Don Getty

Donald "Don" Ross Getty , OC , AOE (born August 30, 1933 in Westmount , Québec , † February 26, 2016 ) was a Canadian politician , entrepreneur and Canadian football player. In the 1950s he played in the Canadian Football League and was twice champion with the Edmonton Eskimos . From November 1, 1985 to December 13, 1992, he was Prime Minister of the Province of Alberta and Chairman of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta .

Studies, sport and work

Getty after winning the Gray Cup in 1956

Getty grew up in Montreal , Ottawa , Toronto and London (Ontario) . In London, he was the captain of the basketball and football student teams and chairman of the student council. At the University of Western Ontario he completed a business degree and led the Mustangs , the sports club of the university, to two football and four basketball championship titles in the province of Ontario (1952-53 and 1952-55). Getty graduated in 1955 and received a Bachelor of Arts in business management. In the same year he married Margaret Mitchell. They had four sons.

After graduating, Getty played as a semi-professional for the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League and was one of the best quarterbacks in the country. In 1955 and 1956 his team won the championship, the Gray Cup . In 1960 the Eskimos lost the final.

In addition to sports, he also devoted himself to his professional career. From 1955 he worked for Imperial Oil , from 1961 in the management of Midwestern Industrial Gas . In 1964 he founded Baldonnel Oil and Gas and in 1967 became a partner in the investment company Doherty, Roadhouse and McCuaig .

Provincial politics

Getty joined the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta in 1965 at the request of Peter Lougheed . In May 1967 he was elected MP for the Strathcona West constituency in the Alberta Legislative Assembly elections. After the election victory of the Progressive Conservatives in August 1971, Getty appointed him Minister for Foreign Affairs, so he was responsible for contacts with other provincial governments and the federal government. From April 1975 he was Minister of Energy.

In order to have more family time, Getty did not run for re-election in March 1979. He founded an investment company and has served on the boards of several companies, including the Royal Bank of Canada . When Lougheed announced his early resignation, Getty decided to return to politics. He was elected party chairman and on November 1, 1985 , Lieutenant Governor Helen Hunley appointed him the new Prime Minister. Six weeks later, he won a by-election in the Edmonton Whitemud constituency.

prime minister

Falling oil prices hampered the province's economic development and the government no longer seemed to have a grip on spending. During Getty's first term in office, the 1988 Winter Olympics were held in Calgary . His party won again in the elections in March 1989, but with a significantly reduced majority. Getty himself was surprisingly voted out of his constituency. Brian C. Downey , the MP for the safe constituency of Stettler, resigned. Getty was able to win the by-election six weeks later and move back into parliament.

Getty's government tried to get the economy going again by freezing government employees' wages and cutting services. He tried to distract from the problems in Alberta by vehemently advocating reform of the Senate . Getty ordered the first election of an "on-demand senator" in 1989 to reinforce his call for directly elected senators. However, these elections are not binding and so far the governor general has only actually sent one of them to the Senate. On December 13, 1992, Getty resigned for good, and Ralph Klein was his successor as Prime Minister .

Web links

Commons : Don Getty  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

• Don Getty ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Biography on the Alberta Legislative Assembly website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karen Bartko, Vassy Kapelos: Former Alberta Premier Don Getty dies at 82 . Global News , February 26, 2016.