Manning Centre Event Offered Nothing New for Alberta Politics

I spent an enjoyable day at the Manning Centre for Democracy Future of Alberta wonkfest on Saturday.


Other bloggers have done some great analysis of the event. read Chris LaBossiere, DJKelly and Duncan Kinney for examples. I find myself agreeing with all of them. I have attended many such events and have designed and deployed dozens of them. The format was about as traditional as you could get and it served the purposes of the organizers. It was not conducive for any affective and reflective conversation because 15 minutes with pre-set tasks and pressure for a quick consensus really erodes any opportunity for a nuanced understanding of topics.

I would caution people who want to follow up on the reporting of the “results” of the event to take them with a grain of salt. The event had some non-conservatives in the room, including Linda Duncan, the NDP MP from Edmonton Strathcona. For an invitation only event, it was a pretty white, male and mostly my age group. There were some younger people, many of them from the Reboot Alberta movement and more than a token number of women too.

It was interesting to observe who did not show up. The absence of the PC Caucus was most notable. Ken Allred the PC MLA from St Albert was there all day Saturday and Kyle Fawcett was “debating” Daniele Smith on Friday night. Ken told me he was dismayed more of his colleges did not make the effort. The event was overtly designed to promote what Preston Manning calls “small c conservative principles” and it did just that. To presume a designed discussion by over what shade of blue the future of Alberta should be is helpful for the Wildrose Alliance and could have been good for the Progressive Conservative Party too…if they bothered to show up.

What happened yesterday was a conservative value set validation by conservatives for conservatives with a presumption that the outcomes would be a rough draft policy blueprint for Albertans to follow. I think that is how the results will be presented by the Manning Centre. The political shifts that are bubbling below the surface in the minds of Albertans are much more complex. That complexity inherent in the issues addressed will not be captured with the 15 minutes of time allowed for participants to express their opinions and ideas at the tables.

I really enjoyed the folks at my table and it was good to catch up with folks like John McDougall, recently retired head of the Alberta Research Council, Don Diduck from the Alberta Congress Board, Dr. Richard Plain, Health Economist and former Mayor of St Albert, Edwin Errickson the leader of the Alberta Party, Colin Jackson former head of the Epcor Centre in Calgary and WAP MLA Paul Hinman. Naheed Nenshi was there too and I got to congratulate my friend Shannon Stubbs on her new job as Danielle Smith's new Executive Assistant.

I especially enjoyed the presentations from the University of Lethbridge Political Scientist Peter McCormick on citizen participation, Marlo Raynolds of the Pembina Institute on conservative environmental approaches and Mike Percy’s excellent information on the future of the Alberta economy. The other presentations, not so much!

What I saw come out of this event was predictable and perpetuation of traditional conservative thinking. I did not see anything that made me think that there is something new and refreshing coming from the “small c conservative” approach to politics and policy. If the outcomes from this weekend are what the conservatives see as the future of Alberta, I have to say it looks more like a passion to repeat the past. I saw nothing about them being able to rethink, redesign and be able to adapt to the new economic, environmental, societal and political realities. I saw nothing new, nuanced or newsworthy except the same-old same-old stuff of personality based leadership driven politics.

I was glad I went and got to spend some time with old friends, meet some new people and many who said they wanted to come to Reboot2.0.  I also got to hear from a few smart speakers who came to share their knowledge. But was this a game-changing event? Maybe it was a positive event for the WAP and a less than tepid event for the PCs.  But it had little that was new to offer to help Alberta live up to its potential or to create the kind of the change Alberta needs to make in order to adapt to new realities.

So now it is time to focus on Reboot2.0 at the end of February.  That is where change will start as a wider range of concerned Albertans gather together to share their hopes and feeling about the future of our province.

Come to Pecha Kucha and Hear About the New Political Compass.

Tomorrow night I am speaking at the Pecha Kucha event on The New Political Compass.  The doors open at McDougall United Church 10025 - 101 Street at 7:00pm and the presentations start at 7:30.  Tickets are $10.00 at the door on $9.00 online at http://www.tixonthesquare.com/

This Edmonton NexGen event is a very interesting and focused format.  There are 11 of us presenting with very strict rules of engagementimposed by the Pecha Kucha "culture."  Each presenter will have 20 powerpoint slides which will display for 20 seconds each.  None of the slides are allowed to have have text on them.  This is tight 6 minute and 40 second total time for each presenter.  Obiously your must have a point, make it resonant, ensure its compelling and quickly move on to the next slide...and keep going.  I imagine it will be like speed dating with an audience.

If your audience mind wanders you can always catch up...but you better not let that happen if you are a presenter.  The lawyer's sin of being more voluminous the luminous willl be punished with this format and punished harshly.  OMG - I may have to use a script.

It promises to be an engaging and entertaining evening with a wide array of important subjects and interesting speakers.  the event is called "Psst! It's a Secret" so maybe I'm not supposed to tell you much about it.  Come out anyway and have some fun - even if at my expense.

Alberta's Politics Needs Transformation, Not Just a Partisan Revolt on the Right

Here is a pretty good story in the Calgary Herald outlining some of the feelings of some conservative leaning citizens in Alberta.  It is focused on rural attitudes but I think those in the cities are feeling much the same way.  Of course there is much more behind this disaffection with those who have political power over us. 

Citizen re-engagement is what Reboot Alberta is all about.  It is about getting past the grumpy, the cynical and the disillusionment with our political culture and governing institutions.  It is about taking back control of our democracy at the personal and community level.  The decline of deference in Canadian politics has been well documented.  That values shift is no emerging into a new sense of assertive citizenship and positive activism.

What is next for our democracy in Alberta and Canada is the emerging question.  That is the the overarching theme of Reboot2.0, the next gathering of progressive thinking Albertans that are coming to Kananskis Feb26-28.  You might want to come to Reboot2.0 if you yearn for some changes in the directions and the decision making in our province.

Check out Reboot Alberta.   If you see some of your concerns and issues being discussed there, join in the conversation on the website and become part of this citizen's movement to rejuvinate democracy, one citizen at a time.

We need more than just a political revolt to change how we are governed.  We need a transformation.

Democratic Deficits, Progressive Values and Reboot2.0

One of the Reboot Alberta theme streams progressives are following is the democratic deficit and what reform measures we could take to fix the problem.  Alberta mirrors the national problem but the fact is the federal abuse of power is more blatant in the hands of Harper than in Alberta. 

Yes to the Cons who will howl about Chretien's abuses too - as if that gave them license to continue to abuse our democracy.  Especially since Harper ran an won - twice- on a platform of more accountability and transparency.  The Harper hypocracy is coming home to roost and it is about time.  Prorouging to avoid accountability and forgetting his Senate reform undertakings plus his deceit about the recession and stimulus funding are just some of the consistent character flaws our Prime Minister is showing.  Canadians are coming to the conclusion Harper is a clever and conniving politician but he comes up way to short of the minimal standards to be worthy of our consent to govern us.

I will be dealing more with the reality of the Alberta democratic deficit in future blogs and post Budget to be sure we are as current as possible.  In the meantime, to get you in come context consider this Globe and Mail column today by Lawrence Martin on the national democratic deficit. 

There is a lot to consider in this area of our democratic deficit.  People who came to the first Reboot Alberta event and many people who are coming to Reboot2.0 in Kananaskis Feb26-28 will be grappling with their citizenship concerns as Progressives.  The obvious need for more integrity, accountabilty and honesty in our Alberta political culture is becoming apparent to everyone paying even minimal attention to the issues in the province. If you share these kind of concerns about the future of Alberta and want to know more about what is going on in and about our government consider joining us at Reboot2.0.

In the meantime, if you believe in the need a more progressive approach to politics, help Reboot Alberta by taking a conjoint survey on Albertan values.  It will uncover some of the most and least important values we Albertans feel should be applied when political and policy decisions are being made by our government.

It takes about 8 minutes and is frustrating for some folks.  You are required to chose a most and least important value from sets of four, and usually the values presented are all important.  However we always make value tradeoffs and this survey brings that reality to the forefront.  Which values do you think politicians and their advisors should consider mostly when they are making public policy decisions?

It is an anonymous survey but you can leave an email address in the survey and receive a copy of the results.  The aggregate survey results will be presented in greater detail at the Saturday evening dinner at Reboot2.0.  Take the survey.  Don't get frustrated.  Stick with it.  Your input is important to help Progressives learn what values we share and how intently we hold to them.  Click here to take the survey. 

Feel free to forward this blog post to others in your networks who you believe are progressives and want to do the survey and personally reactivate their sense of citizenship.  Reboot Alberta is all about citizen engagement and you are welcome to join the movement.

Social Media: Changing the Game of Politics

Had a great time doing a podcast at the request of the Alberta Liberals on social media and how it is changing politics.  Here is the link to the podcast.  Give it  listen and let me know what you think about how social media can - and is - changing politics. 

My sense is the impact is already dramatic.  Just look at the Obama campaign.  Also, we have just seen the tip of the iceberg  The conventional old-school political ships-of-state command-and-control types will either hit the iceberg or they will sink even before they get there.  If they sink beforehand it will be cause of they have not repaired their communications and political culture fast enough to adapt to the new world disorder on the Internet.

I have done a major piece for The Edmontonian on the reluctance of government and business to embrace social media.  It will be in the February edition coming out soon.