Ralph Klein

[JonB2004]

Ralph Klein had a leadership vote on Friday during the the Alberta Conservative convention. He only got 55% support. Sometime in the middle of the week, Klein is going to make a decision on whether or not he will resign as Premier of Alberta and leader of the Alberta Conservative party.

I hope Ralph Klein resigns. He may have eliminated Alberta's debt and turned its economy around, but there are other things. Klein is pro-American and wants to Americanize Alberta.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Ralph Klein did more then just turn Alberta's Economy around he made it strong. Ralph Klein being pro-American doesn't hurt Alberta it only benefits Alberta as a whole and he doesn't want to "Americanize Alberta" please get real. :roll:

Still perhaps it's time for Ralph to step down, he has done his part for Alberta and it's time for new blood to lead.

 

[Finder]

I don't care about his pro-americanism, I care about where the wealth of Alberta is going. Where will Alberta be when the oil is gone? One this oil should be profitting the people of Alberta more and not those who own te drilling companies. I think the Albertian people whom live on the soil need to take owner ship of there resources and not let the government sell it off as it does to foreign capitalist interests.

Also with just a few tweek to the tax system Alberta could afford a better health care system. I remember my ex would often complain about the level of health care they got with the puplic health care system. Also I remember Edmanton could really use a face lift as well.

I really hope the Conservatives lose the next election and allow another party to govern. I would not count the sucess of Alberta on the conservative, but I would however say they could have done a much better job at accounting and spreading the wealth made from the oil to all citizens of Alberta.

 

[Finder]

Ralph Klein did more then just turn Alberta's Economy around he made it strong. Ralph Klein being pro-American doesn't hurt Alberta it only benefits Alberta as a whole and he doesn't want to "Americanize Alberta" please get real. :roll:

Still perhaps it's time for Ralph to step down, he has done his part for Alberta and it's time for new blood to lead.

Yeah super Klein was able to put all that oil into the ground nicely, I would agree... *rolls eyes*

 

[JonB2004]

Klein is Americanizing Alberta by trying to instate private health care, opposes the Kyoto Accord, and opposes same-sex marriage.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Ralph Klein did more then just turn Alberta's Economy around he made it strong. Ralph Klein being pro-American doesn't hurt Alberta it only benefits Alberta as a whole and he doesn't want to "Americanize Alberta" please get real. :roll:

Still perhaps it's time for Ralph to step down, he has done his part for Alberta and it's time for new blood to lead.

Yeah super Klein was able to put all that oil into the ground nicely, I would agree... *rolls eyes*

My comments wasn't just based on the Oil or Natural gas. :lol:
He was good, he did what he said he was going to do and was re-elected for it how many times now? I lost count. :lol:

Still as I said he should step down for new blood to lead, I think Alberta will remain Conservative and Liberals will not get in for a while because the memory of Trudeau's National Energy Tax Program still burns alot of Albertains today.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Re: RE: Ralph Klein

Klein is Americanizing Alberta by trying to instate private health care, opposes the Kyoto Accord, and opposes same-sex marriage.

There is already forms of private Health Care which is fine, if a person can afford to pay for an MRI which does free up a spot for someone who can't what's wrong with that?

The Kyoto Accord is flawed when China, India, and other countries were not required to live by the standards of the Kyoto Accord.

 

[JonB2004]

Small amounts of private health care are fine, but Klein wants to gradually eliminate public health care and go to a private system.

 

[Finder]

Johnny Utah, how about another party. If Alberta had a fair electoral system the PC's wouldn't be so dominating in politics. Of course perhaps you think Alberta should be a one party state.

Both the NDP, Liberals and Alliance would have alot more seats if the system they used were slightly more PR driven then just pure FPTP.

edit:
and I think the Social Credit or whatever they call themselves now would end up with a seat or two if it were pure pr. Though I doubt they achieve any kind of threshhold.

 

[JonB2004]

Finder, what's PR and FPTP?

 

[Finder]

Re: RE: Ralph Klein

Finder, what's PR and FPTP?

Populer vote.. or PR, PV, MMP, STV and MTV. All of which are different systems.

MMP, STV and MTV are really hybrid systems. Based on Populer vote and First past the post.

FPTP= First past the post. It is currently the system used in federal and I believe most prov elections currently. Plebicite in BC has voted for reform but it wasn't high enough to achieve it. They are going to have another vote soon on most likely a different system.

In Ontario we are just deciding now on which system the people should vote on.

In PEI they had plebisite but chose to keep FPTP for now, but there were problems with the election as voter confusion and people were turned away at polling stations.

In Alberta Klien has completely dismissed any electoral form stating that anyone who wishes to change it is just sore lossers. I can understand why people defeand FPTP as a system as I defeand MMP as the best system, but to say something like that was just rude and consider many magority governments in Canada have been elected by the minority of vote I think it's not something you can dismiss. However Fair vote canada (www.fairvote.ca) has a chapter called Fair vote Alberta which has been set up to push hard on the Albertian government for electoral reform.

 

[Hank C]

Re: RE: Ralph Klein

Small amounts of private health care are fine, but Klein wants to gradually eliminate public health care and go to a private system.

He wants to eliminate public health care??? where is your proof?? I would be willing to bet you don't have a clue about the 3rd way proposals, do you?

 

[Johnny Utah]

Johnny Utah, how about another party. If Alberta had a fair electoral system the PC's wouldn't be so dominating in politics. Of course perhaps you think Alberta should be a one party state.

Both the NDP, Liberals and Alliance would have alot more seats if the system they used were slightly more PR driven then just pure FPTP.

edit:
and I think the Social Credit or whatever they call themselves now would end up with a seat or two if it were pure pr. Though I doubt they achieve any kind of threshhold.

Another party could work, it would give those who are not happy with the parties they belong to a different option to unite for common goals. After all Israel has 12 Political Parties I think, so it works there why not here?

 

[Hank C]

Re: RE: Ralph Klein

Klein is Americanizing Alberta by trying to instate private health care, opposes the Kyoto Accord, and opposes same-sex marriage.

Klein represents the people of Alberta....don't like it, too bad......most of us out here see there are more important things than homosexual marriage, or obsessing about a health care system rated somewhere around 40th in the world which has horrible wait times in comparison to European systems which use both a public and private system.........why is it such a taboo to research systems which work much better than our and attempt to implement them here....its called being progressive, and don't give me the American arguement, use you eyes and brain to learn about the systems of the world which are vastly superior to ours in both costs, care and wait times.........or buying emissions credits in the name of KYOTO which will come from the tax payer (let me guess Alberta should pick up the tab) to send billions to Russia and China....maybe people out here can see how it directly hurts investment as well.


Having said that.....Klein should resign ASAP...he is a lame duck who will only hurt the party.....I heard Preston Manning is considering leading the party into the next election.

 

[bluealberta]

1. Klein did not want to fully privatize the health care system and any claims to this contrary are from people who do not take the time to learn. If you go to a family doctor, you already use private health care. If you go to a dentist, you use private health care. If you use a physiotherapist, you use private health care. This "one system" myth is so stupid. What Klein has proposed is to use the private health care system as an addition to the public system. The wait times are due to one reason: not enough beds, surgical rooms, etc. If the private system can be accessed, but still paid for from the public system, what is wrong with that? The current system is broken and all alternatives need to be looked at. Just putting more money is has been looked at numerous times and has not worked. We need more access points for health care, and if the private system can offer them, again paid for from the public system, then I am totally in favor of this.

2. I really laugh when people complain that Klein gets a lot of credit for the success of Alberta because, after all, he did not "put the oil in the ground". Of course he didn't, but the economy of the province started with Lougheed, was killed by Trudeau and the NEP, which caused Getty untold problems (biggest of which was the Getty was not a good leader), and when Klein took over he actually was a politician who did what he said he was going to do. Did it hurt? You bet, but now that the hurt is over, Alberta and Albertans are reaping the benefits, just as Klein said way back in the early nineties.

3. Klein should have resigned a year earlier than when he said he was going to, and now it seems likely he will have to do this anyway. I am a huge supporter of Klein, but I also know that his time has come and gone, and it is time for him to bow out gracefully and let someone else take over. I hope there is some way that he and the party can make this happen with little rancor or bitterness. Otherwise, another party like the Libs or NDP may actually take over and ruin all the good work that Klein and the conservatives have done over the years. That, IMO, would be a travesty.

 

[bluealberta]

Johnny Utah, how about another party. If Alberta had a fair electoral system the PC's wouldn't be so dominating in politics. Of course perhaps you think Alberta should be a one party state.

Both the NDP, Liberals and Alliance would have alot more seats if the system they used were slightly more PR driven then just pure FPTP.

edit:
and I think the Social Credit or whatever they call themselves now would end up with a seat or two if it were pure pr. Though I doubt they achieve any kind of threshhold.

I don't think you will find much support from this from the federal parties, because using your systems, the Liberals would not have formed the government during all of the last 12 years. Your argument about using this in Alberta can be used equally in the federal system, and if you are a Lib supporter, you would be very disappointed.

 

[Kreskin]

I don't understand why politicians announce retirement plans long before the retirement date. As soon as they do they are lame ducks. The result of the leadership review doesn't surprise me in the least. What did he expect?

 

[Hank C]

Re: RE: Ralph Klein

I don't understand why politicians announce retirement plans long before the retirement date. As soon as they do they are lame ducks. The result of the leadership review doesn't surprise me in the least. What did he expect?

i know hey, what the heck was he thinking.....could he be back on the bottle again :lol:

 

[Johnny Utah]

Re: RE: Ralph Klein

I don't understand why politicians announce retirement plans long before the retirement date.

Think of it like this, when Cher says she is going to retire she goes on a 2-3 year tour to say she is going to retire. :lol:

So Ralph Klein is on tour saying he is going to retire. :roll:

 

[JonB2004]

A tour that's going to cost taxpayers a couple million dollars.