Alberta’s Premier Klein Gets Pied

Well, it isn’t egg on his face which is what Premier Klein has been getting for the last eighteen (18) months. This time the Premier was the recipient of a banana-cream pie at his annual Stampede Breakfast on Monday, July 7, 2003 compliments of three University of Calgary students.                                    .

After the unfortunate incident, the Premier was quoted as saying, “It speaks to his intelligence or lack thereof to do this in front of 3,000 or 4,000 people.”  The premier continued, “It doesn’t say anything about politics.  It says something about the stupidity of this young person, who will now have a criminal record and who will be in trouble, I think, at his university.”

Premier Klein joins the list of pied Canadian politicians that include Quebec Premier Jean Charest, former Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Montréal Mayor Gerald Tremblay.

It appears Premier Klein and the others are missing the point.  First, they should consider themselves very lucky this is Canada.  In this rather peaceful, complacent society called Canada, political office is not as dangerous as it is in other “democracies”.  These demonstrators are very upset or they wouldn’t expose themselves to “a criminal record” and “… in trouble, I think, at his university.”

It does say something about politics.  It says the populace is disgruntled about the bungling and mismanagement at the federal and provincial government levels.  It says people are willing to jeopardize their future to try to get a relatively “peaceful message of discontent to these politicians.”  There is no fame or financial gain to be reaped from throwing a pie in a politicians face.

Christopher Geoghegan, the 23 year old university student who threw the pie, said his actions were politically motivated, “There is a myriad of reasons why I did what I did but it was definitely political.”  He stated he had “…a sense off shame and frustration from the decisions (Klein) has made that we have to live with every day.” 

The unfortunate part of this exercise is that it will accomplish nothing positive.  Politicians, like Premier Klein, can’t see the forest for the trees. They just don’t get it.    But there are thousands of disgruntled Albertans who wish they had “the courage to throw a little pie in the hopes that some politicians would wake up and lead.”  There are many problems in Alberta, problems that aren’t being handled with any conviction.  There is the closed border from BSE, the same sex marriage issue, the Kyoto Accord, the federal gun registry and a myriad of other problems.

When are the leaders going to start leading their administration to successful resolution of these very controversial issues?

Unfortunately, they’re not.  I only hope Premier Klein is wrong in his assessment of the situation.  “A pie today, it could be something else tomorrow, and that’s why I’m not going to let this go without prosecution.”  It could very well be something else tomorrow, something more drastic and more tragic.  These politicians should “start looking at the forest” to prevent further and perhaps more serious demonstrations of discontent.