Albertans are mourning with the passing of former premier, and Edmonton Eskimo Don Getty, who died Feb. 26 in an Edmonton hospital at the age of 82.
To many, Getty was the premier who started Alberta’s war against deficit, while to others he was a football star who brought two Grey Cups to Edmonton. And to many more he was the family man whose passion for traditional values created the Family Day holiday that so recently brought us together with our own loved ones.
Getty was all of the above and what’s more he did so with a grace and affection that earned him the respect of peers, public and political opponents in the Legislature and on the football field.
As a quarterback, he led the University of Western Ontario’s football team to championships in 1952 and 1953 before marrying his high-school sweetheart Margaret Mitchell and moving to Edmonton in 1955, where his skills would lead the Eskimos to consecutive Grey Cup victories.
Getty’s control and leadership on the pitch would later guide him in politics.
When first elected as an MLA in Strathcona West, he, alongside Peter Lougheed and four other members in the fledgling Progressive Conservative Party only dreamed they would be the ones to wrestle power from the Social Credit dynasty. Just four years later, the PCs were the majority and Lougheed premier, eventually passing the mantle to Getty in 1985.
But Getty’s primary inheritance would be bare-bottom oil prices and a $3.3-billion deficit. As Alberta steadily accumulated debt throughout the 1980s, he became a champion of fiscal conservancy.
Ultimately, his time as premier fell between two pillars of the Progressive Conservative movement.
In the calm between statesman Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein’s voracious political apparatus, his reserve could be mistaken by some as sign of a placeholder, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
When history books are written, more ink may spilled for others, and he himself would probably hesitate to put his own name in the same breath as Klein or Lougheed.
But one thing is for certain, despite the ups and downs, his legacy is assured as are the sincere condolences the Westlock News extends to his surviving family.
