#ralphklein

[neetsnotes]

Ralph Klein and a lawn flamingo

[rosalindrobertson]

On boozing and politics...

Ralph Klein has died. It’s kind of impossible to believe.  He was Calgary’s mayor when I was young, and Alberta’s premier for most of the time I spent there.

I covered him in the Alberta Legislature when I was with the CBC. We never wanted for headlines. He was a walking news story. He flipped off environmentalists, was dismissive and often rude. He was incredibly funny.

He was divisive as hell. You either loved him with all your heart or hated him to the depths of your bowels. He was one of the most successful politicians in Canada. A legend.

And – gonna just put this out there – he liked to drink.

We could tell if he’d had a wee nip when he scrummed – he was actually a better radio clip when he was buzzed.  Once, travelling with the Premier on the government plane, I asked for a glass of water. I was given a bottle of it. I asked for a glass of water out of the cooler they were using to serve the Premier. I got a side eye from his press secretary that nearly struck me dead.

But yes. He liked his booze.

Is this reminding you of anyone?

Only, here is the catch.

It was only a news story when it was a news story.

One of the top legislative reporters found out Klein had cancelled a huge, important keynote address to the Texas oilpatch – allegedly, because he was hung over.

And a reporter asked him: Did you miss the speech because you had been drinking?

Silence.

It was a line the media to that point had never crossed.  There was a brief snarl of denial. And, to my knowledge, the subject of alcohol was never raised by a reporter again - at least not in any significant way, for the rest of my tenure in the gallery. It did become an issue later - after public appearances led to a teary admission. But it was not an issue you could bring up without an Actual Story behind it.

This, of course, brings me to The Star going off on the front page with its allegations that Mayor Rob Ford has a drinking problem. Twitter is, well, all atwitter.

I have no idea if this is true or not. And frankly I don’t care. My issue is all these people going off with “concern” for him are truly full of shit. And – here is the kicker. Whether Rob Ford is an alcoholic is not in itself a news story.  He has- and you can start screaming at me, the facts are the facts – not grossly mismanaged the city. (There is an interesting Toronto Life article to that point, that Ford has managed the impossible task of flatlining the City’s spending. That is Something, and a news story.)

Would we be happier with a mayor that isn’t a one-man circus, regularly making our slick Bay-street marathon-running good-hair image blush on a national scale? Probably.

So what is the difference here between the media not wanting to cross that line with Ralph Klein, but gleefully crossing that line and having a football match in the back-forty with Rob Ford?

Well, two things.

Albertans are, well, Albertan. A plain speaking chunky (and yes, often sweaty) “anti-intellectual” guy who likes to imbibe is not an affront to the Alberta Identity. In fact, it is something that Albertans embrace. Bring 'er on. Who's up for a shot?

But put that same image of a guy in power in snooty Toronto – where we still get a case of the vapours over holiday shopping – and you have a catastrophe.

Yes, I’m going to go out and say it. Toronto can’t get past the sweaty image of Rob Ford. He could figure out how to solve our transit issue and Toronto would still not like him.

And – here is the counterpoint to Ford Nation – Ford has gone and let the media do whatever they like.  

The big thing Ralph Klein had that Rob Ford does not is a communications brain trust. Behind Klein was a mustachioed communications guru named Rod Love. It’s the little things that matter in politics... Like, not letting Klein drive himself anywhere, ever. Like keeping the media occupied with Other Things. Like coming down on you like thundering Zeus himself when a reporter crossed a line.  Love actually got a press gallery president removed by his paper for basically being a pain in the ass.

Klein’s media management of the 1990’s is still the foundation model for all political management to this day. Anyone who has worked in politics of any stripe will tell you – nasty as it may seem, the Rod Love model of constant monitoring and rapid response is the most effective there is.

Rob Ford has his brother. And his brother – who is in that Top Advisor role in the Mayor’s office -  he just doesn’t get it .– that hollering at The Lefty Media is not a communications plan.  They’re stumbling from one event to the next, the pair of them, with no message or tactic. The media at this point is just showing up to see what else can possibly go wrong for this mayor.

Whenever we reporters got up to mischief in the Alberta Legislature press gallery, Rod Love would deftly derail us. It was like an ongoing chess match. I believe it was over an Easter weekend that they carpetbombed us with news that the government was privatizing the liquor board.

BOOM.

Whatever we were up to never saw the light of day, because we had Actual News to cover.

You want different media coverage? Change the damned channel on them.

Rob Ford doesn’t need rehab so much as a proper communications director.

  On a personal note, the last time I saw Ralph Klein was several years ago at an Argos/Stamps game. My alumni association was hosting a suite. I reintroduced myself. He was usually all for this kind of environment – football, food, beer - but his unease was clear.  It was weird. Klein was never uneasy in social situations.  I was told he wasn’t feeling well. Later, it all made sense.

However you may feel about Ralph Klein, I don’t think anyone wanted him to go this way.