Former Alberta Premier Don Getty, dead at 82

Don Getty, Alberta's 11th premier who served from 1985 to 1992, has passed away.

A family member confirmed to CTV News that Getty, who had been in and out of hospital over the past few years, and living in a long-term care facility, had passed away due to heart failure early Friday morning.

Getty had been battling various illnesses for years, according to his son Darin Getty, "His health had deteriorated in the last week or so. In the last couple of days it had gone down even substantially more."

Getty may best be remembered for introducing Family Day to Alberta but his political legacy extends well beyond the provincial holiday.

Getty had a long career in politics but football fans first got a hint of his charisma when he quarterbacked the Edmonton Eskimos. He played with the team for 10 years starting in 1955, and led the Eskimos to a Grey Cup in 1956.

After leaving the Esks, Getty worked full time in the oilpatch and eventually formed his own company, Baldonnel Oil and Gas.

His career in politics began in 1967 with Peter Lougheed, then leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives, asking him if he wanted to get into politics.

Getty won one of six seats that year in the provincial election and four years later was part of the Progressive Conservative party that brought down the Social Credit's 36-year dynasty in the province.

Getty was made the province’s first minister of Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs in Lougheed's administration and then as the price of oil skyrocketed for the first time, was named Energy Minister.

In 1979 Getty took a break from politics wanting to spend more time with his family and returned to the oilpatch. He returned in 1985 to run for party leader when Lougheed retired.

Following a bitter leadership race in 1985, Getty took the leadership and was sworn into office on Nov. 1, 1985.

Oil glut and record debt

Almost as soon as he took over, a global oil glut saw prices plunge by 60 per cent.

Alberta was saddled with a record $3.3- billion deficit in 1986. Five more deficits followed and the accumulated debt topped $15 billion -- about $3 billion more than the assets of the nest-egg Heritage Savings Trust Fund.

The province intervened directly pumping billions of dollars into oil and forestry initiatives, new pulp mills and loans to encourage drilling.

Getty was blamed for the failure of a number of government-backed businesses, the most costly of which was a $600-million loss on a cellular phone company called NovAtel Communications.

The province also took over money-losing meat-packer Gainers Inc. after millionaire Peter Pocklington defaulted on loan guarantees Getty had personally approved.

Not everything was doom and gloom under his watch.

In 1989, he brought in a law making the third Monday of February a Family Day holiday. Most other provinces followed suit over the years.

Getty fought for the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords to embrace Quebec in the Canadian constitutional fold. He also brought in the new Metis Settlement Act, setting aside land and granted self-government to eight Metis settlements.

In 1991, Getty announced he was stepping down from the party and retired.

Don Getty was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 1998 and, in 2001, the new Don Getty Wildland Provincial Park west of Calgary was created.

In 2012, Getty stoop-shouldered and using a wheeled walker to get around, said he had no regrets.

"There were ups and downs all right," he said. "But you wake up or go to bed at night with a tremendous feeling of satisfaction, being content that I had done everything possible to make Alberta a great place in the future.

"That's a great sense of accomplishment."

With files from CTV Calgary and The Canadian Press