Edgar Peter Lougheed, during his time as the tenth Premier of the Province of Alberta, gained a lot of attention and respect throughout Canada. This is of course fairly rare for a provincial politician, although in this respect Ralph Klein seems to be following in his footsteps. Well, except for the respect part.<\p>
He was born in '28 in Calgary. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and while there he played football for the Edmonton Eskimos, and was elected the President of the Student Union. He also initiated into the Delta Upsilon fraternity.
The same year he got his second degree, he also married his wife (now that's kind of redundant) Jeanne. Together they had four children, Stephen, Andrea, Pamela, and Joseph. He also later went on to get a Master of Business Administration from Harvard.<\p>
After that, he went into business for eleven years, working at times as both lawyer and as the director of a corporation. But then in '65, he was voted to be the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. In the election of '67, he won a seat in the Legislative Assembly, and served as the Leader of the Official Opposition opposite from Premier Harry Strom. In the election in '71, he got to switch sides, because he managed to lead the PC's to victory. He did this again in '75, '79, and '82.<\p>
While in control of the government for the 14 years until he resigned, he emphasised greater control over Alberta's own natural resources, and increased participation in the decisions that affect the rest of Canada. This was mostly in response to Trudeau's National Energy Program. He worked towards greater economic diversification, and better quality of health care. He was also responsible for the creation of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, a long term investment fund to meet future needs. Now that we are working down the debt at an astonishing rate, and a lot of stuff like scholarships for post-secondary education are paid for out of that fund.<\p>
Right now he's living in Calgary, and is on the board of directors of a whole slew of organizations and companies including Norcen Energy Limited, Northern Telecom Limited, and the Royal Bank. and has a lot of stuff named after him, including a hospital in Calgary and a park in Kananaskis. He was named to the Order of Canada in 1986.<\p>
stewacide tells me he got the nickname the "Blue Eyed Sheik" during the whole National Energy Program thing. I find this amusing.
Source: www.gov.ab.ca