Ralph Klein

"We can't win this province back - we can't be the government - with a smoking, drinking, paving, glad-handing premier."

"[Edmonton is a] fine city with too many socialists and mosquitoes. At least you can spray the mosquitoes."

"I’ve been to Vulcan where I’ve been vulcanized, Carbon where you get carbonated and Standard where you get standardized. Ernie Isley’s invited me to Castor … and I’m not looking forward to it."

"The government should be getting out of the business of being in business."

"This all came about through the discovery of a single, isolated case of mad cow disease in one Alberta cow on May 20. The farmer — I think he was a Louisiana fish farmer who knew nothing about cattle ranching. I guess any self-respecting rancher would have shot, shovelled and shut up, but he didn’t do that. Instead he took it to an abattoir and it was discovered after testing in both Winnipeg and the U.K. that this older cow had mad cow disease."

"Edmonton isn’t really the end of the world – although you can see it from there."

"I’m no doctor, but I think that Mr. McGuinty’s got a case of premature speculation."

"You know, my science is limited to the fact that I know that eons ago there was an ice age … I know that for sure. I know that at one time, the Arctic was the tropics. And I guess I wonder what caused that? Was it dinosaur farts? I don’t know."

"There’s an old saying in politics: anyone dumb enough to run for the job probably is too stupid to have it."

"I have some hopes for the future. One of the things I hope the new leader will address is an integrated energy policy, because we need to take advantage of the tremendous brainpower that we have amassed over the years relative to conventional and oil-sands oil and gas, and funnel those energies into alternate forms of energy for the future. By that I mean coal, coal gasification, coalbed methane, solar power, wind power, nuclear power, hydro power, all forms of energy other than conventional and oil-sands gas and oil."

"I wasn't surprised that she crossed over to the Liberals. I don't think she ever did have a Conservative bone in her body. Well, maybe one."