My little birds tell me the Alberta election Writ gets dropped on Monday February 4th after the Throne Speech. Bundle up Alberta because candidates will be knocking on your doors and sticking signs on your lawns in the dead of winter. They will want to talk about the best possible future for the province and why they are the best way to get there.
There will be differences of opinion to understand, choices to be considered and judgements to be made. Citizens will have to be engaged and get self-informed as to who they think will be best to position our province for the challenges ahead.
There will be differences of opinion to understand, choices to be considered and judgements to be made. Citizens will have to be engaged and get self-informed as to who they think will be best to position our province for the challenges ahead.
Today there is a serious disconnect between Alberta’s opinion and thought leaders and our political and powerful economic elites. Our recent oil sands survey results show that disconnect most dramatically. Albertans want a more reasoned, integrated and sustainable approach to our growth, not just growth for its own sake and at any cost. With oil at $100 a barrel, traditional cost controls have not been effective as a market restraint for energy projects. Other factors will have to come into play,
Albertans clearly want growth but they also want a new definition of success that includes a greater focus on ecological integrity. They want attention paid and solutions found to the wide range of serious societal needs that an overheated economy has brought to Alberta. They also want better quality decision making at the political and policy level.
That is the challenge facing political candidates in this election. It is more than winning the election. It is also about proving to citizens through their platforms and proposals for the future that they “get it.” Even after proving that they get it, citizens will be looking at the various leaders and local candidates to judge if they have the personal capacity, ability and energy to be effective and to actually do something about “it.”
In 1993 Albertans “got it” that the province had a serious spending problem that was unsustainable. Laurence Decore, as Leader of the Opposition, stood up in the Legislature with his wallet held high above his head. He declared Alberta did not have a revenue problem, it had a spending problem, and that resonated with the feelings Albertans. The newly selected PC leader and then Premier, Ralph Klein, saw this happening and he jumped in from of that parade. As a result he was perceived as the political guy who best “got it” in those days. The rest, as they say, is history.
Today Albertans are once again way ahead of their politicians. We have yet to see the crystallizing moment for Albertans as we did to spur on the debt and deficit thrust of the 1990’s. It will come. In politics it always does. The moment came close with the release of the Our Fair Share Royalty Review Report. That however was way too complex a set of issues to become the crystallizing moment.
My guess that crystallizing political moment will come during this elections. It will be around ecology, wildlife habitat, climate change and the oil sands. These all relate in some way or other but there will be one shining moment when the emergent becomes both the important and the urgent in the hearts and minds of the voters. At that moment politics, policy and purpose in the role and responsibility of our government will shift dramatically.
As a result politics will become more meaningful again to everyday Albertans. Hopefully politicians will be allowed to be curious, exploratory and to show their humanity in ways that are authentic and genuine - not just media mobilized mush. Democracy will be better and social needs will return to the policy agenda along with the economy and the environment. If the happens we will all be better for it, you, me and our kids, will be the beneficiaries from this renewed and improved sense of purposefully engaged citizenship.
RE: "Hopefully politicians will be allowed to be curious, exploratory and to show their humanity in ways that are authentic and genuine - not just media mobilized mush."
ReplyDeleteKen,
My sense is most politicians are more curious, exploratory, and human than portrayed in the media. The problem is the media itself. One need look no further than the local papers to see headlines which bear little resemblance to the content of the article, but have key catchphrases and buzzwords not only designed to lure, but to generate an immediate opinion.
My favourite comment within an article begins with "critics [denounced/criticized/objected] to ...". Well, what would critics do other than criticize? Can you ever envision as sentence like "critics praise decision of ..."? Ridiculous.
The media needs to look to its own house if it wants credibility. For instance, we should know a columnist's background when reading an article. What does their spouse do for a living, or who was their previous or current employer outside of the paper? If writing an article with a business focus, do they own shares or have an economic interest in the company mentioned?
For example, when I see a comment by Deborah Yedlin in the Calgary Herald business section, I know that her husband is a partner in a Calgary-based energy investment bank... and I judge her comments accordingly. Most readers would not have this information, and would see no conflict when she yammers on about royalties in one column, and praises Lougheed's arts funding in another - WITHOUT ever noting that Lougheed raised royalties during his tenure. Or another recent regular columnist was a director of the Canadian Taxpayer Federation... paper may want to footnote that, instead of just mentioning the book he recently wrote. Another sometime columnist has a son who recently founded a political party in Alberta.. might want to note that when he objects to the current government in his article.
A wise man once told me "never pick a fight with someone who has unlimited access to ink and paper". If that is true, given the consolidation of media ownership around the world, and their resulting ability to pick-and-choose what we read, democracy is in trouble.
Ken,
ReplyDeleteDo your little birds know that March 4, 2008 is a Tuesday? :)
Nope - but they did know there are 29 days in February this year making election day March 3
ReplyDeleteYeah, we will finally(!) be in a position to cut though the pre-election clutter and hyperbole.
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait.
Debra
Craig Chandler and his many supporters embarassed the Premier today at the Chamber of Commerce. When will Stelmach learn that the PGIB is a force that cannot be ignored?
ReplyDeleteChandler will defeat Denis in Egmont 4:1.
Anon @ 5:23 - embarrassed the Premier in what way?
ReplyDeleteI hear Dave Hancock is going to have his hands full with a liberal candidate. What is your take Ken?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Don Braid in the Jan.31 Calgary Herald: "The premier made a long speech to a huge chamber of commerce crowd Wednesday without one interruption for applause. After the five-second sitting ovation died away at the end, Stelmach faced three hostile questions from Craig Chandler's acolytes, who accused the premier of being undemocratic.
ReplyDeleteExcept for two catcalls and some private muttering about the Chandlerites, there was no sign that anybody cared to defend Stelmach. A roomful of Tory candidates and ministers sat on their hands, amid ominous silence."
Morning Herbert.
ReplyDeleteNobody in their right minds thinks this is going to be an easy election...Calgary or anywhere else in the province (excpet Mr. Stelmach's own riding).
Mr. Chandler is merely an annoyance. There are bigger concerns at play in the minds of Albertans.
Will people care enough to show up?
Don Braid has had his shorts in a knot for some time, so I wouldn't take his version of events as Gospel. But I would hardly say that the Chandlerites "embarassed" the Premier like the above anonymous poster indicates. The Chamber of Commerce event is open to all members, it is not a PC event. A subset of PGIB supports Chandler, not the entire PGIB organization (if they did, Chandler would be a director of the Wildrose Alliance today).
ReplyDeleteSo a few cranks get up and ask the Premiers questions relating to Chandler. While they might feel better for releasing a little steam, they also stand publicly in front of their fellow businesspeople as a bunch of cranks.
Ken has it right on this one. Chandler is an annoyance, and there are bigger issues at play.
I asked the Premier why he denied democracy and punted Craig Chandler.
ReplyDeleteHe looked at me and told an outright lie to me and the assembled audience. He claimed to have met with the candidate and that the candidate agreed that the hearing was very fair.
I was stunned. I was at the 2.5 hour grill session in Red Deer where Craig was questioned in a fashion that reminded me of the McCarthy hearings. There was no agreement. In fact, they never even faced us... they gave their lawyer a scrap of paper and sent him out to hand it to us while they told the media.
Classless idiots.
Good job Ed. Start your campaign speeches with a lie. How many more lies will be told by this government
Harley Shouldice
anon 9:13,
ReplyDeleteI am a PC member but plan on either (1) sitting out the election; or (2) actively voting for whichever candidate I feel has the best chance of defeating the Tory candidate.
Granted, I do not want the Liberals too have power but what else can we do?
As for Dave Hancock in Whitemud, its never an easy ride. That being said, Dave is one of the strongest voices in government. Nancy Cavanaugh, meanwhile, is not a star candidate. She didn't make many friends in Fort McMurray when she served on the Public School Board as Nancy Rempel and her lacklustre performance will likely carry over to the campaign.
ReplyDeleteAs for Chandler in Egmont, I look forward to the wild accusations of ballot box stuffing and other third-world tactics that will come from the Chandleristas when they are yet again proven irrelevant in the minds of Albertans come election day.
Yeah Harley Shouldice the guy that was handing out $5 bills during the nomination. What kind of kangaroo democracy allows the blatant buying of votes?
ReplyDeleteI hope you get less than 100 votes in North Hill. Fawcett is a shoe in there.
Br, one of the strongest "liberal" voices in government. Hence, what is the point of electing a provincial liberal in that riding if you already have Hancock?
ReplyDelete