Courts Kill Rob Anders Conservative Acclamation Nomination in Calgary

I will do a more thorough posting on the Rob Anders court decision over his recent Conservative constituency nomination process in Calgary West once the decision is on line and I have read it. That should be early next week I expect. In the meantime media reports do not auger well for the CPC in being an open and transparent organization.

Political parties have so much influence on our politics in so many ways, it was nice to see a group of party members take their complaints about the propriety of the Anders acclamation nomination to the Courts for rulings. Political parties are so very unrepresentative of the general population and are too often run like private clubs, especially at the constituency level.

They should be, and be seen, more as fundamental democratic institutions and therefore they must have more transparency and accountability then currently is the case. This is a glaring democratic deficit in our system that may need a culture shift towards more citizen engagement instead of a strictly legislated solution.

The Anders “acclamation nomination” reported comments from the Court decision underscores this need as Judge Hawco says:

“The party did not follow its own rules with respect to setting the date for the nomination meeting or with respect to conducting a fair and effective candidate selection process,”
“I am satisfied that the decision of the panel was not correct and that its decision must there be set aside. As a result, the acclamation of Mr. Anders also must be set aside and a new nomination meeting and process must be set in place.”

At least the Judge didn't say "they broke every rule in the book" although I have not yet read the decision so I can't say what the full implication of this judgement is yet. If this Party cannot be fair and reasonable within its own ranks to its own members, can we trust them to be fair and reasonable to dissenters? Can we trust them to be fair and resonable at all especially since they want to rig the judicial selection process in order to politicize the courts? They disbanded the Court Challenges Program because they could not see any reason why a government would pay for lawyers so people could challenge them on Constitutional and other issues. That attitude is dangerous to democracy and devastating to dissent.

Is that the kind of party and the kind of elected representatives we want in a free and open democracy? Is this the kind of political culture that Canadians will consent to be governed by? Character counts. Quality character and a competence to govern for the benefit of the people is not being well demonstrated by the Harper Cons these days. Instead we see the Harper Cons overwhelmingly preoccupied with positioning for power.

Good government is about meeting the needs and preserving the rights of the citizens’ and not about partisan pandering for power Mr. Prime Minister. Good governance starts at the political party level. I expect Leader Harper will want to be sure this nomination mess in Calgary West is cleaned up and quickly.

Stelmach Goes to Albertans for Ideas on GHG Reduction

The Stelmach government now goes to Albertans and is looking for new ideas on how to reduce green house gasses. The government and industry can have expectations placed upon them but so can individuals play a role in making a difference.

Informed citizen engagement is the key to any positive policy change. This effort to engage citizen on climate change is broadly based and looks to be an aggressive outreach to engage Albertans.

Lots of ideas are emerging on how individuals can make personal changes have to be understood and acted upon if the challenge of climate change is going to be tackled effectively.

Will it all be about making the other guy change towards doing the right thing and I can avoid change myself?

The environment is the #1 public policy issue and with a high level of commitment compared to other issues, including health care. Will we start to see people making personal changes in lifestyle because they understand the nature of the finite system we have on our planet. Garth Turner has a Handbook for individual actions on climate change posted on his website and it is worth a read.

One can not only hope – but we can get involved, get informed and become actively engaged. Citizenship has its rights and its responsibilities. I will be fascinated to see how this initiative unfolds and am optimistic that it can make a real difference.

Quebec Welder Firing is About Safety and Literacy, Not Discrimintion

The recent “firing” of the Quebec Ironworker for failing to pass a safety exam in the English language is being misinterpreted as to what is really about and what is really going on.

This is not an example of a human rights abuse. Nor is it the old chestnut of the west being anti French language. I am old enough to remember the mantra about bilingualism as being French being shoved down our throats. The ghosts of those old attitudes seem to emerge out of this incident. This situation is nothing to do with any of that.

What this is actually all about is safety and literacy. If the reverse were true, say in an iron oar mine in rural French speaking Quebec, and a unilingual English speaking worker could not pass a safety test in French, in that setting, he ought not to be hired either. If you are working in a complex and dangerous environment and you can’t read the safety procedures or the operations manuals to deal effectively with emergencies and other non-standard events, then you are a danger to yourself and to co-worker.

The media stories in defense of this worker has been that he had worked for the same sub-contractor in the area but not on an oils sands site for a few months before without supervision, problems or incidents. We do not know what he was doing and have no reason to doubt his work ethic and skills. If he was doing straight non-critical welding in standard circumstances that did not involve integration with other large project aspects or inherently dangerous circumstances, I see no problem. I also see no comparison to that circumstance to the complex and dangerous Suncor work situation, which he was trying to qualify for n passing a safety exam. We do routine drug testing and criminal checks and why not literacy competency testing of employees for safety purposes?

The working language at Suncor is English but that is not the only determining factor. I understand another project has a significant number of Chinese workers on site under a subcontract with a company from the Peoples’ Republic of China. I understand they are working on installing specific projects parts that were manufactured in China. The working language for them is undoubtedly going to be Mandarin. They can be held responsible for site safety requirements for all their workers because there are enough of them and they are involved in a specific aspect of the overall project. Same will likely be the case for the Synenco project and their Upgrader because they are 40% owned by the PRC. Sufficient numbers of Mandarin speakers working on specific identifiable project aspects will justify safety testing in that language.

The real issue here is the dirty little secret that in Canada our low literacy levels are astonishing. We have statistics to show our literacy rates are so low in the nation, (Alberta actually being marginally the highest in the country), that some 40% of Canadians are still learning to read instead of reading to learn. Can you believe it? It is true.

This is not only a competitiveness and productivity killer; it can be a human killer too. Work crews with insufficient literacy skills are a danger to themselves and co-workers.

Premier Stelmach has recognized this issue and has delegated the challenge to improve literacy in Alberta to the Minister of Advanced Education and Technology. A good start to a serious problem! Literacy Alberta has developed a proposal for a literacy policy for Alberta that is working its way through the political policy making process. It is worth going to their site to give it a read.

Stelmach Moves to Stop Misuse of the Courts

You want some intelligent responses to a law and order political policy agenda? Look at the changes being implemented in Alberta to get rid of vexatious litigants by Premier Stelmach.

Streamlining the court process and eliminating inappropriate intimidation through initiating costly and inappropriate law suits will save money and time and enhances real access to justice.

This is in contrast to Harper's court related policy is all about trying to manipulate the appointment process so someone he likes, get to be a Judge. Whereas Stelmach is empowering the Bench and enabling the Judges to be Judges.

Smart move by Alberta's Premier Stelmach. a good governance model for Prime Minister Harper. I don't expect the Prime Minister will pay much heed though.

Boot Scooter Libby!

First Michael Jackson exiles to an Arab country. Next we see Halliburton’s head office moves from Texas to Dubai. If Scooter Libby doesn’t get a pardon from Dubya, will he and Vice President Cheney likely be the next exiles to an Arab nation? Just asking!