On this day in 1957, a quarterback — and a future premier — named Don Getty was signing another contract with Edmonton's football team.
Getty first came to Alberta in 1955 as a new graduate and newlywed. While at the University of Western Ontario, he played basketball and football. Then, in 1955, Getty received and accepted an offer from Edmonton's team to play football.
The timing couldn't have been better. Getty and the team went on to win the Grey Cup in both 1955 and 1956. Getty would stay as quarterback with the team for the next decade, proving himself a valuable asset and ending up on its Wall of Fame.
In 1965, another former football player, Peter Lougheed, approached Getty to run for the Progressive Conservatives in the 1967 provincial election. While the Progressive Conservatives did not unseat the dominant Social Credit Party at the polls that year, Getty won Strathcona West in Edmonton, becoming one of the party's "Original Six". In the next election, in 1971, the PCs ended Social Credit's 36-year reign and took a majority, with Getty again winning, this time in Edmonton-Whitemud.
Getty served as the minister of intergovernmental affairs and the minister of energy before he left politics in 1979. He returned in 1985, running for and winning the leadership of the PC party, and then became premier. As premier, Getty took the reins at a turbulent time for Alberta: Oil prices were cratering, and the economy was in a dire state. Getty was criticized for responding with some expensive promises during the 1986 election. It didn't help that Getty was also prone to gaffes and attempts at jokes that got him in trouble, including saying the then-ongoing Chernobyl disaster would end up benefiting Alberta's oil sector.
In the 1989 election, the PCs held on to power, though they lost seats, including Getty's. That forced Getty to run in a byelection to regain a seat in the legislature. Getty continued to lead the province until 1992, when he resigned and took a step back from the public eye. He remained in Edmonton until his death in 2016.
Getty's legacy is complicated. Aside from managing economic turmoil, his terms in office saw Alberta attract increased investment in the oilsands and negotiate land claims with Indigenous nations. Today, though, Getty is probably best known for the Family Day holiday, an idea that the family-oriented premier was reportedly passionate about establishing. That holiday provided a welcome break for Edmontonians a few weeks ago.
This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist Rev Recluse of Vintage Edmonton.