T1B

Alberta's shoot-from-the-lip Premier Ralph Klein says federal Liberal leadership candidate Bob Rae is a "dumb politician."

Klein, never one to mince words during his 14-year term, told the Sun yesterday that "education bears no relationship to intelligence" and that for all his education, the former Ontario premier is "dumb."

'WELL EDUCATED, BUT ... '

"Bob Rae is a Rhodes Scholar. He's well educated, but he's dumb when it comes to politics," said Klein, a high school dropout who later completed his education in a vocational school after a brief stint in the air force. "He knows nothing about street politics."

He said the former NDP leader "just added to the accumulated debt in that province and drove up the deficit" after taking over the premier's office from the outgoing David Peterson Liberals.

"God knows what he did. He's the only person that I know of that had a day named after him: Rae Days," Klein said, referring to the unpaid holidays provincial bureaucrats were required to take to cut costs.