MY WISH FOR CANADA

The Great Canadian Wish List, a joint project between StudentVote, Facebook and the CBC has been going since Monday afternoon May 28. See my post that day for more details. It is a wonderful idea that has started to take off with 4,651 members and a Discussion Board with 129 topics and The Wall (“Facebook talk”) with 580 posts as I writh this on Friday morning.

The Wishes cover a wide range of topics but it seems to me mostly young people are into this event. That is a good thing but the conversation needs to be broader and more inclusive. This is not a criticism of The Great Canadian Wish List – just an observation of the different cultures that exist between generations.

As a front end baby-boomer I took to television and understood it and had a “relationship” with it much faster than may parents. This generation is having the same difference of understanding and relationship with the Internet. Nothing wrong with that, it just “is what it is!”

So for those who read blogs, and you must read at least this one, here is an easy entry into the new world order of Facebook. Here is the link to my Wish for Canada on her pending 140th Birthday. Give it a read. If you like it, then click “Add Support.” At the end of the day the most popular Wishes will move to the next level of the project and be part of a CBC television program tied to Canada Day.

Take a few minutes this casual Friday and browse some of the other wishes and give them support too. Better yet – join in and contribute your own Wish for Canada.

Stelmach's Caucus Passes Province Wide Smoking Ban!

The Alberta Progressive Conservative Caucus under Premier Stelmach has approved a province wide smoking ban in public and workplaces today. Indications are the new legislation for this ban is ready to go through the final procedural steps and could be tabled for First Reading by Dave Hancock Alberta Minister of Health and Wellness next week.

Premier Stelmach has been waiting for the "will of his Caucus" and now he has it. Now the Premier has to get firmly behind this initiative and help fast track this legislation. Let's get it passed into law this session. There is no good reason for more delays or dithering with the legislation until the fall session. It won't be easy pass this into law this session given how close we are to the end - but it is not impossible.

This idea for legislated province wide smoking ban is an initiative that has 84% public support. It can be law this session if the government has the will to keep the momentum going and if the opposition parties co-operate with some flexibility on scheduling issues.

Premier Stelmach has declared quality of life to be one of his fundamental governance principles. The government news release ties this policy decision to that principle. There is no reason to delay or defer this decision Mr. Premier.

Get ‘er done! And get 'er done NOW!

This is the Week When a Smoking Ban Policy Happens or Not.

UPDATE MAY 29/07 Indications are that the Hancock policy initiative for province wide tobacco control in Alberta passed through the Stelmach Cabinet today. It now goes to Caucus for final deliberation as early as this Thursday. Cabinet has been seen as the biggest political hurdle but that is now done. MSM media has caught on that this may actually happen now. One can only hope the momentum is enough to put this over the top and it becomes law as quickly as possible.

Well today is a kind of a crunch day on the initiative for a province wide smoking ban in Alberta. Indications are that today is the day the proposed policy package goes to Cabinet and media reports show three heavyweight Cabinet Ministers oppose the idea. The good news is the same reports show eight Cabinet Ministers support it. Four others are in the “other category” and that includes the Premier, all of whom are waiting for the decision of Caucus. That meeting is apparently scheduled for later this week as well. The smoking ban idea seems to have a better chance in Caucus with 36 PC MLAs identified as supporters.

If we are serous about a shift in policy emphasis to include a commitment to a wellness agenda, this proposal is an obvious and effective first step. Yes there are arguments that there are other problems that need attention too. Priorities always have a ranking challenge and resourcing. But no matter how you slice this one – as a health issue, as a cost issue, as a productivity issue, as a liability issue for damages caused by second-hand smoke, as a safety issue in the workplace or as a property damage and personal tragedy issue through fire - it just makes sense.

My understanding is matters rarely come to an actual vote in Caucus. With polls showing that 84% of Albertans supporting a province wide ban on smoking in public and work places, I would not be surprised if this issue was one of those times a vote was held. With an election coming up, perhaps in less than a year, no doubt those politicians who were on side with the mainstream thinking of Albertans around this issue will want that fact to be known.

Hopefully for Dave Hancock his proposal will pass and prove to be the exception to McClaughry’s Law of Public Policy: “Politicians who vote huge expenditures to alleviate problems get re-elected; those who propose structural changes to prevent problems get early retirement.”

We can’t continue to throw money at the healthcare system in 10% annual budget increments. It is unsustainable to do so. The system needs structural changes that do not erode the principles of the Canada Health Act but enhances and embraces more individual responsibility. A province wide smoking ban would be a great start. Good luck Dave.

The Great Canadian Wish List

There is a new phenomenon out and about in the land. The Great Canadian Wish List is the brain child of my friend Taylor Gunn. He is the push behind the StudentVote movement in Canada as well.


Launched today in cooperation with Facebook and the CBC it is an innovation to get us thinking and sharing, as citizens, our ideas about the state and status of our country. The Great Canadian Wish List is using the power of old time television, thank you CBC. Then it is married to the new social networking power of Facebook. This produces a way that we can all participate and actually watch the viral nature of this mass connectivity unfold before us.


The idea is to make a birthday wish for Canada and share it with others. I was invited to be an early participant and "tester" of the fool proof system. Well I proved to be a better fool than the programmers were capable of proofing against. I am as intuitive as the next guy and being a guy I feel instructions are always to be used as a last resort.


This idea is absolutely terrific and one in which I encourage you to participate. Get involved. Just reflect for a moment on your hopes and aspirations for Canada? What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as you see them? Share your thoughts and wishes for Canada with the rest of Canada. It is fun, creative and even a bit confounding to someone my age.


This idea of Taylor’s may be just the ticket to banishing the collective bronze medal mentality of us Canadians. It may be the way we discover and disclose our true selves as we share our collective wisdom for the future of our nation. It is going to be an enormous contribution to our collective and cumulative sense of self as a nation. Nothing more! Nothing less!


Thanks for getting this going Taylor. Who knows? With your experiment in collective consciousness you may come to be seen as the midwife in a rebirthing of this nation. BTW here is the link to my birthday wish for Canada. I hope you will support it!

Are Charest and Harper Both Past Their "Best Before" Dates Already?

The volatility of the political scene all over the country is fascinating to watch and I would like focus on two examples. We have the spectacle of Jean Charest playing chicken with oppositions on his budget and the infamous "tax break for the middle class” that may (or not) trigger an election. The myth of the “so-called” fiscal imbalance in Quebec is now proven to be a myth if equalization money from Canada can be used for a tax reduction when it is supposed to provide for equivalent public service levels.

The ADQ and PQ parties are both on record as opposed to his cynical budget ploy by Charest. They say the tax break Charest wants would be better public policy if it were provided in the form of a debt repayment. That way the interest saved could be added to operating budgets through enhanced general revenues and that way serve the needs of Quebecers for generations. Charest is now being framed as a guy who can’t count akin to Joe Clark’s budget folly that brought down his minority federal government decades ago.

Next week will be most interesting in Quebec politics. I just hope the new Lt. Gov. in Quebec avoids an election and asks Mario Dumont to take a stab at forming a government with the PQ under a newly anointed leader in the form of Pauline Marois.

Another unfolding, or unraveling, drama, depending on your POV, is the aimless wanderings and wanings of the Harper Cons. The Base is angry at the lack of alignment of Harper’s actions to Reform/Alliance principles and the Quebec gambit of buying Charest’s victory with Ottawa tax money is backfiring too. The personal power agenda of the Prime Minister has alienated and aggravated just about anyone who he needs and wants within his sphere of influence.

He is now determined to devalue his political stock in Ontario with his legislative agenda to add and redistribute new House of Commons seats. It is god for the west but it is also more pandering to Quebec. That is now perturbing Ontarians even more as Harper moves to realign the seat distribution in a way that undermine their power and influence and short changes the largest voter group in the country.

With all the levers of power at his disposal for over 16 months and with no real threat of an election, unless he wants one, Harper has not been able to move beyond his political support ranking of the last election. Loyalty to his leadership from the Reform/Alliance side of the CPC is eroding and his personal trustworthiness and political integrity is in decline as well.

He is about to shut down Parliament and do an “Elvis” and “leave the building” in the next few weeks. more than a tad prematurely. He will leave a load of unfinished business and most of his critical policy Bills are now in limbo. This retreat from governing will enable his opponents, Dion in particular, to regroup and revive. He also forfeits the ability to control and set the political agenda in the media while wandering about the land on the BBQ circuit talking to his "choir" about yesterday's victories and avoiding discussions about today's realities.

Given that the big issue is going to be the environment and the fact it will continue to grow in importance this summer, Harper will become increasingly less relevant given his lack of traction, trust and tenacity on those issues. I am sensing the Harper era, such as is has been, is about to fade to black. The sound track will change and be full of whimpering and whining, with more vengeance and vanquishing to come from his partisans. That sentiment will show up with surprising results in many of the pending constituency nominations.

Look out for a multitude of maverick CPC bumper stickers on pick up trucks all over rural Alberta this summer saying: “Come Back Preston Manning. All is Forgiven!”