October 15, 1980 is a date worth keeping. On that day Calgary elected as its mayor a man who had never held public office, who had entered the race less than a month before the vote, and who told a wire service that his entire campaign had cost less than $25,000; the man he defeated was the sitting mayor and the favourite, and the man who defeated him had spent much of the previous decade watching the city’s business from the reporters’ side of the room.
Ralph Klein was no stranger to Calgarians when he ran. He had been on their television sets and their car radios since 1969, and for much of that time he had been reporting on the very council he now proposed to lead. That is the part of his life the later honours tend to pass over quickly, and it deserves a longer look than it usually gets.
Key facts
- The Alberta Order of Excellence records that Ralph Klein worked for CFCN television and radio in Calgary from 1969 to 1980 and eventually held the title of senior civic affairs reporter.
- Ralph Klein was elected mayor of Calgary on October 15, 1980, and was re-elected in 1983 and 1986, according to the Alberta Order of Excellence.
- The Alberta Order of Excellence records that Ralph Klein was sworn in as the 12th Premier of Alberta on December 14, 1992, and retired from the office on December 2, 2006.
- The Canadian Encyclopedia gives Ralph Klein’s birth as November 1, 1942, in Calgary, and his death as March 29, 2013, in Calgary.
Ralph Klein worked in Calgary broadcasting from 1969 to 1980 before he ran for anything
He came to the newsroom by a roundabout road. The Alberta Order of Excellence record has him leaving flight training with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1960, then studying at Calgary Business College, where he went on to teach and eventually served as principal. From there he moved into public relations work for the Red Cross and the United Way, and in 1969 he joined CFCN, working in both television and radio. The same record says he rose to senior civic affairs reporter, which in a city of Calgary’s size meant a great many hours in the council chamber, the committee rooms and the hallways outside them.
The people who worked beside him remembered a particular habit. Darrel Janz, the longtime CFCN anchor, recalled after Klein’s death that the older reporter “kind of took me under his wing” when Janz was new in town, and that he corrected the newcomer’s pronunciation of local names and places. It is a small detail; it is also the whole point. A reporter who cares how a city pronounces its own streets is a reporter who has been paying attention to the city.
A borrowed motor home and less than $25,000 beat a sitting mayor in 1980
The 1980 race was not supposed to be close. The incumbent, Ross Alger, was the favoured candidate, the lawyer and former alderman Peter Petrasuk was also on the ballot, and one newspaper of the day concluded that Klein could not be expected to finish better than third. The Alberta Order of Excellence describes the campaign he ran instead as a modest one, conducted largely from a borrowed motor home. He built it around his opposition to a downtown redevelopment project, a file he knew because he had covered it.
He took roughly 47% of the vote and won by about 16,000 votes, as it was reported at the time. The margin surprised nearly everyone except, perhaps, the viewers.
It is worth setting that campaign beside the career that followed it. Klein was re-elected in 1983 and again in 1986, entered provincial politics in 1989 and spent fourteen years as premier; the later story is well told elsewhere, including in our earlier look at his years in office and the honours that followed. What is told less often is that the whole run began with a man who had sat through more council meetings as a reporter than many of the aldermen had sat through as members.
A reporter learns things about a city that a candidate usually has to guess
There is a lesson in this that has nothing to do with party and very little to do with personality. A city’s memory does not live in its bylaws or its strategic plans. It lives with the people who were in the room when the decisions were made, who remember which promises were kept, which projects ran over and which reports recommended a further report. In 1980 one of those people was a television reporter, and when he decided the city was being run badly he was in a position to say exactly how, with dates.
Short memory is the most expensive habit a city can have, and voters pay for it as surely as councils do. When each election is treated as though the city began the morning after the last one, the lessons of the previous decade have to be learned again at full price. Calgary once chose, against every expectation, a mayor who could not forget those lessons because he had reported them on the evening news.
A city is best governed by someone who has already sat through its meetings, and in 1980 Calgary elected a man who had taken the notes.
Frequently asked questions
When was Ralph Klein a reporter at CFCN?
From 1969 to 1980, at CFCN television and radio in Calgary, according to the Alberta Order of Excellence. He rose to senior civic affairs reporter, which meant long hours in the council chamber, the committee rooms and the hallways outside them, covering the very council he would later lead.
What did Ralph Klein do before journalism?
He left flight training with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1960, studied at Calgary Business College, taught there and eventually served as principal. From there he moved into public relations work for the Red Cross and the United Way, and in 1969 he joined CFCN.
How did Ralph Klein win the 1980 Calgary mayoral race?
He was elected mayor on October 15, 1980, after entering the race less than a month before the vote. He had never held public office, told a wire service his entire campaign had cost less than $25,000, and defeated the sitting mayor, who was the favourite. He was re-elected in 1983 and 1986.
When did Ralph Klein become premier of Alberta?
The Alberta Order of Excellence records that he was sworn in as the 12th Premier of Alberta on December 14, 1992, and retired from the office on December 2, 2006.
When was Ralph Klein born and when did he die?
The Canadian Encyclopedia gives his birth as November 1, 1942, in Calgary, and his death as March 29, 2013, in Calgary.
