Have the personal qualities and capabilities Albertans want to see in their political leaders changed in 5 years? When political leadership was not an issue in Alberta, way back in May 2003, Cambridge Strategies did a survey of the preference drivers of Albertans on the “next leader.”
We asked Albertans about their preferences in the following areas:
Preparation – what kind of experience should he/she have?
Vision – where did we want them to focus Alberta’s future?
Education – how much education was needed to do the job?
Personal Qualities – which kind of character qualities were preferred?
Communications Skills – What communications skills and approach was preferred?
Change Agent – what approach to change should the next leader undertake?
We found some attributes to be positive as strengths to build on. Others were negatives that candidates should avoid or fix if they fit the personal profile of any Alberta leadership aspirant.
So here is what Albertans said then was the most desirable/optimal kind of leader. They must have life and business experience with a minimum of a university degree. They should be advancing new ideas and be able to bring clarity to complex issues. They had to exhibit integrity and honesty or be experienced and knowledgeable. Their vision for Alberta has to be expansive and focused on Alberta future in a world view, or at the very least, Alberta’s role in Canada.
Albertans were looking for a fresh approach to leadership in those days. Not much has changed I would say. The optimistic Albertan wanted more of Alberta’s potential to be realized. They were keen to have a leader who advanced new ideas and supported them but not one who was seen as content to follow the lead of others.
The pessimistic Albertans want the focus on solving our problems first. They worried about Alberta’s place in Canada, they wanted someone with knowledge and experience and good a listening and understanding issues. But who would also put out new ideas and champion causes.
The least optimal/negative attributes for leadership in Alberta was a leader who focused on Alberta, had only a high school education, is “media savvy” and is assertive and self confident. Looks like Ralph Klein would not win if the voter decisions were based solely on these negative perceptions of leadership. Elections have a life of their own and while PC supporter stayed home and other left for the Alliance, Ralph won again in Novemver 2004, but he dropped quite a few seats that election and the party sent him off to retirement in April of 2006.
A word of caution to today’s Alberta Liberal leader, Dr. Taft, an academic background was a big negative for leadership. It could be worse Kevin; the other preparation negative was a legal background. Good thing you didn’t teach law while at the University.
One overlooked leader who fits this set of leadership attributes bill pretty well today is George Read of the Albert Green Party. For education; he has a PoliSci degree, Preparation; business experience working in the furniture manufacturing business and as a tree planter as a summer job while going to school so he knows something about the forestry industry. As for Alberta role in Canada, well he was the National Campaign Manager for the federal Greens in the 2005-06 federal election. As for championing new ideas, how about his work with the Environmentally Responsible Livestock Operators and the Western Sky Land Trust for innovations.
All in all not a bad fit. Too bad he is not part of the debate tonight so Albertans could look him in the eye and judge for themselves his personal qualities of honesty and integrity. we could see for ourselves just how he exercises his communications skills and works under pressure. But that opportunity will not be available to Albertans in this debate tonight and that is a Pity!
We asked Albertans about their preferences in the following areas:
Preparation – what kind of experience should he/she have?
Vision – where did we want them to focus Alberta’s future?
Education – how much education was needed to do the job?
Personal Qualities – which kind of character qualities were preferred?
Communications Skills – What communications skills and approach was preferred?
Change Agent – what approach to change should the next leader undertake?
We found some attributes to be positive as strengths to build on. Others were negatives that candidates should avoid or fix if they fit the personal profile of any Alberta leadership aspirant.
So here is what Albertans said then was the most desirable/optimal kind of leader. They must have life and business experience with a minimum of a university degree. They should be advancing new ideas and be able to bring clarity to complex issues. They had to exhibit integrity and honesty or be experienced and knowledgeable. Their vision for Alberta has to be expansive and focused on Alberta future in a world view, or at the very least, Alberta’s role in Canada.
Albertans were looking for a fresh approach to leadership in those days. Not much has changed I would say. The optimistic Albertan wanted more of Alberta’s potential to be realized. They were keen to have a leader who advanced new ideas and supported them but not one who was seen as content to follow the lead of others.
The pessimistic Albertans want the focus on solving our problems first. They worried about Alberta’s place in Canada, they wanted someone with knowledge and experience and good a listening and understanding issues. But who would also put out new ideas and champion causes.
The least optimal/negative attributes for leadership in Alberta was a leader who focused on Alberta, had only a high school education, is “media savvy” and is assertive and self confident. Looks like Ralph Klein would not win if the voter decisions were based solely on these negative perceptions of leadership. Elections have a life of their own and while PC supporter stayed home and other left for the Alliance, Ralph won again in Novemver 2004, but he dropped quite a few seats that election and the party sent him off to retirement in April of 2006.
A word of caution to today’s Alberta Liberal leader, Dr. Taft, an academic background was a big negative for leadership. It could be worse Kevin; the other preparation negative was a legal background. Good thing you didn’t teach law while at the University.
One overlooked leader who fits this set of leadership attributes bill pretty well today is George Read of the Albert Green Party. For education; he has a PoliSci degree, Preparation; business experience working in the furniture manufacturing business and as a tree planter as a summer job while going to school so he knows something about the forestry industry. As for Alberta role in Canada, well he was the National Campaign Manager for the federal Greens in the 2005-06 federal election. As for championing new ideas, how about his work with the Environmentally Responsible Livestock Operators and the Western Sky Land Trust for innovations.
All in all not a bad fit. Too bad he is not part of the debate tonight so Albertans could look him in the eye and judge for themselves his personal qualities of honesty and integrity. we could see for ourselves just how he exercises his communications skills and works under pressure. But that opportunity will not be available to Albertans in this debate tonight and that is a Pity!
I agree with you, Ken, that the Greens should have been part of the debate. The voters of Alberta have been deprived of an opportunity to view a legitimate and thoughtful player on the provincial political scene. (By the way, I say this as one who is likely not going to vote Green, but simply finds their ideas stimulating.) Do you have thoughts about how we can start now to see this is the last time the MSM filters the Green out of the debate, either federally or provincially?
ReplyDeletegeorge_read_in_youtube_leaders_debate
ReplyDeleteGotta love George Read of the Alberta Greens; everybody does.
Write to the networks and recommend they use a more workable metric for all debates.
ReplyDeleteWhat determines if a leadership candidate gets into a debate should be, in my opinion, whether that party has a theoretical chance of forming a majority government.
ie, if they're running candidates in more than half the ridings, that should be the ticket to get on the tube.
If he wasn't a radical environmentalist that would destroy the Alberta economy, I would vote for him too.
ReplyDeleteI am an Alberta who has been following the election and do not know who George Read is. Part of the job of a real leader is to get in front of the media.
ReplyDeleteYou should try actually looking at the Green platform (http://www.albertagreens.ca/system/files/Platform_2008.pdf). In many ways, they're more conservative than the PCs fiscally.
ReplyDeletePart of their platform, for instance, includes providing "incentives for value-added industries such as bitumen upgrading" and supporting the rights of landowners. "The people who steward our land have valuable
knowledge of local economies and ecosystems. We must move to a position of cooperation with
landowners, and away from the current practice of making them fight for the right to make decisions regarding the use of the land on which they have made
their home."
I would have to think that the mistrust of academics had a lot to do with Klein's assault on both academic institutions and intelligent discourse.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that journalists referred to "Mr. Taft" instead of Dr......were things so dumbed down by Klein that Kevin prefers Mr for fear of being painted as an egghead? What's this province coming to?
True he has a PhD, and it's actually in business. Call me naive but that is a capacity to run a very unique jurisdiction. A big reason I support the ALP is that Kevin is about as far from a crude high school dropout that made billion dollar decision between cigarette puffs (when he did show up to work) as you can get.
Jonathan - the point behind your point is the ALP is running against Klein in this election. He is history and that is why you guys have peaked...and below the level you need to take power.
ReplyDeleteI'd say I was lamenting the criteria that seems to have developed for leaders. While Klein got away with murder (and more), there's been a ridiculously high standard heaped on opposition leaders. The most frustrating part is that the standards were so low for Klein.
ReplyDeleteStelmach has also suffered from comparisons to Klein, but not at bad as the opposition leaders. Somedays I feel like a re-animated Abraham Lincoln couldn't get Alberta voters to consider choosing to vote for a non-Tory party .