Ralph Klein remembered by Bert Crowfoot

So King Ralph.. Premier Klein... Bluebird has passed away yesterday..

My dad said his Blackfoot Indian name was Bluebird.... Because he passed out in the back of a school bus when he was drinking with the boys in his pre-premier days.

Ralph spoke fluent Blackfoot and loved our people...He even married a Blackfoot woman Colleen.

My dad also told me that he was at Londonderry Mall [in Edmonton] a few years ago and he heard someone speaking Blackfoot and looked over the balcony and there was Ralph, making a speech, some of it in Blackfoot.

As he finished and was being escorted out, my dad called out in Blackfoot, "You're nothing but a liar." Laughing as he said it.

Ralph turned and saw my dad and came up to him smiling. They had a good visit as they were old drinking buddies from the Calgary days.

I will remember him for that...

As for his conservative friends and beliefs...

I'll pass on that.

Bert Crowfoot,
publisher of Windspeaker and Alberta Sweetgrass