Redford denies beef with former premier Klein
Conservatives fighting over ex-premier’s legacy
Tory Leader Alison Redford says she has no beef with former premier Ralph Klein, but a battle over his legacy has shone further light on Alberta’s conservative civil war underway in the election campaign.
Redford responded Monday to criticism from some Klein family and friends — including former chief of staff Rod Love — that she had been disrespectful to the record of the former premier, who is now in a nursing home with rapidly progressing frontal lobe dementia.
“I have always said that I believe Premier Klein was a fantastic premier, very effective for the times,” she told reporters at a Calgary campaign stop.
“One of the things we’ve always done well as Progressive Conservatives is understood what Albertans’ hopes and dreams were for the future. And Premier Klein was a tremendous premier in knowing exactly what we needed to do to get our fiscal house in order,” she told reporters in Calgary.
Part of the issue revolves around comments Redford made at a private gathering of Progressive Conservative donors at the Calgary Golf and Country Club, where she allegedly said that she’s still dealing with negative impacts of Klein’s costcutting.
In an interview Monday, Love said he heard from people in attendance that Redford said some of Klein’s policies were “short-sighted.”
Love said he vehemently disagreed with that characterization — saying Klein had a long-term vision to eliminate the debt and get the province’s finances in order — but said he would accept Redford’s Monday remarks.
“Sure. I didn’t want to get into a fight with the premier,” he said. “If she’s saying now that he’s a fantastic premier, great.”
Redford said she “absolutely did not” make any disparaging remarks about the Klein legacy.
The PC leader said she believes there are “different priorities” in the province now, including spending on health and education infrastructure.
The spat highlighted some of the deep divisions in Alberta’s conservative movement that was once solidly united under the Tory banner.
Redford’s campaign strategist, Stephen Carter, accused Love of not being a disinterested player in the debate, saying he is “completely partisan. Rod Love has been a key Wildrose campaign strategist for two years.”
Carter said when he worked with Wildrose himself, he was sometimes in meetings with Leader Danielle Smith that included Love.
In the interview, Love said he would not respond to Carter but said he has never had any formal role with Wildrose.
“I have friends in the Conservative party and the Conservative government whom I talk to all the time and I have a lot of friends in the Wildrose whom I talk to all the time,” said Love.
“I’m not going to be put in a box.”
Love wasn’t the only member of Klein’s inner circle to express concern about Redford’s attitude toward the former premier.
Klein’s wife Colleen, told the Herald’s Don Braid in an e-mail she was “very sorry and saddened to hear that some people are questioning Ralph’s legacy.”
Skip Mcdonald, a longtime friend of Klein, said he quit Redford’s Calgary-elbow Tory constituency association and will now vote Wildrose.
While campaigning Monday afternoon, Smith said she has known Love for years and asked him for advice “many, many times,” but he had not been a Wildrose member or supporter.
“He’s always been on the fence. I think he’s been as frustrated as many of us were about the direction of the PCS,” she said.
At a Wildrose rally in Edmonton, Smith made hay over the infighting.
“I think Rod Love and Ms. Klein said it best. It’s pretty poor form to be criticizing the record of a beloved premier who isn’t able to defend himself,” she said to loud applause.
Smith said spending has more than tripled under the Tories since the lowest point under Klein.
WITH FILES FROM CHRIS VARCOE AND DON BRAID OF THE CALGARY HERALD, KEITH GEREIN OF THE EDMONTON JOURNAL JWOOD@CALGARYHERALD.COM