At first I thought they meant Naomi...

If I were to tell you that Mount Royal College was about to establish the Klein Chair in Media Studies, which Klein would you think I was referring to?

From cbc.ca:

Calgary's Mount Royal College has received $2.5 million in anonymous donations to create a position in the name of the outgoing premier.

Next fall, the Centre for Communications Studies will have a Ralph Klein Chair in Media Studies, which will bring in experts in the field to teach and research.

And the first occupant of said position? Let's let the Acting Dean of the Centre for Communication Studies explain for himself:

"Who better to offer our students special insights, based on years of front-line experience in broadcasting, broadcast journalism, media relations and communications, than Ralph Klein himself," said Chikinda.

So let me get this straight: the premier who slashed funding to post-secondary education, who did nothing to restore it once Alberta was financially sound, and whose cuts are still affecting morale and the bottom line at PSE institutions will soon take up a position at a post-secondary institution. Not only that, but it will be in a field that he has not worked in for over a quarter of a century, and in a field that he was incredibly skilled at manipulating since he stopped working in it. Not only THAT, but the position was endowed by who knows which individuals in what smacks of an attempt to establish a legacy. Not only that, but in addition to having the position named after him, he gets to occupy it (and get paid for it!) as well, which is not the usual case with endowed chairs.

Endowed chairs are a highly desirable addition to any post-secondary institution because funding is completely external and therefore does not cut into the institution's bottom line. The irony is that the most-Honourable Mr. Klein's budget cuts created a situation where universities and colleges had to scramble for creative ways to work around low core funding, including competing for more endowed chairs. But how desperate are institutions that they would accept a position that sounds more like a joke than an actual line on a CV?

This makes me angry on so many levels I cannot even articulate it.