His parents were Danube Swabians, German pioneers whose ancestors settled in parts of eastern Europe that would later be known as Hungary and Yugoslavia.
[3] Klees ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1975 provincial election, losing to Liberal Remo Mancini in the southwestern riding of Essex South.
[7] On June 17, 1999 he was appointed to the cabinet of Premier Mike Harris as Chief Government Whip, Deputy House Leader and Minister without Portfolio.
After returning to the backbenches for a year, he was reappointed to cabinet on October 3, 2002 as Minister of Tourism under Harris' successor, Ernie Eves.
He was endorsed by Tory MPPs Jerry Ouellette, Ted Chudleigh and Bill Murdoch, and groups such as the Conservative Youth Coalition.
The other candidates in the race were Whitby-Ajax MPP Jim Flaherty and former Rogers Communications CEO John Tory.
Klees increased his profile during the campaign, and became the Critic for Education and Citizenship & Immigration in the Legislature as well as a member of the Justice Committee.
[13][14] After the 2011 general election Klees requested the post of deputy party leader, presently held by Whitby-Oshawa MPP Christine Elliott, but Tim Hudak instead offered the shadow cabinet role of transportation critic along with ethnic outreach in the PC party's shadow cabinet, which Klees turned down.
On October 25, 2011, Klees announced that he would run for Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, in defiance of the opposition party leaders who had earlier ordered their members not to contest the Speakership.