It didn’t take long for the Premier to discover my rural Saskatchewan upbringing.
We lived on a large lot east of Edmonton in the community of Antler Lake. 45 years ago, cell phone technology was in its infancy. One evening, only a few days after being hired, our home landline telephone rang. It was the Premier. He had a few issues to discuss. After about 3 minutes and several clicks he realized that it was a party line and my neighbours were listening in on the conversation which was somewhat customary for rural folks.
The Premier stopped the conversation and said, “Ron are you on a party line?” My response of course was yes. He said to come by the office in the morning and hung up. The next day he was quite taken aback that I would have a working conversation with the Premier of Alberta with my neighbours listening in.
I explained to him that a private line cost several thousand dollars and we didn’t have that kind of money. The Alberta government owned AGT, the telephone company. The minister responsible immediately got a phone call from the Premier and a private line was installed in our house the next day.
The Western Premier’s conference in Lethbridge in April 1980 was my first opportunity to watch Premier Lougheed at work building a consensus. While Prime Minister Trudeau had his guns aimed at Alberta’s oil wealth, he was also attempting to concentrate power in central Canada. The mechanism to be used was repatriating the British North America Act and replacing it with our own constitution.
Lougheed knew he had to get other Western Premiers aligned so they didn’t fall for the Prime Minister’s charm or be bullied into signing on to the new constitution. The Lethbridge meeting saw Conservative Premier Sterling Lyon of Manitoba; Social Credit Premier Bill Bennett of British Columbia and NDP Premier Allan Blakeney of Saskatchewan sign a memorandum of agreement to work cooperatively to protect the west from an impending federal intrusion.
Four years later it was Alberta’s turn to host again, this time in Grande Prairie. My demeanor while Manitoba NDP Premier Howard Pawley was speaking may have been the tip-off to what was to happen in just a few short months.
For many years this series of pictures, signed by the Premier with a facetious remark, hung in our party room however after almost 50 years the writing had completely faded away.
I had I I I covered annual Premiers conferences with Broadcast News but now it was operating from the inside. Three conferences were held in Atlantic Canada, travelling to Halifax, Charlottetown & St. John’s. All you could eat lobster in Halifax was the most memorable. What I also distinctly recall was that 7 of the 10 Premiers specially ordered steak and fries. I ate all 7 of their lobsters.
The 1983 Premiers conference was in Victoria. It was also a time when extravagance for such occasions wasn’t questioned by the voter. An evening cruise on a yacht was part of the B.C. event.
The Premier always made time for his family. His daughter Pam was involved in an event at the Valley Zoo with Lougheed serving as a referee. The media were invited so the Premier asked if I would attend to ensure there were no issues and bring my family. The picture with Cody and Linda has always been one of my favorites.
Establishing the Alberta Heritage Savings and Trust fund was one of the Premier’s greatest accomplishments. In 1985, Lougheed was on hand to officially open the Ridley grain terminal constructed solely with oil revenues saved in the Heritage fund. According to Prince Rupert residents we chose one of the 65 days out of 365 when it wasn’t cloudy and raining.
Every August the Premier would hold a cabinet retreat at his cabin in Banff. While this was a strategic planning session for the fall legislature, there was always time for cabinet minister Al “Boomer” Adair to hold court and take out his false teeth.
Vancouver was getting ready to host the 1986 World’s fair. Jim Pattison invited the Premier for a tour, on his boat, of the False Creek area where Expo 86 was to be staged. The boat ride was enjoyable and the tour informative, but what was most impressive was that at precisely 11 AM a completely stocked bar emerged from the floor. I’m sure it was 5 o’clock somewhere.
