[DIV id=headline][H2]Klein to step down in October 2007: report[/H2][/DIV][DIV id=author][P class=byline]ALLISON DUNFIELD
[P class=source]Globe and Mail Update
[UL class=columnistInfo][/UL][/DIV][DIV id=article style="FONT-SIZE: 100%"]Ralph Klein, Alberta's popular and long-serving Premier, is set to retire in October of 2007, according to news reports.
Mr. Klein, a former television reporter who entered politics and became Calgary's mayor in 1980, will announce that he is bowing out of public life at the end of March during a provincial Progressive Conservative Party annual general meeting, the reports said.
He will announce his October, 2007, retirement date at the meeting on March 31, the Calgary Herald reported Tuesday. The newspaper said he has chosen October, 2007, because it will mark exactly 27 years since he began his life in politics as Calgary mayor.
[DIV class="bigbox ad" id=boxR][SCRIPT type=text/XXXXscript ads="1"]aPs="boxR";[/SCRIPT][SCRIPT type=text/XXXXscript]var boxRAC = fnTdo('a'+'ai',300,250,ai,'j',nc);[/SCRIPT][/DIV]A spokeswoman from Mr. Klein's office was not immediately available for comment.
Rumours and speculation about when the Premier would leave office have been swirling in the province for months. Mr. Klein, 63, has always maintained that this is his fourth and final term and that he would leave by 2008.
As well, the Premier will be subject to a leadership review during this month's annual general meeting. He has pledged to resign if he does not receive a "substantial majority." Mr. Klein typically gets about 95-per-cent support, but he has not said what he considers a substantial majority.
At least half a dozen contenders have lined up to succeed Canada's longest-serving premier as Conservative leader. A leadership campaign is expected to take two to four months, the Herald said, meaning a new Tory leader in Alberta will not be chosen until 2008.
Some Tory leadership hopefuls had been privately suggesting that Mr. Klein is no longer up to the job.
"The storm clouds had been building. Mr. Klein is a great reader of the political signs, and he must have known in his heart it was time to go," David Taras, a political analyst at the University of Calgary, told the Herald.
The Premier is hoping to leave a health-care legacy – his government's recently announced Third Way approach that would introduce more private delivery into the province's health-care system. It would allow patients to pay for non-emergency procedures such as hip and knee replacements, to get faster care and let doctors practise in both the private and private health-care system. The plan is still in formation.
Mr. Klein has previously said more details will not be released until after public consultations wrap up at the end of the month.
Critics say it would pave the way for two-tier health care. Mr. Klein has said he does not know yet how much of his 10-point plan will remain intact after a public consultation period, scheduled to last a month. If the subsequent legislation breaches federal health rules, however, he's ready to do battle with the new federal Conservative government.
"It may violate the Canada Health Act," he told reporters after the plan was released several weeks ago.
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