Ralph bucks

English

Etymology

Named after Ralph Klein, who was premier of Alberta when the payment was issued.

Proper noun

Ralph bucks

1. (Canada, politics) A one-time payment of $400 paid to Albertans in 2006 to commemorate a 2005 provincial budget surplus.
   • 2010, William Marsden, Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta Is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (And Doesn't Seem to Care)‎^[1], Knopf Canada, →ISBN, retrieved March 23, 2022, page 158:

     The Tories have basically treated oil and gas revenues as their own private slush fund. When they need votes, they buy them. The $1.3 billion in "Ralph Bucks" dished out in 2005 to Albertans in $400 cheques is only the latest example.

   • 2016, Jon Gordon, Unsustainable Oil: Facts, Counterfacts and Fictions‎^[2], University of Alberta Press, →ISBN, retrieved March 23, 2022, page 205:

     The so-called Ralph bucks, named for then-premier Ralph Klein, though much derided by critics as an attempt to buy the electorate with their own money, could also be read as a populist attempt to include the population in the windfall profits the government was then reaping from the sale of oil leases and royalties.