario, especially in the Toronto suburbs (popularly known as the 905s). However, while the Conservatives won a minority government, Stronach defeated her Conservative challenger, Lois Brown, by an eight-point margin.

Characterization in the media

Some of the criticism of Stronach's party switching also came under fire. Political scientist Linda Trimble has argued that the reaction to Stronach's defection to the Liberals was "offensive and sexist", referring to the comments of two provincial legislature members PC MPP Bob Runciman and Alberta PC Tony Abbott. Runciman told the Toronto radio station CFRB that, "She sort of defined herself as something of a dipstick, an attractive one, but still a dipstick." He apologized for his comments and later elaborated, saying that Stronach failed to adequately express her reasons for defecting from the Conservative Party. Abbott said that Stronach had "whored herself out for power." He apologized for the statement the next day saying that the term "whoring" had been misunderstood from context, and noting that it could be equally used for men and women.

Women's groups argued that the media also unfairly characterized the transition. The ''National Post'' used the front page headline "Blonde Bombshell", and political cartoonists made reference to Stronach prostituting herself to the Liberal party. Stronach's critics downplayed the sexism of their remarks and accused the Liberals of politicizing the issue in order to legitimize her crossing the floor.

She had defeated Lois Brown in the Conservative nomination election and barely won her seat in an extremely tight race against Martha Hall Findlay. Stronach's switch to the Liberals meant that Hall Findlay had to forfeit contesting the nomination process, while Lucienne Robillard lost one of her portfolios to Stronach.

Since she started her career in politics, Stronach has made several television appearances poking fun at herself. This includes appearances on the CBC television comedy ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes'' and a skate on the Rideau Canal with Rick Mercer for his series ''Rick Mercer Report''. She also played a political reporter in the television mini-series ''H2O:The Last Prime Minister''. In November 2005 she appeared on an episode of ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes''. At one point in the show, she remarked "You know, I recommended to Stephen [Harper] once that to rise in his polls he should take a little Viagra but the pill got stuck in his throat and all he got was a stiff neck."

As a Liberal MP

Although the Liberals lost the 2006 federal election, Stronach won re-election as a Liberal candidate by a greater margin than she had in the 2004 election as a Conservative.

Following the Liberal's defeat in the 2006 election, Paul Martin announced that he would be stepping down as party leader. It was widely speculated that Stronach would seek the Liberal leadership at the 2006 leadership convention, having been endorsed by such Liberals as Reg Alcock and Brigitte Legault, who heads the Quebec party's youth wing.

However, on April 6, 2006, she announced that she would not seek the leadership, citing her objections to the delegate-based selection process. "I could have raised the money, I was working on my French, but I realized that I was not going to be free to speak my mind on party renewal", said Stronach. She said that renewal would involve giving all party members a direct vote on its direction and leadership, among other things. "If there was a one-member, one-vote system, I would run." However, a report by CTV reporter Robert Fife suggested that her candidacy was hampered by her weak grasp of French, one of Canada's two official languages, and the fact that she believed the Liberals would be defeated in the next election. Several Liberal Party officials had also warned that they would enforce the new rules, which placed limits on donations and spendings by contenders, which would have nullified Stronach's largest advantage over other potential rivals.

Not seeking re-election

On April 11, 2007, Stronach announced that she would not seek re-election, and would instead return to Magna International as Executive Vice-Chairman. This decision came at a time when Magna was in the midst of teaming up with Onex Corporation to consider a bid to buy Chrysler. Stronach further cited her wish to spend more time with her growing children, and the creation of a personal foundation to end poverty and disease in Africa. She retained her seat in Parliament until the federal election in the fall of 2008.

On December 21, 2010, it was reported that Stronach was leaving Magna effective December 31 of that year.

References

External links

Category:1966 births Category:Businesspeople from Ontario Category:Canadian vegans Category:Canadian people of Austrian descent Category:Conservative Party of Canada MPs Category:Liberal Party of Canada MPs Category:Members of the Canadian House of Commons from Ontario Category:Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada Category:People from Newmarket, Ontario Category:Living people Category:Canadian women Members of Parliament Category:Women in Ontario politics Category:Canadian women in business

de:Belinda Stronach fr:Belinda Stronach

Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
honorific-prefix	The Honourable
name	Ed Stelmach
honorific-suffix	MLA
order	13th
office	Premier of Alberta
term start	December 14, 2006
lieutenant governor	Norman KwongDonald Ethell
predecessor	Ralph Klein
office2	Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville
term start2	November 22, 2004
predecessor2	New district
office3	Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Vegreville-Viking
term start3	June 15, 1993
term end3	November 22, 2004
predecessor3	New district
successor3	District abolished
office4	Alberta Minister of Intergovernmental Relations
term start4	November 25, 2004
term end4	March 23, 2006
predecessor4	Halvar Jonson
successor4	Gary Mar
office5	Alberta Minister of Transportation
term start5	March 16, 2001
term end5	November 25, 2004
predecessor5	New portfolio1
successor5	Lyle Oberg
office6	Alberta Minister of Infrastructure
term start6	May 26, 1999
term end6	March 16, 2001
predecessor6	New portfolio
successor6	Ty Lund2
office7	Alberta Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development
term start7	March 29, 1997
term end7	May 26, 1999
predecessor7	Walter Paszkowski
successor7	Ty Lund
office8	Reeve of Lamont County, Alberta
term start8	1987
term end8	June 1993
predecessor8	Joe Hrycyk
successor8	Mae Adamyk
office9	Municipal councillor in Lamont County, Alberta, Division 4
term start9	October 20, 1986
term end9	June 1993
predecessor9	Mike Kapicki
successor9	Hazel Anaka
birth date	May 11, 1951
birth place	Lamont, Alberta
party	Progressive Conservative
spouse	Marie Stelmach (née Warshawski)
children	Three sons, one daughter
religion	Ukrainian Greek Catholic
profession	Farmer
signature	Ed Stelmach Signature2.svg
footnotes	# Between 1999 and 2001, the Transportation portfolio was part of the Infrastructure portfolio, which was held by Stelmach. # In 2001, the Infrastructure portfolio was divided into Infrastructure—which was taken over by Lund—and Transportation, which Stelmach retained. }}

Edward Michael "Ed" Stelmach, MLA (; born May 11, 1951) is a Canadian politician and the 13th and current Premier of Alberta, Canada, having served in this capacity since December 14, 2006. The grandson of Ukrainian immigrants, Stelmach was born and raised on a farm near Lamont and speaks fluent Ukrainian. He spent his entire pre-political adult life as a farmer, except for some time spent studying at the University of Alberta. His first foray into politics was a 1986 municipal election, when he was elected to the county council of Lamont County. A year into his term, he was appointed reeve. He continued in this position until his entry into provincial politics.

In the 1993 provincial election, Stelmach was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Vegreville-Viking (later Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville). A Progressive Conservative, he served in the cabinets of Ralph Klein—at various times holding the portfolios of Intergovernmental Relations, Transportation, Infrastructure, and Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development—where he developed a reputation as a low-key politician who avoided the limelight. When Klein resigned the party's leadership in 2006, Stelmach was among the first to present his candidature to replace him. After a third place finish on the first ballot of the leadership race, he won an upset second ballot victory over former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning.

Stelmach's premiership has been heavily focused on management of the province's oil reserves, especially those of the Athabasca Oil Sands. He has rejected calls from environmentalists to slow the pace of development in the Fort McMurray area, and has similarly opposed calls for carbon taxes or other measures designed to discourage oil consumption. Other policy initiatives have included commencing an overhaul of the province's health governance system, amendments to the Alberta human rights code, a re-introduction of all-party committees to the Legislature, and the conclusion of a major labour agreement with Alberta's teachers. His government has also attracted controversy for awarding itself a 30% pay increase shortly after its re-election, and has enjoyed strained relations with Calgary, one of Klein's former strongholds. Despite this, Stelmach increased the Progressive Conservatives' already substantial majority in the 2008 election. With the advent of the late-2000s recession, Stelmach has had to cope with a deteriorating economic situation and the Alberta government's first budget deficit in 16 years.

Background

Edward Michael Stelmach was born on a farm near Lamont, Alberta, the grandson of immigrants from Zavyche, Ukraine. His grandparents settled near Andrew, Alberta in 1898, after bypassing Saskatchewan because they did not care for the terrain. His parents, Nancy and Michael Stelmach, had five children, of whom Edward was the youngest, ten years younger than his closest sibling. He was raised a Ukrainian Catholic, and continues to attend church regularly, sing in the church choir, and act as volunteer caretaker for the cemetery. Through high school, he worked as a well-digger and a Fuller Brush salesman, where he said his grasp of Ukrainian helped him make sales. After graduating high school—his grade 12 yearbook called him a future Prime Minister of Canada—he attended the University of Alberta, intending to become a lawyer. He continued there, working as an assistant manager at Woodward's, until 1973, when his oldest brother, Victor, died. While his family had intended for Victor to take over the farm that his grandparents had settled 75 years before, Stelmach dropped out of university, returned home, and bought the land from his parents. He continues to farm the land today.

As a teenager, he met Marie Warshawski at the wedding of a mutual friend. They married in 1973, and have three sons and a daughter.

Stelmach entered politics in 1986 with his election to the council of Lamont County; one year later, he was appointed county reeve, a position he held until his entry into provincial politics in 1993.

MLA and minister

Stelmach ran for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as a Progressive Conservative in the 1993 provincial election, defeating incumbent New Democrat Derek Fox in the riding of Vegreville-Viking. Stelmach became a member of the Deep Six, a group of enthusiastically fiscally conservative rookie MLAs; in addition to supporting Premier Ralph Klein's aggressive deficit-cutting, Stelmach practiced fiscal restraint himself, incurring low office expenses and declining a government vehicle. During his first term, Stelmach served as Deputy Whip and, later, Chief Government Whip for the P.C. caucus. As a backbencher, he sponsored the ''Lloydminster Hospital Act Repeal Act''. This was a government bill that dissolved the then-existing Lloydminster hospital board in preparation for an arrangement compliant with both the Alberta government's new system of regional health authorities and the Saskatchewan government's system. Lloydminster sits on the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the hospital, although built and operated by the Alberta government, sits on the Saskatchewan side. It passed the legislature with little debate. In 1996, shortly before an April by-election in Redwater, Stelmach was accused of "pork barrel politics" for presenting, along with colleague Peter Trynchy and P.C. candidate Ross Quinn, a large cheque to a local seniors centre. Stelmach said that he had only stepped in to help the riding after its MLA, Nicholas Taylor, had been appointed to the Senate.

After the 1997 provincial election, Klein appointed Stelmach Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural development. While he held this office, his department encouraged the establishment of feedlots. The opposition parties charged that the government was not regulating these sufficiently, but Stelmach responded that municipalities had the authority necessary to effectively regulate them. On the Canadian Wheat Board controversy, Stelmach sided with farmers who wanted an end to the federal body's monopoly on grain sales in the western provinces. Legislatively, Stelmach sponsored five bills while in the Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development portfolio, all of which passed through the legislature. 1997's ''Meat Inspection Amendment Act'' required meat inspectors to acquire a search warrant before entering a private dwelling, but also allowed for fines to be voluntarily paid without requiring a court case. It was called by Liberal agriculture critic Ken Nicol "a really good bill". The ''Livestock and Livestock Products Amendment Act'' of the same year eliminated government guarantee of the Livestock Patrons' Assurance Fund, designed to protect cattle producers from payment defaults by livestock dealers, in favour of leaving the Fund entirely in the hands of the industry. It too was supported by the Liberals, with Nicol calling it ''"very easy for us to accept"''. In 1998, Stelmach sponsored the ''Agriculture Statutes (Penalties) Amendment Act'', which overhauled the penalty system for violation of various agricultural statutes, setting maximum fines and leaving the precise amount up to judges on a case by case basis. It also passed with Liberal support, as MLA Ed Gibbons said that it ''"really makes a lot of sense"''. Another 1998 bill was the ''Marketing of Agricultural Products Amendment Act'', which allowed provincial agricultural marketing boards to revise their marketing plans, and was supported by the opposition. Finally, Stelmach initiated the ''Agriculture Statutes (Livestock Identification) Amendment Act'', which allowed the government to delegate the inspection of branding to the cattle industry. The bill was the subject of considerable debate on second reading, but was ultimately supported by the Liberals on the third and final reading.

In 1999, Klein shifted Stelmach to the new Infrastructure portfolio, where he made traffic safety a priority, increasing fines for traffic offenses, sometimes by as much as 700%. He also briefly aroused controversy by proposing reversing the slow and fast lanes on provincial highways, on the grounds that this would equalize the rate at which the lanes broke down and therefore save on maintenance costs; nothing came of the proposal. He established a fund for capital projects, but has been criticized for not doing enough to address the deterioration of the province's infrastructure. In 2001, Klein separated Transportation out of the Infrastructure portfolio and appointed Stelmach to it, where the new minister advocated the use of public-private partnerships to build ring roads around Edmonton and Calgary. He also introduced a program of graduated driver licensing and initiated a review of traffic safety programs. Stelmach was re-elected by his largest majority yet during the 2001 election, and retained the Transportation portfolio until 2004, when he was re-assigned to the position of Minister of Intergovernmental Relations. He resigned this position in 2006 in order to contest the P.C. leadership election (Klein had required that ministers intending to campaign to succeed him resign from cabinet).

As minister, Stelmach kept a low profile. Mark Lisac, who was the Edmonton Journal's provincial affairs columnist during much of Stelmach's time in cabinet, later recalled that Stelmach "never did anything that was flashy or controversial in any way" and that "not a thing" stood out about Stelmach's ministerial service. This low-key style earned Stelmach the moniker "Steady Eddie", which would follow him to the Premier's office.

2006 leadership election

Stelmach was the first candidate to declare his intention to run for the P.C. leadership, and picked up endorsements from nineteen members of his caucus (including cabinet ministers Pearl Calahasen and Iris Evans). However, former provincial Treasurer Jim Dinning had twice as many caucus endorsements (despite not having held elected office since 1997) and was generally considered the race's front-runner. Stelmach ran a low-profile campaign, touring the province in a custom-painted campaign bus, while most media attention was focussed on the rivalry between Dinning and the socially conservative Ted Morton.

According to the race's rules, the three candidates receiving the most votes on the first ballot would move on to a second ballot, which would use a preferential voting system to select a winner. Stelmach finished third on the first ballot with 15.3% of the vote, 3,329 votes ahead of fourth place Lyle Oberg and 10,647 votes behind second place Morton. However, the fourth, fifth, and sixth place candidates (Oberg, Dave Hancock, and Mark Norris) all endorsed Stelmach for the second ballot. On this ballot, he finished in first place on the first count, fewer than five hundred votes ahead of Dinning. A majority of Morton's votes went to Stelmach on the second count, and he was elected leader.

Financing

Stelmach raised more than $1.1 million for his leadership campaign. After his victory, he revealed the names of the donors of 85% of this money, but declined to release the names of eighty supporters, citing their requests for privacy. These supporters had donated a total of more than $160,000. Party rules did not require any disclosure, and the disclosures by candidates varied—Norris named all of his donors, while Morton did not reveal any. Stelmach's partial disclosure was deemed insufficient by opposition leaders and Democracy Watch, whose head suggested that Albertans should assume that Stelmach's anonymous donors placed him in a conflict of interest until he proved otherwise. Stelmach also acknowledged receiving a $10,000 donation from the Beaver Regional Waste Management Service's Commission, a landfill operator owned by five municipalities in Stelmach's riding. While asserting that the donation was legal, Stelmach admitted that it was "clearly unethical", blamed overzealous campaign volunteers for soliciting it, and returned it after the end of the campaign.

In the wake of the leadership campaign, Stelmach, along with Oberg, Hancock, and Norris, organized two $5,000 per plate dinners in January 2007 to pay campaign debts. After critics argued that the dinners were essentially selling access to the premier and two senior ministers, Stelmach cancelled them.

Premier

2008 election

Stelmach was sworn in as Premier December 14, 2006. On February 4, 2008, immediately after Lieutenant Governor Norman Kwong read the throne speech to open the legislative session, Stelmach requested a dissolution of the legislature with an election to follow March 3. Shortly before the writ was dropped, a group calling itself Albertans for Change began to buy print and television ads that attacked Stelmach for lacking a plan and portrayed him as unfit to lead the province. The group was funded by the Alberta Building Trades Council and the Alberta Federation of Labour, which led to a series of ads purchased by the National Citizens Coalition and Merit Contractors, in which it was accused of "putting your [union members'] money where [union leadership's] mouths are."

Despite a campaign that was called disorganized and uninspired, Stelmach's Progressive Conservatives won 72 seats in the 83-seat Legislative Assembly, an increase from the 62 that the party had won in the previous election and only two seats short of Ralph Klein's 2001 landslide. Political analysts attributed the party's win to its ability to present Stelmach as ''"a cautious, straightforward and hard-working man with a plan for Alberta's future"''.

The voter turnout in the election was 41%, the lowest in Alberta's history, and roughly a quarter of these had to swear an oath on election day after discovering they weren't on the voter's list. Opposition politicians and media blamed Stelmach's government for these problems, arguing that riding-level returning officers, who were nominated by Progressive Conservative constituency associations and who were responsible for voter enumeration, were not appointed early enough. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "about half" of the 83 returning officers in the 2008 election had ties to the P.C. Party; the returning officer in Stelmach's Fort Saskatchewan–Vegreville riding had donated between $500 and $1,000 to Stelmach's leadership campaign.

Alberta Chief Returning Officer Lorne Gibson, as one of his 182 post-election recommendations to the government, suggested that the appointment of returning officers be handled by his own, non-partisan, office. He had previously made this suggestion in 2006, but the government had not acted on it. He also recommended following the election that his office, rather than the government's Justice department, be responsible for prosecuting election-related offenses; the latter did not lay charges in any of 19 alleged campaign finance violations Gibson brought to its attention. In February 2009, Gibson appeared before the legislature's all-party committee on legislative offices to answer questions about the conduct of the election; there, he echoed opposition claims that the government, and not his office, was to blame for most problems. Shortly after, the committee voted 8–3 against re-appointing him, with all Progressive Conservatives on the committee opposing his re-appointment and all opposition MLAs supporting it. Opposition leaders David Swann and Brian Mason suggested that Gibson was being punished for criticizing the government.

Energy and environmental policy

Much of Stelmach's term as Premier has been dominated by questions related to the Athabasca Oil Sands. The rapid development of these reserves was fuelling the Alberta economy's strong growth, but also raised environmental questions. After winning the Premiership, Stelmach emphasized that he had no intention of taking measures that would slow down oilsands development and suggested that the economy would find its own appropriate growth rate. He aggressively defended Alberta's oil at home and abroad, and called the idea that it was extracted at an unacceptably high environmental cost "a myth". When Liberal Party of Canada leader Stéphane Dion proposed a federal carbon tax to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, Stelmach rejected the policy on the basis that it would hurt the economy and would unfairly penalize the western provinces. Instead, he has championed the development of carbon capture technology. In July 2008, Stelmach announced $2 billion worth of funding for carbon capture initiatives, for which he was applauded by industry groups. However, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business called it ''"a huge amount of money to spend on something that isn't proven"'', and Mike Hudema of Greenpeace suggesting that there were better environmental uses of the money available.

Though Stelmach pledged not to do anything to curb the development of the oilsands, he did promise to review royalty rates—the rates paid by oil companies for the privilege of extracting Alberta's oil. He also committed to reducing the proportion of bitumen that left Alberta to be upgraded out of province, likening the export of bitumen to "scraping off the top soil" from farmland. Soon after becoming Premier, he commissioned the Alberta Royalty Review panel to make recommendations on the province's royalty regime; opposition politicians had accused the government of undercharging substantially. Stelmach rejected many of the panel's recommendations, but did increase royalty rates by approximately 20% (25% less than recommended by the panel). Just after the 2008 election, Stelmach's government announced a five year royalty break worth $237 million per year to encourage development that it feared would have become uneconomical under the new plan. He was less decisive in increasing in-province bitumen upgrading; in 2008 he conceded that Alberta would continue upgrading between sixty and sixty-five percent of the bitumen it produced for the foreseeable future, rather than the seventy-two percent target he had previously announced for 2016. This admission came in the wake of his government's approval of three new pipelines designed to export bitumen.

In January 2008, Stelmach unveiled the province's "made in Alberta"—as distinct from imposed by the federal government or by international treaty—plan to cut carbon emissions in order to fight global warming. The plan called for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 14% (from 2007 levels) by 2050. Environmental groups and opposition parties suggested that this was insufficient in light of British Columbia's plan to cut emissions by 80% (from 2007 levels) during the same period, but Stelmach argued that Alberta's position as a supplier of oil to the rest of the country justified higher emissions. This was followed in June by the unveiling of the government's campaign to ask Albertans to make "one simple act"—such as composting, using reusable shopping bags, and replacing incandescent light bulbs with the more efficient fluorescent bulbs. Opponents argued that the emphasis on personal responsibility by individuals did nothing to address the greater environmental damage caused by the development of the Athabasca Oil Sands.

In late April 2008 hundreds of ducks landed in a northern Alberta tailings pond belonging to Syncrude, where most died. The incident was a blow to Stelmach's efforts to convince the world that Alberta's oil sands were environmentally friendly. The number of ducks that died was originally reported at around 500, but in March 2009 Syncrude revealed that the number was in fact more than 1,600. In response to accusations from opposition and environmental groups that his government, which had known the actual number since the summer of 2008, had participated in covering it up to save face, Stelmach asserted that it had refrained from making the higher number public for fear of jeopardizing its investigation of whether Syncrude had violated any provincial regulations in the incident. Investigations were centred around the questions of whether Syncrude had immediately reported the incident as required (the government had first heard of it from an anonymous tip, though Syncrude reported it several hours later) and whether the company had the required measures in place to prevent ducks from landing on its tailings ponds (it had noisemakers designed to deter waterfowl, but these had not been set up at the time of the incident due to winter weather conditions). Syncrude was eventually charged with "failing to have systems in place to divert waterfowl", which carries a maximum fine of $800,000.

Partially in an effort to counter-act negative publicity from oil sands-related issues—for example, the March 2009 edition of ''National Geographic Magazine'' contained a 20 page article portraying Alberta's oil sands operations as being highly environmentally damaging—in 2009 Stelmach's government spent $25 million on a rebranding campaign for the province. Among other things, it replaced the "Alberta Advantage" slogan that had long been in use with "Alberta: Freedom to create. Spirit to achieve." The campaign became the subject of some ridicule when the ''Edmonton Journal'' revealed that one of the photos used in it was not taken in Alberta, but at a North Sea beach in Northumberland. While the government initially claimed that it had intentionally used a foreign image to represent Alberta's engagement with the world, it later admitted that this was not the case, and that the photo had been used in error. Stelmach responded to the image, which showed two children running along a beach, by saying that ''"children, no matter where they are around the world, they are the next generation. And air quality, water quality, no matter where we live on this big globe, we're all responsible, and that's the message we're trying to portray."''

Energy and Utilities Board affair and land use policy

In June 2007, the government-mandated Alberta Energy and Utilities Board admitted that it had hired private investigators to spy on landowners who opposed the construction of a major power line in the Rimbey area. Stelmach initially downplayed the incident, but ordered a judicial investigation once the province's Information and Privacy Commissioner initiated an investigation of his own. This investigation found that the EUB had violated provincial law and infringed on the landowners' privacy, while the judicial investigation criticized the EUB's tactics as "repulsive". The opposition parties called for the dismissal of the entire EUB and Energy Minister Mel Knight; Stelmach instead opted to appoint a new EUB chair. Stelmach's government also responded with legislation entitled the ''Alberta Utilities Commission Act'' (Bill 46), which would split the EUB into two parts: the Alberta Utilities Commission (responsible for regulating utilities) and the Energy Resources Conservation Board (responsible for regulating oil and gas). The legislation was controversial, as elements of the EUB's governing legislation that provided for public notice and consultation in the event of energy construction projects were left out. Opposition parties and advocacy groups charged that this was an assault on both landowners' rights and the environment. The legislation ultimately passed, and took effect at the beginning of 2008.

Stelmach clashed with rural landowners again in 2009 when his government introduced the ''Land Assembly Project Area Act'', designed to make it easier for the government to acquire large blocks of land for public purposes such as ring roads or reservoirs. The Act allowed the government to identify land that it may be interested in expropriating at some point in the future and to indefinitely prohibit any development on that land that could conflict with the government's purposes. Despite vigorous opposition from landowners and the opposition parties, the bill passed the legislature in late April.

Fiscal policy

Ralph Klein's major focus for much of his premiership had been the elimination of the provincial deficit, and the government ran a record $8.9 billion surplus during Stelmach's first year in office. Alberta was in the midst of a major economic expansion driven by high energy prices and major oilsands development. This growth continued into 2007–2008, when the government's surplus was $4.6 billion. Both of these surpluses were higher than expected, and Stelmach's government followed a policy of placing one third of unanticipated surpluses into savings and two thirds into construction projects. Critics, including Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, charged that the government was not saving enough money in anticipation of a fall in energy prices.

In her April 2008 budget, Stelmach's Finance Minister Iris Evans forecast a $1.6 billion surplus for 2008–2009. By August, she had revised this prediction to $8.5 billion. The major reason for this change is an increase in oil prices: while she had estimated in April that they would average $78 per barrel over the fiscal year, by August increases—including a high of $147 per barrel in July—have led her to make a new estimate of a $119.25 per barrel average. By November, prices had fallen to $55 per barrel, and Evans estimated a $2 billion surplus. By February 2009, the government of Alberta appeared poised to run a $1 billion deficit. In April 2009, Evans released her budget for 2009–2010, in which she anticipated a $4.6 billion deficit. This is the largest deficit in Alberta's history, and its first in sixteen years. The government's fiscal plan includes deficits until 2012–2013, when it again anticipates a surplus.

Stelmach's approach to this deteriorating fiscal situation, part of a global recession, has been to invest heavily in infrastructure in an effort to stimulate the economy and take advantage of low construction costs. He has gone so far as to advocate borrowing for capital construction, a departure from the Klein government's notoriously anti-debt approach. However, his government was also one of only two in Canada (the other being Saskatchewan's) to cut overall spending in the 2009–2010 budget. This approach drew the ire of Liberal leader David Swann, who supported increased government spending for economic stimulus purposes, but drew support from some economists and was defended by Evans on the basis that capital spending was at twice the per capital level of the Canadian average.

Teachers pension liability

During his first year in office, Stelmach and his education minister Ron Liepert concluded a deal with the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) in which the province agreed to contribute $2.1 billion towards the $6.6 billion unfunded pension liability. This liability resulted from insufficient contributions to the teachers' pension plan during the period leading up to 1992. In exchange, the ATA agreed to a five-year contract extension. The deal was applauded by the opposition Liberals and New Democrats, but was criticized by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which called for a plebiscite on the issue.

Pay increases

Shortly after winning an increased majority in the 2008 election, Stelmach's cabinet approved substantial raises for themselves, increasing the salary paid to cabinet ministers from $142,000 to $184,000 and that paid to the Premier from $159,450 to $213,450. The increases also affect the severance paid to ministers who resign or are defeated in elections—under the program implemented by Ralph Klein's government to replace the previously existing pension program, departing MLAs receive three months' pay for every year they served, with the level of the pay based on their three highest-earning years. The increases were attacked by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the opposition parties, but Stelmach defended the raises as the first received by cabinet ministers in fifteen years and as being necessary to attract qualified people to politics.

In early 2009, in response to the Late-2000s recession, Stelmach announced that his caucus would decline an automatic 4.9% cost of living pay increase. The following week, the legislature's all-party Standing Committee on Member Services extended this to all MLAs by voting unanimously to freeze MLA salaries for the fiscal year.

Health policy

Stelmach's policy on health care has been highlighted by his removal of the province's health care premiums effective the end of 2008. Critics had denounced the premiums as being regressive, both because they were the same amount regardless of the payer's income and because people with better-paying jobs often had their premiums covered by their employer. The opposition Liberal and New Democratic parties had long called for their removal. This elimination was announced in a throne speech immediately before the dissolution of the legislature for the 2008 election, although it was initially promised to take effect by 2012. During this campaign, Stelmach promised to increase the capacity of Alberta universities to train doctors and nurses over four years, eventually resulting in the graduation of 225 more doctors, 350 more registered nurses, and 220 licensed practical nurses. After the registrar of the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons called the plan unfeasible, Health Minister Dave Hancock clarified that most of the increase would in fact come from the immigration of foreign doctors to Alberta, rather than from in-province training.

Following the election, Stelmach's new Minister of Health, Ron Liepert, released the government's new health plan. In it, Liepert refused to characterize the problems in the health care system as being the result of doctor shortages, and instead promised structural reforms. He indicated that these may include consolidating health authorities, closing rural hospitals, and de-listing some health services from coverage under the province's public health insurance scheme. In May, the government took the first step in implementing these structural reforms by combining the province's nine health authorities into one health "superboard".

In June 2008, three senior health officials announced that they would be leaving the province's employment at the expiration of their contracts in August. Liepert blamed their departures on better offers from other employers, although New Democrat leader Brian Mason speculated that the government's health restructuring may have been to blame. Detractors pointed out that the optics of allowing the employees to depart for more money elsewhere soon after the government had approved a substantial pay hike for cabinet ministers were not good.

As the province's fiscal situation worsened in late 2008, the government adapted its health policy. In December, Liepert announced a new seniors drug plan that made drugs free for seniors making less than $21,325 but required those making more to pay as much as $7,500 for their drugs. In response to protests from seniors, he amended the plan in April 2009 to reduce both the income level at which seniors would have to start paying and the amount which those seniors would have to pay. Liepert said that the plan, $10 million more expensive than the one he had announced in December, would see 60% of seniors pay less than they did under the status quo. The same month, Stelmach's government's budget revealed changes to which medical services it would cover: those de-listed included chiropractic services, at an annual savings of $53 million, and sex change operations, at an annual savings of $700,000. While the Canada Health Act requires the federal government to financially penalize provinces that do not support all "medically necessary" procedures, Liepert maintained that the de-listed services were not "medically necessary" from the perspective of the Act, and said that he anticipated no trouble from the federal government.

During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, Stelmach initially announced that the government would make the vaccine available to all Albertans, though vaccine shortages resulted in a limited number of clinics, which experienced long lineups. In response, Liberal leader David Swann accused the government of managing limited vaccine supplies poorly by not giving priority to the most vulnerable groups. Liepert defended the government's record by saying that high risk populations had been given priority, but that the government's policy was to turn nobody away; he blamed many of the problems on the federal government's delivery to the province of fewer doses of the vaccine than promised. Further controversy erupted when it was revealed that hockey players on the Calgary Flames were vaccinated with vaccine received directly from Alberta Health, which prompted Stelmach to announce an investigation. Two Alberta Health employees were fired as a result of the investigation.

Human Rights, Citizenship, and Multiculturalism Act

In spring 2009, Stelmach's government announced its intention to overhaul the Alberta ''Human Rights, Citizenship, and Multiculturalism Act''. In 1998's Vriend v. Alberta, the Supreme Court of Canada had found that the legislation's failure to include sexual orientation among the grounds on which discrimination was prohibited violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and had "read in" this protection. However, the text of the act continued not to mention sexual orientation. Gay rights activists and opposition politicians hoped that the government's proposed changes to the Act would change this. Conservatives and libertarians, including National Post columnist Colby Cosh, hoped that the changes would also include removal of a section of the act empowering the Alberta Human Rights Commission to investigate and prosecute complaints of publications "exposing a person or a class of persons to contempt", believing that the powers granted to the commission amounted to censorship. This section had been used to unsuccessfully prosecute Ezra Levant for publishing the cartoons at the centre of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in his ''Western Standard'' magazine, and to successfully prosecute the ''Red Deer Advocate'' for publishing a letter to the editor entitled "Homosexual agenda wicked".

The changes that were eventually tabled included the enshrining of sexual orientation as protected grounds, but not the removal of the section dealing with "exposing to contempt". This omission was criticized—Levant said that it made him "deeply embarrassed as a conservative"—but Stelmach said that his caucus was comfortable that another provision, requiring that the impugned section should not "be deemed to interfere with the free expression of opinion on any subject", protected Albertans against its abusive use. The proposal also included a section entitling parents to advance notice from schools if their children were going to be taught "subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation" and the right to remove their children from such classes. Stelmach called this a "very, very fundamental right" and suggested that it would allow parents to opt out of having their children learn about evolution, though his Education Minister Dave Hancock argued that the new wording didn't extend beyond current practice. Alberta Teachers' Association President Frank Bruseker expressed concern that this would make the teaching of science and geography in public schools very difficult, and suggested that parents who did not wish to have their children exposed to evolution should home school them or send them to private schools. New Democratic Party leader Brian Mason suggested that the changes would make Alberta "sound like Arkansas".

Democratic reform

Klein's government had received criticism for reducing the importance of the legislature by sitting it fewer days than any other province's legislature and for directing business through standing policy committees of the Progressive Conservative caucus. These committees met in private, unlike the legislature's all-party committees, which fell almost entirely out of use during the Klein years. In April 2007, Stelmach initiated the creation of four new legislative "policy field committees" which would include opposition representation. The same month, his government introduced new legislation on conflicts of interest, such that former cabinet ministers would have to wait one year before doing business with the government or lobbying it on behalf of third parties (up from six months). It also created a similar cooling-off period for senior bureaucrats, which lasted six months. However, an order in council passed by Stelmach's cabinet shortly before the 2008 election delayed the implementation of these rules until one month after the election, meaning that cabinet ministers who retired or lost their bids for re-election would be exempt from the new rules.

Relationship with Calgary

Many Calgarians have been critical of Stelmach, suggesting that, as a farmer from the central part of the province, he is biased against Calgary and urban Alberta in general. They pointed to the fact that the city, which was considered the heartland of Jim Dinning's support during the leadership race, had only three members (Ron Liepert, Ron Stevens, and Greg Melchin) in his first eighteen-member cabinet (Stelmach supporters pointed out that Edmonton had only one minister, Dave Hancock). Stelmach also found himself in a feud with Calgary mayor Dave Bronconnier during his first year as premier as Bronconnier accused Stelmach of failing to keep a promise to the city regarding infrastructure spending during his first budget. Several Stelmach supporters suggested that the mayor, a Liberal, might be angling to take over as leader of the official opposition if Kevin Taft fumbled. During the by-election to fill Ralph Klein's Calgary Elbow seat, P.C. candidate Brian Heninger went so far as to tell a voter he'd like to choke his party's leader (Stelmach told media that this was the sort of enthusiasm he wanted from his MLAs). Heninger was defeated by Liberal Craig Cheffins and, in the 2008 election, Calgary was the only area of the province in which Stelmach lost seats on his way to an increased majority.

After Deputy Premier Ron Stevens resigned his Calgary-Glenmore seat to accept a judgeship, a 2009 by-election elected outgoing Wildrose Alliance Party (WRA) leader Paul Hinman to replace him. Hinman had been the WRA's only MLA until he lost his Cardston-Taber-Warner to Progressive Conservative Broyce Jacobs in the 2008 election. Shortly after Hinman's election, polls showed that the Wildrose Alliance, under new leader Danielle Smith, was the second most popular party province-wide, and led the Conservatives 34 percent to 30 percent in Calgary.

Politics and public opinion

Critics at first compared Stelmach to Harry Strom, the last Social Credit premier of the province. Strom was regarded as honest but ineffective and lacking charisma; he survived only long enough as Premier to lose the 1971 election soundly. Thus ended the last long one-party rule, and observers asked if history would repeat with Stelmach. After Stelmach's landslide win in the 2008 election, however, the comparisons largely ceased.

In late 2009, the Conservatives' plunging popularity at the polls and the surge in support for the right-wing Wildrose Alliance led to speculation that Stelmach would receive lukewarm support at his mandatory leadership review, to be held at the November 2009 Progressive Conservative convention. Klein's resignation came in the wake of his receiving only 55% support at such a review, and Klein suggested that Stelmach should resign if he received less than 70%. The question was whether party leaders would blame Stelmach for the party's decline and look for new leadership in the face of Stelmach's own weakening poll numbers. Instead, Stelmach met the criterion set up by his critics and won 77.4% support, a strong endorsement.

Resignation

On January 25, 2011, Stelmach announced that he would not seek re-election; he also promised a leadership race before the next election. He did not specify his date of resignation at the time. He finally submitted his letter in June, writing that he would leave office on October 1.

Electoral record

As party leader

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Alberta general election, 2008

Party

Party leader

# ofcandidates

Seats

Popular vote

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407

83

83

83

951,451

100%

¹ Numbers from the 2004 election refer to the Alberta Alliance Party which, along with the Wildrose Party of Alberta (which did not contest the 2004 election), merged in 2007 to form the Wildrose Alliance Party.

As MLA

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Ed Stelmach

Earl J. Woods

Clayton Marsden

Ryan Scheie

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Ed Stelmach

Peter Schneider

Wes Buyarski

Alberta Alliance

Byron King

Mark Patterson

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Ed Stelmach

Ross Demkiw

Greg Kurolok

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Ed Stelmach

Ross Demkiw

Greg Kurolok

Clifford Gundermann

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Ed Stelmach

Derek Fox

Jerry Wilde

Party leadership contests

Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta leadership election, 2006
Second ballot (post redistribution)
! Candidate	! Votes	! Percentage
Ed Stelmach
Jim Dinning
Second ballot
! Candidate	! Votes	! Percentage
Ed Stelmach
Jim Dinning
Ted Morton
First ballot
! Candidate	! Votes	! Percentage
Jim Dinning
Ted Morton
Ed Stelmach
Lyle Oberg
Dave Hancock
Victor Doerksen
Gary McPherson

References

External links

Category:1951 births Category:Premiers of Alberta Category:Members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from Canada Category:Living people Category:People from Lamont County, Alberta Category:Canadian people of Ukrainian descent Category:Leaders of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta Category:Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Category:Alberta municipal councillors Category:Canadian farmers

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