and though he had political opponents he rarely made enemies; love him or hate him (or his positions) he was quite an Alberta Character and if you're interested there's apparently gonna be a live stream for this big tribute thing today...
http://www.alberta.ca/RalphKlein.cfm <-- you can add your condolences/thoughts/rants to the > 1000 posts already there
And if that doesn't work, all the major TV stations' websites are gonna feed live as well. Starts @ 11:40am Alberta time.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/memorial-for-ralph-klein-to-be-held-in-calgary-today-1.1225193
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/04/04/calgary-ralph-klein-memorial-today.html
http://globalnews.ca/news/457488/remembering-ralph-klein-former-alberta-premiers-memorial-held-today/
and for you amusement, here's a small collection of the better-known Ralphisms
http://globalnews.ca/news/439807/ralph-klein-was-a-sound-bite-gold-mine/
I had my headphones on, and just now innocently clicked the GlobalNews.ca link, and discovered just how loud my volume setting was when I was greeted by ZOMG BAGPIPES MAKE IT STOP KILL IT WITH FIRE whew that ended soon enough, thankfully. (now there's a sleepy country song being played http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Strong_Winds )
He was bold, interesting and polarizing. Like him or not, he was a character, like you say.
One of his opponents mentioned that even if you totally disagreed with him you at least knew where you stood with him because he was honest.
Quote from: Lazybones on April 05, 2013, 01:45:39 PM
One of his opponents mentioned that even if you totally disagreed with him you at least knew where you stood with him because he was honest.
Ralph: [position] (often stated angrily or arrogantly)
Opponent: [opposite position] (often stated even more angrily or arrogantly)
Ralph: you wanna go for a beer?
Opponent: yeah sure.
Something I've always thought: He did what he said he was going to do.
sure people got mad. and they probably didn't realize how much the budget cuts would hurt, but HE DID say he was going to do it, and actually did it.
You can't really fault the guy for that.
Quote from: Tom on April 05, 2013, 03:36:37 PM
Something I've always thought: He did what he said he was going to do.
In at least 2 newspaper stories the bolded was pretty much said. And also it was pointed out how rare that is in a politician, especially an enduring one -- and also how
Albertan that is in spirit.