List of 150 Alberta Historical People

) Premier Ralph Klein-Colourful Premier Known as "King Ralph"

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112) Premier Ralph Klein-Colourful Premier Known as "King Ralph"

Ralph Klein was known as the man who ruled Alberta and a significant leader. Ralph was born on November 1^st, 1942 and was raised by his grandparents. Ralph was the Premier of Alberta for 14 years. Before becoming Premier, Ralph Klein was the mayor of Calgary for three consecutive terms beginning at age 37.

He won all the mayor elections with 90% of votes. It is believed that Ralph won with such high scores as a result of him promising voters that he would listen, and he did. These terms happened to fall at the same time Calgary hosted the 1988 winter Olympics as well. Ralph was also known to “tell it like it is” which is another reason he was a significant leader to the province, Albertans could trust him.

By Jaden Baragar

113) Preston Manning-Influential National Politician

Preston Manning is a Canadian politician who was the founder of the Reform Party of Canada and a Member of Parliament. He was born in Edmonton on June 10, 1942. He is 74 years old. He is the son of Premier Ernest Manning. As a child, Preston Manning would walk from school to the Alberta Parliament Building to have lunch with his father. In 1964, Preston Manning earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics. He worked for his father for a few years before he became the leader of the Reform Party of Canada and ran in the 1988 federal election. The Reform Party eventually became a part of the Conservative Party of Canada. In 1993, Preston Manning was elected as a member of the House of Commons, representing Calgary Southwest. This made him the leader of the party who came in second in the election. In 2005, Preston Manning and his wife opened the Manning Centre for Building Democracy in Calgary.

The purpose of this centre is to educate about and inspire democracy for the future of Alberta. Preston Manning has become a member of the Order of Canada and has received honorary degrees from the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto, York University, Tyndale University College and SAIT Polytechnic.

By Laura Peace

114) Prime Minister Joe Clark- Canadian Prime Minister from High River

Joe Clark was born in High River, Alberta on June 5, 1939, the son of a newspaper Editor. He spent much of his youth around his father’s newspaper company, delivering newspapers and helping out in any way he could. Joe thought of becoming a journalist when he was in school, but when he went to the University of Alberta he became interested in politics. There he became the national Progressive Conservative Party student president. When he finished university, he worked on different conservative party campaigns in Western Canada. Soon after, he ran in the 1967 Provincial election against the speaker of the Alberta Legislature and lost by only 462 votes.

Even though he lost, Clark helped Davey Fulton run for the leadership of the Federal Progressive Conservative party to replace John Diefenbaker. When Fulton did not win Joe Clark was chosen by the winner, Robert Stanfield, to run as a member of parliament for the riding of Rocky Mountain in 1972. Joe won the riding, and represented it in the House of Commons until 1979. That year he ran in the Yellowhead riding west of Edmonton and won, and represented it from 1979 to 1993. When Robert Stanfield stepped down as leader of the Federal Progressive Conservative party in 1976, Joe was voted its new leader.

When the Progressive Conservative party won a minority government in the Federal Election of 1979, Joe became Canada’s sixteenth Prime Minister. He would also be the first person born in Western Canada to be prime minister, as well as the youngest prime minister in Canadian history. However, Joe was only Prime Minister until the Progressive Conservative Party was defeated in the February 1980 federal election. Despite losing the election, Joe would remain as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party until February 1983. He left politics in 1993, needing a break and to spend time with his family.

In 1998, Joe became involved in politics again and became the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, and he returned as a member of parliament for Kings-Hants in Nova Scotia. He would be re-elected again that year in the riding of Calgary Centre. After the formation of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003, which merged the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance party, Joe resigned as party leader.

By Tom Elder

115) Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper was born on April 30,1959 in Toronto. Stephen Harper is Canada’s longest running prime minister aside from Sir John a Macdonald under the Conservative party. Stephen attended Richview Institute where he spent time as a member of the liberal club and competed on Reach for the Top. After spending sometime as a student at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, Stephen moved to Alberta. In 1981, Stephen became a student at the University of Calgary where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1985 and then his masters in 1991.

In 1982, Stephen played a huge role in the creation of the reform party. He served as the party’s first chief policy officer under Preston Manning and put effort into the party’s book called “The Blue Book”. In 1993, Stephen beat Hawkes and became the MP for Calgary West. In 1997, Stephen he became the leader of the National Citizens Coalition which is a public advocacy group. In 2003, Harper became the leader of the new united Conservative Party.

On January 23, 2006 Harper and the Conservative party won the federal election with a minority government and changing positions within the federal cabinet. Many of the accomplishments that Stephen Harper had during his time as Prime minister from 2006 to 2015 included Government standard tax cuts, free trade agreements, bringing in foreign investment programs involving money, reforming the foreign worker program, new building Canada Plan among a variety of other successes during his time in office. After losing to Justin Trudeau and the liberal party in 2015 Harper he resigned as the leader of the Conservative Party and is now trying to live a life out of politics and with family.

By Michael Peace

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