EDITORIAL - From the Edmonton Journal, Monday November 18, 1996

The public will judge the Kleins
Was Multi-Corp just a little mistake?

There are questions to be answered about Ralph Klein and a private company in which his wife held shares she hadn’t paid for. But the answers should come on the political stage.

There is no reason to waste time on a new investigation by Alberta's Ethics Commissioner, Bob Clark.

Clark has not proven himself capable of conducting a thorough investigation into allegations that Klein behaved wrongly in dealings involving the high-technology company Multi-Corp.

His previous investigation" was notable for his inability to ask the right questions.

Another inadequate probe would be no more satisfactory.

At any rate, what else is there to learn about this affair?

What is known is sufficient for Albertans to judge. What isn't known will not be nailed down by a superficial probe.

Clark's first investigation largely chased a red herring: So to, has Liberal Frank Bruseker, who has generally done some fine work poking into Multi-Corp.

The main question is not whether Klein promoted the company. It is the premier's job to promote Alberta companies when he is traveling abroad, and the assertion that he might have done so to in order to make a gain on share prices is so thin as to be absurd.
The main question is whether there was impropriety in how and why the premier’s wife came to own the shares.

The questions for Albertans to answer, since the premier won’t and Clark can’t, are many.

Why would a company, acting on a casual inquiry through her brother, according to Mrs. Klein, give the premier’s wife 10,000 shares on such beneficial terms?

Why would it offer her shares that were worth $1.62 on the day she got them, on the basis that she could pay $1 for them at some undetermined future date?

Why would Multi-Corp give the premier’s wife a no-strings attached $6,200 profit? Why would she accept it?

Do Albertans believe there was no impropriety there?

Do they accept Mrs. Klein’s assertions that she did not think there was a connection between this deal and the fact she is married to the premier?

Do they believe the company didn’t make such a connection?

What of the fact that the wife of Klein’s chief aide, Rod Love, got a similar deal?

Do Albertans believe that Mrs. Klein never mentioned the share deal to her husband, as the couple claims?

She has explained by saying that she is not a sophisticated, experienced investor. Wouldn’t that make it more likely that she would mention the deal to her husband, not less?

Do Albertans find it unseemly, if not more, that the share certificate was handed to Mrs. Klein, and the terms of the sweet deal discussed with her only casually, during an official function at the government's Calgary offices?

Why was there not even a written agreement?

When the premier finally informed the ethics commissioner of the share ownership, he neglected to mention the payment terms and the resulting debt, as he is required by law to do.

Clark ruled that the failure was his, for not asking specifically whether the shares had been paid for.

He used this nicety to declare the omission to be only a technical breach of ethics rules. Klein, who had promised to resign if found in the wrong, saw this as an exoneration.

Do Albertans still believe that?

Why would Clark ask about it if Klein didn’t mention payment terms?

Multi-Corp president Michael Lobsinger invited Ralph Klein to take part in a Nov. 20, 1993 ribbon cutting ceremony in Hong Kong. Twenty four days later, Lobsinger personally delivered 10,000 Multi-Corp shares to Colleen Klein, drawn from the personal holdings of company official Larry Novak.

Clark didn’t even bother to ask any of them why Multi-Corp would set up such a deal.

On Nov. 12, 1994, Ralph and Colleen Klein dined with Lobsinger and others during a Team Canada mission to Hong Kong. That same morning Lobsinger shared a table with Klein at a large breakfast meeting.

Lobsinger was the only private business person invited to the intimate dinner, paid for by the Alberta taxpayer. He was photographed with Klein after the dinner.

The premier said he and Lobsinger did not discuss the company in which Mrs. Klein held the gift shares.

He also says he later did not recall ever meeting Lobsinger.

How likely is that?

After belatedly learning his wife had made a highly unusual share purchase in a company, the premier meets the president of that company twice in one day, and doesn’t remember?

Albertans will have to consider whether all this rings true, and whether what is known for certain is right and proper. Should it be put to rest as just a little mistake by all concerned?

A fair opinion would be that it stinks to the heavens and Klein has glibly slid by it, relying on his personal charm and disarming manner and assisted by a sloppy and inadequate investigation by Clark.

More of the same won’t help now.