Media will have last word - Opinion

"Bibbi" said


When media encounters appear to be staged, scripted and artificial, the Premier or Prime Minister starts to lose his credibility and even worse his audience.

"I wasn't suprised that she crossed over to the Liberals. I don't think she ever did have a Conservative bone in her body. Well, maybe one.
Klein at a charity roast, talking about Tory turncoat Belinda Stronach -- who used to date Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay -- on Nov. 7, 2006.



"You get a lot of free dinners but after that you get sort of tired, especially when you quit drinking, and then it's no fun at all, so I don't know why they would want to do it."
Klein talking to reporters at the Calgary Stampede on July 10, 2006 about his potential successors.

In the same scrum, he said: "I wake up in the morning and I say, 'Why am I here?' And it's because I'm not all there!"



"I'm no doctor, but I think that Mr. McGuinty's got a case of premature speculation.
Klein in March 2006, commenting on Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's declaration that Ontario would oppose any Alberta-style health reforms that might lead to two-tiered care.



"I ought not to have thrown the Liberal health policy at our page Jennifer, and to Jennifer, I apologize most sincerely. ... And I also apologize for referring to the document as crap, Mr. Speaker."
Klein apologizing in the Alberta legislature on March 1, 2006 after throwing a Liberal Party health policy booklet and narrowly missing a legislature page.



"They didn't look severely handicapped to me, I tell you that for sure. They both had cigarettes dangling from their mouth and cowboy hats."
Klein speaking to a Tory provincial election campaign rally in Calgary on Oct. 27, 2004. He was talking about two women who were "yipping about AISH payments," which go to Albertans who are severely handicapped.

He later followed up on that in Grande Prairie by saying: "I'm sure none of you want to talk to me about AISH. No, because you're normal -- severely normal people."



"You would have to eat 10 billion meals of brains, spinal cords, ganglia, eyeballs and tonsils."
Klein in 2005 on the risk being infected with bovine spongiform encephalitis, or mad cow disease.



"We're basically the same party, you know. Conservatives and Republicans are quite the same."
Klein speaking to reporters in Washington after a 2003 meeting with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.



"I guess any self-respecting rancher would have shot, shovelled and shut up, but he didn't do that."
Klein's 2003 advice to an Alberta farmer on what he should have done after finding a BSE-infected cow in his heard.



"Dinosaur farts."
Klein's 2002 offering on what might have brought on the Ice Age that killed off dinosaurs.



"I'm going to try and stay clean as long as I can, but if from time to time I have a glass of wine, don't make a mountain out of a mole hill."
Ralph Klein after an infamous December 2001 incident in which he showed up inebriated at a homeless shelter in Edmonton, berated some of the residents for not having jobs, then throwing money on the floor and leaving.

At the same newser, he said, "I'm telling you, it feels good to get up without a hangover."



"Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Ralph's World."

Klein addressing his supporters on March 12, 2001 after winning a landslide victory in the 2001 provincial election.



"A fine city with too many socialists and mosquitoes. At least you can spray the mosquitoes."
Klein speaking in 1990 as a Progressive Conservative MLA from Calgary.