King Ralph's Long Reign.

This article reports on the popularity of Alberta premier Ralph Klein. How to explain the Klein phenomenon? Part of it -- a big part -- comes down to personality. Klein is someone a lot of Albertans have trouble disliking, even when they disagree with his policies. True to his roots, Klein cares more about how he comes across in the blue-collar Sun newspapers than in the pages of, say, the Globe and Mail -- which may help explain some of the curious crusades he takes on. Where Klein really shines, though, is in the media scrum, which he does more frequently and at greater length than any other major politician in Canada. Klein has other obvious skills as a politician. He is neither an ideologue nor a revolutionary; he governs as a pragmatist from the centre.