Donald Getty

Donald Ross Getty (born August 30, 1933), Canadian politician, was Premier of Alberta and leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party between 1985 and 1992.

A former quarterback with the Edmonton Eskimos, Getty was one of the six Tories elected to the provincial legislature with Peter Lougheed in 1967. When the Tories won the 1971 election, Getty became Lougheed's minister of intergovernmental affairs and in 1975 became minister of energy. He left politics in 1979 to enter business but returned in 1985 when Lougheed stepped down and ran and won the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party becoming Premier of the province.

Getty's government was easily re-elected in 1985 but saw its majority cut. The Getty government was hurt by the decline of oil prices which imperiled the province's economy. In 1989 the government was again re-elected but Getty lost his own seat in Edmonton and was forced to run in a by-election in the safe Tory seat in Stettler. His government tried to cope with the province's economic problems by imposing a wage freeze on the civil service and cutting public services.

Facing the possibility of electoral defeat, and following his success in negotiating Senate reform as part of the Charlottetown Accord he announced his resignation as party leader in September 1992 (prior to the referendum that defeated the Accord) and was replaced by Ralph Klein.