Here is the link to the podcast page of Rob Breckenridges interview with me about Reboot Alberta event February 26-28 in Kananaskis and the Manning Centre for Democracy "Future of Alberta" event last weekend in Edmonton.
I really enjoyed talking with Rob on the changing political culture in Alberta. Sure are lots of changes. Wonder what tomorrow's Budget will bring by way of changes.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Reboot Alberta on Edmonton Global Television
Here is the link to the Edmonton Global TV Lynda Steele interview with Reboot Alberta Instigator Michael Brechtel. http://bit.ly/bGxFvt?r=td Michael does a great job of putting Reboot and Reboot2.0 in perspective.
If you want to be part of a new movement for effective citizen engagement and press for change in how we run our democracy and how we are governed, join us in Kananaskis Feb 26-28. Here is where you register http://www.rebootalberta.org/.
Read the blogs on the RebootAlberta site too. They are always interesting.
If you want to be part of a new movement for effective citizen engagement and press for change in how we run our democracy and how we are governed, join us in Kananaskis Feb 26-28. Here is where you register http://www.rebootalberta.org/.
Read the blogs on the RebootAlberta site too. They are always interesting.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
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.
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.
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