Party, caucus unrest took down four of five Alberta PC premiers

EDMONTON – A look at Alberta’s five Progressive Conservative premiers:

Peter Lougheed: Served 14 years, two months (September 1971-November 1985). Retired on his own terms. Lougheed is hailed as a hero in Alberta for his development of the energy industry and his battles with Ottawa over the national energy program.

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Don Getty: Served seven years, one month (November 1985- December 1992). Resigned in 1992 after delivering another majority government in 1989, but losing his own seat. Deficits ballooned as oil prices tanked and Getty was blamed for the failure of several government-backed businesses. Rivals began pushing for a leadership change.

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Ralph Klein: Served 14 years (December 1992-December 2006). Announced that he planned to step down in 2007, but left in 2006 after a tepid 55 per cent vote of confidence at a leadership review. Under Klein’s watch the province paid off its debt, but he admitted that was accomplished at the expense of building infrastructure in Alberta’s booming economy.

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Ed Stelmach: Served four years, 10 months (December 2006-October 2011). Announced in January 2011 that he would not seek another term as premier. Reports suggested Stelmach’s finance minister had threatened to resign over the premier’s intention to run a deficit budget. Sometimes referred to as the “accidental premier” for the way he came up the middle to win the leadership, Stelmach was criticized as lacking the style and charisma to be premier.

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Alison Redford: Served two years, five months (October 2011-December 2013). Has announced she will resign effective Sunday. Concerns arose over her expenses and morphed into questions about her top-down leadership style. Two caucus members quit, one saying Redford was a bully, and more threatened to leave.

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