Forum Admin Greg Posted March 25, 2009 Forum Admin Report Share Posted March 25, 2009 Mapleleafweb is scheduled to do an interview with Honourable Ralph Klein, former Premier of Alberta. We are providing members of the MLW discussion forums the opportunity to submit potential questions to Hon. Ralph Klein. Your questions can be emailed directly to me, or you can post the questions in this forum thread. To post your questions below, you will need to register or login. Your questions can be submitted until Friday, April 3rd, after which I will select three (or more) interesting questions and include them in the batch asked to Hon. Ralph Klein. The interview will appear in the Interviews section of Mapleleafweb. Any off-topic or disrespectful postings or questions will be deleted without notice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeyStone Posted March 25, 2009 Report Share Posted March 25, 2009 (edited) Hello Mr Klein, During your leadership, Alberta experienced unprecedented growth and success. One of the factors attributed to that surge was the business-friendly environment that you created. My question for you is: Of the growth that Alberta experienced how much of it, do you feel was the result of: a) Increases in the price of oil. New companies being created in Alberta and/or existing companies expanding. c) Companies from other provinces relocating to Alberta. d) Companies from other countries relocating to Alberta. I am asking this because I am interested to know how much of the growth was real growth vs merely taking from other provinces. Thanks very much, KeyStone Edited April 1, 2009 by KeyStone deleted re-copied opening post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry J. Fortin Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 Mr. Klein, I am a resident of Alberta in a small little village called Rich Valley. My question for you is simply this; in your opinion, why should this province not utilize its available resources to extensively develop secondary industry based upon our natural resource wealth? Let me explain the direction of this question in order to make your response more to the point. While we have enjoyed a vast amount of industrial development under the PC Party, a majority of that was undertaken by foreign investment, which in turn exports their profits out of the province as fast as they can. In my opinion, citizens would realize a net benefit from the efforts made by the province in some form of provincial crown corporate effort capitalized with the use of the Heritage Trust Fund with a continued revenue stream provided by the profits generated by the financial arm of the government by means of the Alberta Treasury Branch. Jerry J. Fortin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbg Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 Ralph - During your leadership of Alberta your rhetoric about Ottawa's malign influence and exploitation of Alberta was superb, as was your condemnation of the imposition of gay marriage. What concrete steps did you take to insulate Alberta from Quebec and Ontario's thumb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdobbin Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 Mr. Klein, What is your view of Alberta's present financial situation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hardner Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 Mr. Klein, Where are the best opportunities for left-right cooperation today, in your view, and how could Canada facilitate such cooperation ? What good things do you have to say about the achievements of the other political parties in Canada ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeferMadness Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 Wow, thanks! This is great. I'm sure I can think of a few. Here goes... Mr Klein As a native of Alberta, I'm humbled to be putting this to one of the great Alberta politicians of modern Alberta times. I'd say you were even a better politician than (though not as good a premier as) Peter Lougheed. Anyway, here goes: In the wee hours of December 12, 2001 you stumbled into a homeless shelter and berated some homeless men, apparently in a drunken rage. According to some sources, you actually spat on them. This begs a few questions. 1. Were you really so out of touch that you were not aware that some of these people worked full time but couldn't afford to live on the minimum wage set by your government? 2. In retrospect, do you think it would have been better leadership to admit to being an alcoholic? 3. Were you suprised at all that the people of Alberta didn't rise up and demand your resignation for this callous disregard for these people who, after all, were also citizens of Alberta? I look forward to your reply. -Reefer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hardner Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 Reefer, With all due respect, your questions are as loaded as you purport the premier to have been... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeferMadness Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 (edited) Reefer,With all due respect, your questions are as loaded as you purport the premier to have been... Michael Thanks for your input. I'll admit that the wording is a bit tongue in cheek but the questions themselves are valid. These are questions that the media should have been pressing at the time but to my recollection, they didn't. First off, everything I've said is my honest belief - even the part about him being a great leader. I think he has a terrible set of moral values but that's a different question. Mr. Klein is purported to have screamed something like 'Why don't you bums go and get a job!' at these guys. It really made me wonder whether he was completely out of touch with what was going on for people who weren't making big cash. I heard about some of the things that went on in Alberta out here on the coast so he really should have known. He wouldn't be the first leader to be so insulated that he lost touch. As far as the second question goes, perhaps it's a bit tabloid-ish but a sign of a great leader is when you can be open about things that you may not want to reveal. I've read that he refused to admit he had a drinking problem, even though he swore off drinking. As for the third question, I was ashamed of my home province that they let him get away with this. Apparently, when this first came out, his office essentially lied about the affair, saying he just stopped by to chat with these guys and gave them 70 bucks. I can't imagine Klein having kept his job if he had done this to any other group of people. But the sad part is that he voiced what a lot of people were thinking but don't say in polite company. That speaks poorly for a whole lot of people in that province. Edited March 27, 2009 by ReeferMadness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waldo Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 Mr. Klein, - in a short 2 year period, Alberta went from record surpluses to having to dip into its “sustainability fund”, all the while pondering so-called “technical deficits”. How would you answer your critics that suggest the Alberta economy lacks diversification to withstand, in the short term – precipitous drops in resource prices… and in the longer term – global downtrends in fossil fuel dependency? What measures do you feel your governments took to significantly help diversify the Alberta economy away from its principal dependency on oil/gas? - what are your views on the state of small-c conservatism in Canada today – do you feel it is in decline? - how would you answer your critics that suggest the Alberta Heritage Trust Fund monies are sadly lacking in relation to sustained yearly oil/gas revenues? - what do you consider the single most significant change you introduced to the people of Alberta? Alternatively, can you point to a single most significant undertaking left unfinished... or intent left unstarted? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeferMadness Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 I just have one more Mr. Klein: In 2004, you stood up in the Alberta legislature during a debate on public auto insurance and began talking about events in Chile during the 1970's. You said that when Allende, a duly elected president started to nationalize industry (according to the platform on which he was elected), Pinochet was "forced, I would say, to launch a coup". Your words "I'm not saying Pinochet was any better" imply that you feel that these two are on morally similar ground. The controversy around this issue was diluted when it was discovered that your University paper on the subject was in substantial part copied off the internet without proper citation. - Do you think brutal dictators are morally justified in seizing control of a country from duly elected socialists? - Several strongly left-leaning governments have been elected in the last decade in South America. Do you think they should be overthrown by force? - A number of your detractors have dubbed you "King Ralph" because they feel your approach has weakened democracy in Alberta. Do you think that democracy is less important than ideology? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noahbody Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 Mr. Klein 1) In hindsight, would you say electrical deregulation for Alberta was the right decision or a mistake? Why? 2) As a former Minister of Environment and Premier, what is your position on the politicized issue of manmade global warming? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alta4ever Posted March 31, 2009 Report Share Posted March 31, 2009 Mr. Klein, Why did you not use the Not Withstanding clause that Peter Laugheed fought so hard to have enshined in the constitution? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smallc Posted March 31, 2009 Report Share Posted March 31, 2009 Mr. Klein,Why did you not use the Not Withstanding clause that Peter Laugheed fought so hard to have enshined in the constitution? On what issue? It will be hard fro him to answer the question if he doesn't know the instance the you are referring too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbg Posted March 31, 2009 Report Share Posted March 31, 2009 On what issue? It will be hard fro him to answer the question if he doesn't know the instance the you are referring too. I can think of plenty; gay marriage, the long gun registry for starters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smallc Posted March 31, 2009 Report Share Posted March 31, 2009 I can think of plenty; gay marriage, the long gun registry for starters. I was simply trying to see if there was a particular issue that the question was based upon. I thought that it would assist Mr Klein in answering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Anthony Posted April 1, 2009 Report Share Posted April 1, 2009 Guys, This is not the place to discuss the issues. Only post your questions. Ch. A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August1991 Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 1. Peter Lougheed has said that you allowed Fort McMurray to develop too quickly. In hindsight, do you think that you set the royalties of the tarsands too low? 2. The Progressive Conservatives have been in power in Edmonton since 1971. How do you explain this political success? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waldo Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Guys, This is not the place to discuss the issues. Only post your questions. Ch. A. fair enough - I trust we'll see no further outbursts of profanity from he who shall go unnamed... in the interests of ensuring Mr. Klein doesn't interpret a lack of MLW knowledge in regards one of the earlier posed questions, and as I've highlighted 2 instances where Mr. Klein, in fact, attempted to use the Charter's Notwithstanding Clause (gay marriage & forced sterilization compensation), the earlier question asking Mr. Klein "why he never used the Notwithstanding Clause", should either include an accompanying caveat concerning the 2 aforementioned usages... or the question should be further qualified - which, I believe, is the similar point Smallc was attempting to make; i.e. as Smallc stated, to "assist Mr. Klein in answering". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum Admin Greg Posted April 3, 2009 Author Forum Admin Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 It's the last day to submit questions to Mr Klein. If you want your question considered, make sure to submit to TODAY! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdobbin Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 One last question for Mr. Klein, Do you still believe in the principles of the Kelowna Agreement and if so, why? Do you think the government should re-engage with the provinces on First Nations issues? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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