Finally, after all the requests the easterners finally relented..
Good for Ralphy, he usually gets things done in the end !!!
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*After several years of delay, former Premier Ralph Klein will be awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honor.
Several sources confirm Klein’s family has recently been notified. The people directly involved aren’t allowed to comment under strict secrecy rules imposed by Rideau Hall.
But the sources say official confirmation will come soon. Traditionally, the summer list of new OCs is released on or around Canada Day.
Klein’s friends were increasingly alarmed as he was passed over several times. The Order can’t be awarded posthumously, and he is very ill with with a severe form of frontal lobe dementia.
It would be most unusual for an ex-premier of Klein’s stature and long tenure to miss out on the Order of Canada.
“I’m in a way relieved,” says former Premier Don Getty, who became an Officer of the Order in 1999. He also heard recently that Klein will be honored.
“I’m also sorry that health problems are making the award of an Order of Canada a problem for Ralph and his family.
“I feel though, without a doubt, that he deserves it,” added Getty, who was premier before Klein.
“He made such a contribution while he was healthy to Alberta and Canada. He caused certain things to happen in a way that was different and he was mainly successful at it.”
Given Klein’s current condition, it would likely be impossible for him to attend any ceremony. His family will presumably accept the award for him.
Klein was nominated by friends and colleagues as long ago as 2008.
Delays in accepting an Order of Canada nominee aren’t unusual; Getty left office in 1992 and wasn’t invested until 1999.
But among Klein loyalists, there was a growing feeling that he was passed over because his controversial populist style didn’t fit the Ottawa notion of Canadian heroes.
He was Calgary’s mayor for the 1988 Olympics. In 1982, he caused an uproar by advising “bums and creeps” to stay home.
He was talking about crooks, not the vast majority of decent migrants, but the CBC instantly branded him “anti-eastern.”
After becoming premier in 1992, he reshaped the province with spending cuts that were controversial but eliminated $23 billion in accumulated debt by 2004.
By the time Klein left office in 2006, he was the best-known provincial politician in Canada, his agenda both emulated and condemned across the country.
Often, though, the most critical people were also the most envious of Alberta’s debt-free status.
Klein is also remembered for his inebriated outburst at a man in a homeless shelter. Afterward, he acknowledged his long-standing problem with alcohol and vowed to quit.
To many Albertans his very flaws and frankness made him even more admirable. For others, the shelter episode remains unforgivable to this day.
Klein was, and remains, an indelible Alberta and Canadian character who overcame long odds to become a great national figure.
*
Read it on Global News: Former Premier Ralph Klein will be awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honour. Several sources confirm Klein’s family has recently been notified.
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Former Premier Ralph Klein will be awarded the Order of Canada, the country
Good for Ralphy, he usually gets things done in the end !!!
Copy
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*After several years of delay, former Premier Ralph Klein will be awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honor.
Several sources confirm Klein’s family has recently been notified. The people directly involved aren’t allowed to comment under strict secrecy rules imposed by Rideau Hall.
But the sources say official confirmation will come soon. Traditionally, the summer list of new OCs is released on or around Canada Day.
Klein’s friends were increasingly alarmed as he was passed over several times. The Order can’t be awarded posthumously, and he is very ill with with a severe form of frontal lobe dementia.
It would be most unusual for an ex-premier of Klein’s stature and long tenure to miss out on the Order of Canada.
“I’m in a way relieved,” says former Premier Don Getty, who became an Officer of the Order in 1999. He also heard recently that Klein will be honored.
“I’m also sorry that health problems are making the award of an Order of Canada a problem for Ralph and his family.
“I feel though, without a doubt, that he deserves it,” added Getty, who was premier before Klein.
“He made such a contribution while he was healthy to Alberta and Canada. He caused certain things to happen in a way that was different and he was mainly successful at it.”
Given Klein’s current condition, it would likely be impossible for him to attend any ceremony. His family will presumably accept the award for him.
Klein was nominated by friends and colleagues as long ago as 2008.
Delays in accepting an Order of Canada nominee aren’t unusual; Getty left office in 1992 and wasn’t invested until 1999.
But among Klein loyalists, there was a growing feeling that he was passed over because his controversial populist style didn’t fit the Ottawa notion of Canadian heroes.
He was Calgary’s mayor for the 1988 Olympics. In 1982, he caused an uproar by advising “bums and creeps” to stay home.
He was talking about crooks, not the vast majority of decent migrants, but the CBC instantly branded him “anti-eastern.”
After becoming premier in 1992, he reshaped the province with spending cuts that were controversial but eliminated $23 billion in accumulated debt by 2004.
By the time Klein left office in 2006, he was the best-known provincial politician in Canada, his agenda both emulated and condemned across the country.
Often, though, the most critical people were also the most envious of Alberta’s debt-free status.
Klein is also remembered for his inebriated outburst at a man in a homeless shelter. Afterward, he acknowledged his long-standing problem with alcohol and vowed to quit.
To many Albertans his very flaws and frankness made him even more admirable. For others, the shelter episode remains unforgivable to this day.
Klein was, and remains, an indelible Alberta and Canadian character who overcame long odds to become a great national figure.
*
Read it on Global News: Former Premier Ralph Klein will be awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honour. Several sources confirm Klein’s family has recently been notified.
-----------
Former Premier Ralph Klein will be awarded the Order of Canada, the country