EDMONTON - Ralph Klein, the pugnacious, populist former premier of Alberta, has been diagnosed with lung disease, says his close friend Rod Love.
Love says the 68-year-old Klein confirmed he has emphysema.
"It was probably brought on largely by (the fact) he smoked for a long time," Love said Wednesday.
"We know enough now that if you smoke for a long time, it's going to catch up with you, but then I'm not his doctor."
Klein was not immediately available for comment.
Emphysema is a chronic lung disease that damages air sacs in the lungs, making it hard to breathe.
It can lead to shortness of breath and fatigue. While there is no cure, the effects can be ameliorated by pills, puffers and supplemental oxygen.
There have also been reports that Klein is suffering from memory loss and sometimes has trouble recognizing people.
Love said that might be an over-statement.
"People who haven't seen him for awhile are a bit taken aback because when he was on his game he was as good as you can get, and he's not on his game anymore.
"But I had lunch with him three weeks ago. We had a good chat. He's slowed down, but he's still Ralph."
Klein left politics four years ago and has since kept busy doing consulting and teaching work in Calgary.
"He's pretty much retired," said Love.
"He and (his wife) Colleen are living the kind of life they want to live. They've still got the bungalow they've lived in for 30 years, and now they've got lots of grandkids running around. That's all they're doing and that's all they want to do."
In retirement, Klein has retreated from the public spotlight, but still appears sporadically at events to honour his legacy, such as the recent naming of a new Ralph Klein Park in Calgary. Politicians have already renamed the riding where he grew up from Calgary-North Hill to Calgary-Klein.
Two months ago, he was officially awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence. In a bizarre twist, he also co-hosted a two-episode cable TV game show titled "On the Clock."
He rarely speaks publicly or to reporters. Physically, he is still the same old Klein, his post-politics waistline perhaps a bit wider, his trademark jowls droopier.
His legacy is built on being one of Canada's most colourful and outspoken leaders.
Klein became premier in 1992 after serving as mayor of Calgary during the 1980s. As mayor, he became famous for blaming eastern Canadian "creeps and bums" for driving up his city's crime rate.
As premier, he led the Progressive Conservatives to three consecutive majority wins. During his tenure his government used soaring oil and gas royalties to eradicate the province's $23-billion debt.
But those savings came at a cost as hundreds of thousands of newcomers came west to share in the oil and gas wealth.
The influx squeezed housing, drove prices up across the board for homes, and construction, lengthened wait lists for hospital care and forced an overstressed education system to cram kids into portables.
Critics say staff cuts, particularly in health care, that Klein made in the early 1990s came back to haunt him in the aughties. Klein eventually admitted his government never had a plan to cope with the population boom.
He fashioned a popular political persona as the Alberta Everyman, a two-fisted blue collar drinker admired for calling a spade a spade and not being afraid to admit when he was wrong.
He drank at the St. Louis Hotel, an ancient chicken-wing beer-bar near Calgary's downtown. Headline writers still call him by his first name.
A smoker since his teens, Klein admitted he also battled the booze. In 2001 he promised to quit drinking after he lost his cool at a downtown homeless shelter, haranguing the residents, throwing money on the floor, and telling them all to get jobs.
After the debt was retired, critics said Klein seemed to drift. Early in 2006 he received an underwhelming 55 per cent show of support in a party leadership review vote and decided to retire.
