Don Getty Donald Ross " Don " Getty , OC , AOE ( born August 30 , 1933 ) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 11th Premier of Alberta between 1985 and 1992 . A member of the Progressive Conservatives , he served as Energy Minister and Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister in the government of Peter Lougheed before leaving politics for the private sector in 1979 . He returned to politics six years later to contest the leadership contest resulting from Lougheed ' s retirement . He defeated two other candidates , and became Premier November 1 , 1985 . As Premier , Getty was faced with an economic slowdown and falling energy prices , which hit Alberta ' s petroleum - dominated economy hard . Faced with mounting government deficits and increasing unemployment , he cut social spending and intervened with government money to prevent businesses from failing . Several of these interventions backfired in high profile fashion , failing at their intended objective and costing scarce public funds as well . While some analysts argue that Getty ' s fiscal program laid the groundwork for Ralph Klein ' s later balancing of the provincial budget , on Getty ' s departure from office the government ' s debt had reached $ 11 billion , setting the stage for his successor to characterize the Getty years as an era of wasteful and excessive spending . His efforts at strengthening Alberta ' s presence in Canada initially appeared more successful , as he won the agreement of Canada ' s other first ministers in including elements of Senate reform in the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accord s , but these efforts came to naught when both accords were rejected — the second by the Canadian public , including a majority of Albertans . Getty was also facing political problems within Alberta , including a defeat in his home riding of Edmonton - Whitemud in the 1989 election ( leading to a successful by - election in Stettler , vacated by a P . C . MLA ) and leadership machinations from some of his own ministers . In light of this , he resigned the Premiership in 1992 . Before entering politics , Getty had been a quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League . He passed for more than eight thousand yards over his ten - year career , and was put on the team ' s Wall of Fame in 1992 . Early life . Don Getty was born in Westmount , Quebec on August 30 , 1933 to Charles Ross Getty ( 1909 – 1974 ) and Beatrice Hampton Getty ( 1910 – 1973 ) . His father had dropped out of McGill University ' s medical school due to the Great Depression and worked a variety of jobs — sometimes more than one at a time — to support his wife , three sons , and two daughters . Getty ' s childhood was spent in Verdun , Toronto , Ottawa , London , and Agincourt , sharing a three room apartment with his seven member family in the last . Returning for London in time for high school , he became an accomplished athlete ( drinking eggnog to gain enough weight to play football ) and was elected students ' council president . Sports were his passion , and he was an especially great fan of the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Argonauts running back Royal Copeland . Football . After graduating , Getty enrolled to study business administration at the University of Western Ontario , where he became a football star and a member of The Kappa Alpha Society . He quarterbacked the Western Ontario Mustangs to Eastern Collegiate Union Championships in 1954 and 1955 , and was awarded the Claude Brown Memorial Trophy as the outstanding athlete at UWO in 1955 . He also played basketball , and was part of championship teams in that sport in 1952 , 1953 , and 1954 . A week after his 1955 graduation , he married Margaret Mitchell , his high school sweetheart . The Edmonton Eskimos had offered Getty a professional contract , so the newlyweds drove out west in an old blue Buick . While still playing football , Getty was hired by Imperial Oil in 1955 . He worked for Midwestern Industrial Gas Limited , beginning in 1961 as Lands and Contracts Manager with a promotion to Assistant General Manager following in 1963 . In 1964 he founded his own company , Baldonnel Oil and Gas Company , before entering the world of finance as a partner with Doherty , Roadhouse , and McCuaig investments in 1967 . MLA and cabinet minister . In 1965 , Getty was approached by fellow Eskimos veteran and Progressive Conservative leader Peter Lougheed to run in the 1967 provincial election . Getty agreed to run in Strathcona West , and defeated incumbent Social Crediter Randolph McKinnon by more than one thousand votes . He entered the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as one of six newly - elected P . C . s . Four years later , in the 1971 election , Getty was re - elected by more than 3 , 500 votes in the new riding of Edmonton - Whitemud and was appointed Minister of Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs in the new Lougheed majority government . With Getty and the government both re - elected by increasing margins in the 1975 election , Lougheed appointed him Minister of Energy . In this capacity Getty partially continued his responsibility for relations with the federal government , as energy policy was a major sticking point between the two governments ( at one point , federal Energy Minister Donald Macdonald called Getty " dripping with venom " ) . Getty did not seek re - election in the 1979 election . Hiatus from politics and leadership fight . While out of politics , Getty became the head of an investment firm and sat on the boards of a number of corporations , including the Royal Bank of Canada and Celanese Canada . However , when Lougheed stepped down from the Progressive Conservative leadership in 1985 , Getty entered the contest to replace him and immediately became the favourite . At an October convention , Getty won a second ballot victory against Minister of Municipal Affairs Julian Koziak and former legislator Ron Ghitter . Premier . Getty was appointed Premier November 1 , 1985 and returned to the legislature just over a month later in an Edmonton - Whitemud by - election . As Premier for nearly seven years , Getty presided over some of Alberta ' s toughest economic times . His government was re - elected twice with reduced majorities , in the 1986 and 1989 elections , though Getty lost his own Edmonton - Whitemud seat in 1989 and had to run in a by - election in Stettler , which was vacated by Progressive Conservative victor Brian C . Downey . Getty ' s time in office was characterized by attempts to reduce the government ' s budget deficit and interventions calculated to stabilize the economy during the recession of the 1980s . When Getty became Premier he left his predecessor ' s cabinet completely intact . Budget deficit . After Getty won the party leadership , Lougheed told him to expect a budget deficit of $ 2 . 5 billion in his first year in office , though the figure turned out to be $ 2 . 1 billion . Things got worse the next year as a drop in energy prices led to the oil - rich province running a deficit of $ 3 . 4 billion , as energy revenues fell by $ 3 billion . Getty ' s Treasurer , Dick Johnston , reacted by raising taxes by $ 1 billion and cutting program spending by 6 . 3 % , including decreases of 3 % in grants to schools , universities , municipalities , and hospitals . In 1990 , due to these measures , Johnston predicted that the government would be in surplus by the 1995 fiscal year . By 1992 , program spending was growing at a rate of 2 . 3 % annually , among the lowest rates in Canada . In fact , when adjusted for population growth and inflation , government spending fell over Getty ' s term in office , with non - health care program spending 40 % lower in 1993 than it had been in 1986 ( health spending had remained approximately constant over the same period ) . Even so , Getty entered the premiership with no public debt and left with the public debt at $ 11 billion . Economic intervention . Getty ' s government was faced with a combination of a general economic malaise and falling oil prices . The slowdown in the energy sector contributed to a decrease in capital spending , which reduced demand for labour in the construction industry by 50 % between 1980 and 1985 . Many workers left the province , which suppressed real estate prices and hurt financial institutions ; two Albertan banks , the Canadian Commercial Bank and the Northlands Bank , failed in September 1985 . Credit unions were facing similar troubles , and the Lougheed government had , in its last days , injected $ 100 million into the industry . Getty ' s response to these issues was interventionist . During his first budget , he targeted spending at the province ' s struggling agricultural sector , including a $ 2 billion loan program meant to address high interest rates . His government tried to stimulate the energy sector by making loan guarantee s to Husky Oil ( $ 380 million ) and Syncrude ( $ 200 million ) for new and expanded capital projects . The government also provided a $ 55 million guarantee — in addition to a $ 20 million loan — to Peter Pocklington ' s Gainers meat - packing plant ; when Pocklington defaulted on the loan , the government seized , and eventually closed , the plant . This incident and others contributed to a perception that Getty ' s administration was willing to spend public money to support large businesses , but that it was indifferent to the struggles of labour ( the Gainers loan had initially been made after the government brokered a labour settlement favourable to the plant ' s management ) . Most damaging to the government ' s reputation was the failure of the Principal Group , an Edmonton - based trust company . Its investment subsidiaries were ordered shut down June 30 , 1987 , by court orders obtained at the instigation of Provincial Treasurer Dick Johnston . The parent company went bankrupt August 10 amid accusations of fraud . A court - ordered investigation led by Bill Code found that the company was in trouble as early as 1980 and , though subsequent economic downturns hurt it , " it would not have been profitable in any event " . It also found that Consumer and Corporate Affairs Minister Connie Osterman had disregarded 1984 warnings from a regulator in her department that the company was likely insolvent . Though Osterman was fired shortly after the report ' s release , Getty ' s immediate offer of an $ 85 million settlement to investors further hurt the government ' s reputation in areas of business . A similar incident stemmed from the 1992 privatization of Alberta Government Telephones ( AGT ) . NovaTel , a cellular subsidiary of AGT , had made a number of financing deals with local companies in the late 1980s , and many of these deals were collapsing just as the government was prepared to sell AGT . At the last moment , the government removed NovaTel from the AGT share offering . NovaTel ' s liabilities eventually cost the government more than $ 600 million . Intergovernmental and constitutional affairs . As a former Minister of Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs , Getty had strong views about constitutional matters , and about Senate reform in particular . He made the cause the centrepiece of Alberta ' s constitutional policy going into the Meech Lake Accord discussions . The Accord ' s final version included a provision whereby the Prime Minister would continue to recommend senatorial appointments to the Governor - General , but would have to make their recommendations from lists provided by the provincial governments . Once it became apparent that the Meech Lake Accord would fail , Getty ' s government introduced the " Senatorial Selection Act " , which provided for an election process whenever there was a vacant Senate seat for Alberta . However , Getty ' s favoured candidate , Progressive Conservative Bert Brown , was soundly defeated by Stan Waters of the upstart Reform Party of Canada , which opposed Meech Lake and favoured aggressive senate reform . Though Prime Minister Brian Mulroney opposed the legislation , he eventually recommended Waters for appointment to the Senate . Getty was still more successful at pursuing senate reform during the negotiations for the Charlottetown Accord , when he won the addition of a Triple - E Senate to the package , against Mulroney ' s opposition . However , the Charlottetown Accord failed after a national referendum in which a majority of Canadians , including 60 . 2 % of Albertans , rejected it . In 1991 , Getty ' s Progressive Conservatives formally severed ties with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada , which was becoming increasingly unpopular under Mulroney . Getty also broke with Mulroney on a number of issues other than Senate reform , including the new federal Goods and Services Tax , which he fought unsuccessfully against implementing . His government also implemented legislation , against Mulroney ' s express wishes , that made English the only official language of Alberta . Despite these steps , Getty remained a supporter of the federal Conservatives ( and not the Reform Party , to which many provincial P . C . s were defecting ) , whose unpopularity rubbed off on him . Getty ' s government also made progress on aboriginal land claims in the northern part of the province . In addition to creating Canada ' s first Métis land base in 1989 , Getty took the lead in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to negotiate a settlement between the federal government and the Lubicon Cree . Political style . In contrast to his predecessor , who was actively involved in most elements of his government , Getty preferred to set the government ' s broad direction and leave lower - level details to his ministers . Ralph Klein , while serving as Environment Minister under Getty , commented that " If you are a minister , you run that portfolio yourself " and expressed an appreciation for the freedom that the Premier gave his cabinet . Al Adair , who served in two different portfolios under Getty , described this approach in his memoirs as " you make the decisions , you run your department , but make mistakes and you ' re gone " . Lisac credits him for knowing when to intervene and when not to , but Adair felt that his approach led to ministers working too much in isolation . Getty was a private , reserved person , which , combined with his tendency to delegate to ministers , sometimes gave the impression of an uncaring aloofness . During the Principal Group affair , which he left primarily in the hands of Treasurer Dick Johnston and Consumer and Corporate Affairs Minister Elaine McCoy , a photographer captured a shot of Getty playing golf while his press secretary had said that he was " working out of the office " . This was typical of his strained relationship with the media , which Adair attributed to the Premier ' s awkwardness and the media ' s unfairness . Decline and retirement . Getty called the 1989 election less than three years into his 1986 mandate to take advantage of the economic optimism prevalent in the province , partly as a result of the Canada - U . S . free trade agreement . While the P . C . s made spending promises including paving all of the province ' s secondary highways , the Liberals — who had returned to the legislature in the 1986 election after fifteen years in the political wilderness — under new leader Laurence Decore stressed dealing with the deficit . While the end result was respectable for the government , as it lost only two net seats against its 1986 results , Getty was defeated in Edmonton - Whitemud by Liberal Percy Wickman . Brian C . Downey resigned his Stettler seat to allow Getty to run in a by - election , which he won handily . He built a home in the riding on Buffalo Lake , and was later accused of arranging for the lake to be risen so it would be better - suited for fishing ( though Adair claimed that the arrangements had been in place since 1979 , when he had been Minister of Recreation , Parks and Wildlife ) . Getty ' s relationship with his own party was often stormy . Shortly after he lost his riding in 1989 , a group of Calgary Conservatives , including party budget director Jack Major and Getty ' s old leadership rival Ron Ghitter , began making plans to force party renewal , with or without Getty . They felt that the party was perceived as being tired , directionless , arrogant , and deaf to urban concerns , and that it was in political trouble in the crucial battleground of Calgary . At the 1989 party convention , recently - retired cabinet minister Marvin Moore , who had organized Ghitter ' s 1985 leadership campaign , advocated for a leadership review ; after a speech by Getty , the convention voted to refer the recommendation to a committee for months of study . Cabinet ministers , including Treasurer Dick Johnston and Education Minister Jim Dinning , began to consider leadership bids in the event that Getty retired or was pushed out . In 1992 , as the national referendum on the Charlottetown Accord and the release of a report on the NovaTel incident loomed , Getty decided to leave politics . In his last months , he deliberately refrained from taking measures that he knew would be popular , such as shrinking cabinet , in order to leave them for his successor . After a party leadership election chose Ralph Klein to succeed him , Getty resigned as party leader December 5 and as Premier several days later . Political legacy . As Premier , Klein positioned himself in contrast to Getty , asserting that the government had " a spending problem " , and stating that he had become Premier at a time of " uncontrolled spending " . Given Klein ' s aggressive spending cuts , which shaped the political climate of Alberta for much of the 1990s , Getty ' s legacy with respect to public finances has been criticized . However , Kevin Taft , writing four years before entering politics , challenged this view , asserting that Getty was running " the tightest government in Canada " . Besides its management of the deficit , Getty ' s government is remembered for the creation of Family Day . For the most part , however , Getty dropped quickly from the public view and public memory . Lisac suggests that this is because , unlike his predecessor and successor , he lacked a central message : Professional football career . Don Getty played ten seasons with the Edmonton Eskimos as a quarterback . For the first part of his career , he backed up Jackie Parker and filled in for him when he was moved to running back . Eskimos coach Pop Ivy surprised many observers when he started Getty at quarterback in the third game of the 1956 western final ( which was a three game series at the time ) during the 44th Grey Cup , with Parker at running back . It bore results , however , as Parker tied the record for most touchdowns scored in a Grey Cup game , at three . Getty also handed the ball to Johnny Bright for two touchdowns and scored two himself on quarterback keeps from the one yard line , as the Eskimos won their third consecutive championship over the Montreal Alouettes by a score of 50 – 27 . He continued with Eskimos until 1963 , and also made three appearances in the 1965 season . Getty was one of the most successful Canadian - born quarterbacks in the history of the Canadian Football League , and sits at third on the all - time passing yardage list of Canadian quarterbacks , behind Russ Jackson and Gerry Dattilio , with nearly nine thousand yards . He was declared the outstanding Canadian player in the Western Interprovincial Football Union in 1959 , and was the runner up ( to Jackson ) for the Schenley Award as the league ' s most outstanding Canadian player the same year . He was placed on the Eskimos ' Wall of Honour in 1992 . Career statistics . Until and including the 1958 season , a tackle for a loss on a passing play was registered as a rushing attempt . Retirement . Getty kept a low profile after leaving politics . He assumed several corporate directorships , and spent time with his grandchildren . Unlike Lougheed , he rarely commented on political matters . He was appointed as an Officer to the Order of Canada in 1998 . In July 2008 , after Premier Ed Stelmach announced $ 2 billion in funding to industry to develop carbon capture technology , Getty ' s company sought some of the funding to bury carbon dioxide in salt caverns near Two Hills . Electoral record . As party leader . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election .