Don Getty, who served as Alberta’s 11th Premier from 1985 to 1992, was born in Quebec on this date in 1933. Growing up, he lived with his parents in a variety of Canadian communities which I note with great pride, included my beloved hometown of Scarborough, Ontario.
During his university studies at Western, he was a star basketball and football player. It was therefore no surprise that he entered the CFL, eventually quarter-backing two Grey Cup winning teams while with Edmonton.
With his popularity running high, he entered provincial politics in 1965 and was later named a leading member of Premier Peter Lougheed’s cabinet. In 1985, upon the latter’s retirement, Getty became the 11th Premier of his adopted province.
While his time as Premier was sometimes rocky, he played leading roles in constitutional reforms efforts in the 1980s and early 1990s. During that period, for example, he formed a warm friendship and political partnership with Ontario’s Premier, David Peterson.
He left office in 1992 and enjoyed a long retirement outside of politics. He passed into history in 2016 at the age of 82.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.