Ralph Klein guest hosted The House last weekend and it was a memorable appearance (how could Ralph on the CBC be anything but?). Sure, it was cheesy and Ralph’s journalist skills seem to have rusted a bit since he left the biz 28 years ago but there were some great moments:
1. A cameo appearance by Mike Harris who quipped “blame it on me, everybody else in Ontario does“.
2. Ralph complaining about his pink CBC hat because “I consider pink to be a commie colour“.
3. A chummy interview with Ralph’s “second favourite Prime Minister” Jean Chretien where the two old hacks reminisce about politics (“we had a big fight you and I“) and talk nuclear power, climate change (Ralph is still skeptical about the science), the economy and just about everything else. Jean tossed out the story about Ralph saying he would have run for the Liberals in Calgary had Chretien beat Turner in ’84, which certainly would have changed the course of Alberta politics during the 90s.
So, yeah, lots of fun from two political pros who always got along well, even when they were using each other as political straw men.