Alberta Finance Minister Pat Nelson gave a lesson in Ralphonomics to a receptive crowd of university commerce students and top local business leaders on Friday.

“The Klein revolution . . . was simply the adoption of basic principles of business – the kinds of principles that students like you learn in the first few years of your degree,” Nelson told the 300-plus crowd at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel.

Nelson was the keynote speaker at the 32nd annual Business Day Conference, an event organized by bachelor of commerce students within the Faculty of Management at the University of Calgary.

The day-long event brought together students and blue-chip business leaders – including Emergo Projects International chairman Alfred Balm, Albi Homes senior vice-president Debra Mauro, ENMAX CEO Bob Nicolay and TransAlta vice-president Jim Dinning – to talk about business issues.

Nelson told the audience that Klein helped turn Alberta’s fortunes around by deciding to run the government like a publicly traded company, measuring effectiveness and performance and adopting a consolidated budgeting process as part of a strategic business plan.

“The old attitude seemed to be that we’d cross our fingers and hope for $30 a barrel of oil. That old attitude was not sustainable,” she said. “We’ll stay the course on the general philosophy that we will not intrude on the business environment, that we will stay back and create the framework, make sure it’s appropriate, and stay out of businesses’ way from moving forward.”

Nelson also had words of reassurance for British Columbia in its struggle to get its financial house in order.

“Government debt is a government killer,” she said. “Our friends in British Columbia are coming to that realization. But I know they will be better off for all of the troubles they’re going to have in this next while, as we are.”

Meanwhile, local sports retailing czar John Forzani was named Distinguished Business Leader of 2002 by the U of C and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Forzani, chairman and CEO of the Forzani Group Ltd., was lauded for both his business acumen in leading his 334 corporate and franchise stores and 8,000 employees to retail sales approaching $1 billion, and his commitment to the Calgary community and philanthropic causes.