This is the Winter of Stelmach’s Disconnect

The latest Angus Reid poll putting the Alberta PCs in a second-place tie with the Liberals (25% each – ouch) will shake the confidence of the caucus and stir the cauldron of discontent that has been on a slow boil within the Stelmach government for some time now.

I have not seen the poll questions or actual results myself. I am commenting off newspaper reports. Jason Fekete wrote the front page blockbuster story and is a very good and reliable reporter. I have no reason to mistrust the facts he presents. There is always more intrigue in polling results when you take some time to dig a bit deeper. When I see the actual results I will do another post and put some political context around the numbers.

With apologies to Buffalo Springfield;” Something’s happening here? What it is ain’t exactly clear.” PC supporters must feel a bit like the day after the 1995 Referendum. The Quebec separatists lost with the thinnest of margins and Canada was “saved.” It was shocking and unnerving to many of us in the rest of Canada who realized, for the first time, how much public sentiment had shifted in Quebec.

That same unease and uncertainty is how I feel today as a progressive Albertan in the face of the Wildrose Alliance.  How can it be that they are being seen as the only potentially “viable” political option in Alberta? The question of is what is happening here is quite frankly very clear.

Here is part of what I see happening politically in Alberta these days. The PCs are clearly past their best before date. They have been around too long. They are now well beyond being tired, stale and bland. They have proven to be inept and ineffective in too many instances and appear to be chronically maladaptive. Everyone in Alberta paying attention to politics knows, or at least, senses this.

The political and policy shifts by the Stelmach government have been disconcerting to many. It started with the vacillating responses to the Royalty Review, all through the last election and the humiliating third place showing in the Glenmore by-election and the fiasco that was Bill 44 and Bill 50.  They all reinforce the growing sense of disdain by citizens towards their government.  It is a government who is not listening and showing abject indifference to legitimate concerns and objections. The PC government’s disconnect with Albertans sees them now responding defensively, using threats, intimidation and belligerence as priority “governing principles” - just to keep people in line.

The Liberals and NDP are seen as insipid and uninspiring alternatives to the comatose Conservative regime. They are not perceived as a potential primetime government in waiting. The Greens have implode and disappeared in the most bizarre of circumstances. And that leaves the Wildrose as the only possible alternative to consider – at this time? Spare us please.

The ascendance of Danielle Smith on the political scene as been covered by the traditional media with an E-Talk! level of celebrity-centric perspicacity. So much more needs to be known and understood about the Wildrose Alliance and in particular their social and environmental policies, principles and values. We don’t even know if they have people who would be the kind of candidates with character and qualities worthy of our consent to be governed.

This Angus Reid poll shows a dramatic spike in Wildrose Alliance “popularity.”  It says little, if anything, about them however. It is not very relevant to the fortunes of the Wildrose Alliance in the larger political scheme of things. At least not now given that we are so far away from any chance of a general election, currently expected in March 2012. It does, however, speak volumes about the shortcomings and disenchantment Albertans have for the other provincial political parties.

Bottom line – the Angus Reid outcome is an opinion poll. It is not a statement about a deeper judgment that citizens have to make about who will govern us when an election is actually looming. My sense is most of the Wildrose Alliance support in this poll is about sending a message to the other parties.  The message is that they are not doing the job rather than a positive choice in support of the WAP. If you added an option in this poll for “None of the Above” I’m betting they would end up being be the most popular party in Alberta today.

So take a Valium Alberta.  And in the meantime you better dust off your citizenship and park your political indifference and cynicism. They are luxuries you can no longer afford. If you don't re-engage as informed and involved citizens and WAP forms the next government you will be delegating decisions to fundamenalist, traditionalist and social conservative values throw-backs of a bygone era.  Indifference means those people will get elected and they will be making all the political and value choices for and about you, your life and your liberties.
 
Govern yourselves Accordingly Alberta!

Peter the Pathetic as Minister of Defensiveness

How much more obfuscation, evasion and denial does the Canadian public have to suffer from Peter the Pathetic? Peter MacKay has been tap dancing backwards faster and faster. He is now in retreat from is hollow assertions that Afghan detainees, under Canadian care, were never abused or tortured for about two weeks now.


The manipulation of the political process, the stifling and suppression of information and the positioning of Conservative politicians for plausible denial of facts is abhorrent to Canadian values of peace, order and good government.

As new evidence continues to come forward we see the Minister of Defensiveness moving from absolute denial to plausible denial to admission of mistakes being made but not by him. This is now so much more to all of this than an apparent "non-smoking gun" as the Harper Cons have tried to allege. We are seeing the absolute meltdown of the integrity and trustworthiness of the Harper government.  They are perpetuating the continued unfounded abuse of the public service and the manipulation of the governnance system to suppress evidence and an absolute full court press avoidance of anything close to doing the right thing.

The Harper government has and continues to be a Mini Me mirror of the former Bush-Cheney face political manipulation and machinations that only serves to destroys democracies. This detainee debacle is the Harper government self-inflicting wounds on its own integrity and veracity. It is destined to the defining drama that should be the tippping point for Canadians to realize these are not the kind of people who are worthy of our consent to govern us.

I am most impressed with the continuing quality coverage by the Globe and Mail on these issues and event. I am grateful to the 50 or so former Canadian Ambassadors who are reproaching the Harper government for the unfounded personal attacks on Richard Colvin for merely doing his job. This is starting to look like a Canadian Watergate where the rot in the political culture seems to have spread to the highest offices in the land.

Harper’s political free ride is over. His “success” is a function of an ineffectual opposition, a public disinterest in another election anytime soon and a low public expectation of Harper and his party. Anyone in Canada who values Peace Order and Good Government has to now realize that Mr. Harper and his partisans are not good for Canada in any way.

We need a public inquiry to get to the bottom of this and to restore Canadians faith in its government.

Alberta Oil Magazine Article on "Green Oil"

Here is a link to an article by Patrycja Romanowska in this months edition of Alberta Oil magazine on the book Green Oil by Satya Das.  Most every regular reader of this blog knows Satya is my business partner and the book is a project of our company Cambridge Strategies Inc. but full disclosure is a constant duty.

You can read more about the concept behind the book at http://www.greenoilbook.com/ and join in the growing conversation amongst Albertans who are coming to the realization that we need to start acting like owners of the oilsands.  That means taking responsibility for the stewardship duty around how the oil sands are exploited.  We also have to ensure we get a good return on these non-renewable resource for now and to also protect the birthright and benefits of this massive resource for future generations.

Our government is nowhere near being even adequate on either of these two fundamental issues for protecting and adding value for Albertans as owners of the resource.  Citizens of Alberta are coming to the conclusion that have to re-engage in the politics of the times if they are to ensure this happens.  That does not mean coming back to politics as usual either.  There is ample evidence that the status quo is not working at so many levels.

There is a response happening to politics as ususal.  It is in the form of a new and emerging movement to reestablish the rights and responsibilities of  citizenship amongst progressive Albertans.  It is called Reboot Alberta.  Check it out here and here

Join in if you are inclined.  If you need to know more, visit these sites and follow the folks and bloggers who are engaged in this progressive political movement.

I Have Been Busy

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.

Daveberta Reflects on Reboot Alberta

Dave Cournoyer, (a.k.a. Daveberta) is the gold standard of political bloggers to my mind. I am not alone in those sentiments. In the 2007 Canadian Blog Awards he was voted First in "Best Political Blog," Best Progressive Blog," and "Best Blogosphere Citizen." Since then he has grown both in experience and astuteness.

I have learned a great deal from knowing and reading Dave over the past 3 year.  As one of the "elder statesmen" of social media in Alberta I like to say most of my mentors are under 30.  It is true and Dave Cournoyer is one of them. 

Dave was at the Reboot Alberta launch this past weekend and by all accounts, he valued the experience. He was also not alone in that sentiment if you have been checking out the posts of the other Bloggers who were at the Reboot Alberta launch.  You can find links to these Bloggers through the blog poll at  http://www.rebootalberta.wordpress.com/.

His blog post on Reboot Alberta is a typical example of his thoughtful and reflective commentary on politics, democracy and public policy in Alberta.   This guy gets it when it comes to expressing the frustration and feelings of so many Albertans about poltics in our province.  Here is the link to his blog post on Reboot Alberta.

If you are a progressive Albertan and want to reinvigorate your citizenship, personally re-engage and take back some responsibility for politics and public policy in alberta come to http://www.rebootalberta.org/ to learn more and get involved.