I have been really busy with Reboot Alberta and the Reboot Alberta Blog for the past while and not keeping up with the many issues I would like to write about on the blog.
The Right Call column I do for Alberta Venture magazine with Fil Fraser, Janert Keeping and others is up in the new issue.
As well I did a book review for Alberta Views magazine on Rich Vivone's book on the Klein era "Ralph Could Have Been a Superstar." It is a timely read as we once again have a government in Alberta telling us the economic sky is falling and the only solution is program cuts. Can we learn from the excesses of "brutal" government cuts without concern for the consequences other than getting the budget math right? I hope the Stelmach government reads Rich's book and learns from past mistakes in developing Budget 2010-11. Not much evidence of any such learning so far.
Then I have been working on promoting our own book at Cambridge Strategies "Green Oil" and encouraging Albertans to see themselves as owners of the energy reserves of the province - and begining to act accordingly.
I have been asked to be interviewed by the panel reviewing issues in Alberta Children's Services next week and that will take of preparation and should be interesting.
Another big concern will be the planning of the next stage of Reboot Alberta and get a handle on the principles, values and issues that animate and delineate what is means to be a progressive Albertan in the 21st century. If you are interested in finding out more about progressive Albertans go to http://www.rebootalberta.org/ and become part of the movement.
Ken. I have been following your Reboot Alberta initiative with interest. With the changing political landscape, it is most timely. Will you be sharing with us what the group determines are the values and principles of Alberta progressives?
ReplyDeleteNobody seems to comment on why we really need to "reboot"? We've got a good thing going here, except for the weather sometimes.
ReplyDeleteHi Anon 1:08pm
ReplyDeleteI did not attend the event, and I am not able to provide an identity here because of who I work for.
I do want to try and give an answer to your questions here. Alberta does have a lot of things going for it, however it could be better given our resources, both people and things.
If you operate in the public or private sector and have cross Provincial experence in this area you realize that Alberta stands alone in many areas to its disadvantage.
One example is that Alberta has embraced the boom-bust mentality while other Provinces have diversified, consider the story of Elliot Lake Ontario.
In the area of Government policy, as yet another example, there is burgeoning literature that shows how replacing the governing party from time to time actually has the impact of invigorating public policy having benefits to a wider part of the population.
When governing parties have been in power as long as we are experiencing in Alberta, ideas become stale in part because the static constituency that votes for them.
The most stunning example of this effect was Alberta's Sexual Sterlization Act. It came into effect in 1928 and it was not till 1972 that this Act which is widely considered to be abomination of basic human rights was finally repealed long after other Provinces got rid of similar leglislation. Former P.C. MLA David King who introduced the Act to repeal the Sexual Sterlization Act in 1972 was asked why it took so long for Alberta to repeal such a bad piece of leglislation, he said that when you have the same government in power for so long they tend to stick to their own narrow agenda and are slow to respond to other needs that are outside of the set agenda.
If you want yet another example of why we need a reboot just follow the Premier in the next provincial election and watch which tables he will walk to in the local coffee shop and which tables he avoids.
Thx for the interesting comment Anon at 9:33. Interesting that Dave King is one of my co-instigators of Reboot Alberta. For more information to go www.rebootalberta.org and www.rebootalberta.wordpress.com
ReplyDeleteSo what's wrong if the Premier, or the opposition leader, or any other politician avoids certain tables?
ReplyDeleteI agree with 1:08, there's no need to "reboot"
Anon 9:51 my point is how are you going to come up with new and fresh ideas when you only go to the same tables.
ReplyDeleteWho says we need "fresh ideas" when things are great as they are? Who needs to reinvent the wheel?
ReplyDelete