When it comes to investing billions of public dollars in private companies, Alberta politicians like to talk about former premier Peter Lougheed.

Nobody likes to talk about former premier Don Getty.

This week, when Premier Jason Kenney defended his government spending $1.5 billion of public cash and $6 billion in loan guarantees to prop up the Keystone XL pipeline project, he pointed to Lougheed successfully investing in private companies in the 1970s.