Reboot Alberta Survey Helps Define Progressive Values in Alberta

One of the directions coming out of the Reboot Alberta launch event late last November was a request to get a better understanding about what we meant by the term “progressive” in a 21st century Alberta context. Part of that exploration was a number of blogs and discussion papers posted on the Reboot Alberta website under the “What is a Progressive” link.


Another part of the exploration of “What is a Progressive” was a conjoint survey to study some value preferences that progressives see as important to guide and drive policy advisers and politicians when they make laws, regulations and public policy pronouncements that impact the lives of Albertans.

The survey tracked 22 such values using a most/least approach to determine the highest and lowest values that progressives believe should be applied to how we are governed. The survey also asked some attitudinal and satisfaction questions and asked about some engagement questions about Alberta too. It also looked at the influence of the participants and inquired about if survey participants were cultural creatives too. The survey results also give some significant insight in what it means to be a progressive in Alberta these days.

A total of 544 people completed the survey between January 30 and February 11, 2010 and a pretty distinct and consistent picture of what is an Alberta progressive emerged. The top five values progressives want to see used to guide and drive politicians were overwhelmingly dominated by Integrity, Honesty, Accountability, Transparency and Environmental Stewardship. Over 90% of participants have one of these values and their #1 choice. This consistency of progressive beliefs about what are the important values to judge how well we are being governed is very strong.

I was curious if these values were rated to high is because they are so obviously foundational to good government that they would of course rise to the top. Or was it because the perception is that yes they are important but there is a sense we are not seeing them applied now so that is why they are the most crucial governing values. I surveyed the 124 people at Reboot2.0 with those choices. Rough count was about 80% at Reboot2.0 had done the survey. An even larger number at Reboot2.0 believed these values were most important because they felt they were lacking in how we are being governed today.

That straw vote at Reboot2.0 pretty much determines the reasoning for the dominance of these values and provides some significant focus where Alberta’s progressives thinking about politics, governance and power in our province these days.

The next grouping of important value drivers for progressives in Alberta who did the survey was Wisdom, Well-being, Equity, Fiscal Responsibility and Respect for Diversity. When you add these values to the top five you start to get a substantial sense of what progressives in Alberta are thinking and paying attention to their relationship with democracy, politics, government and governance. On Sunday Morning participants at Reboot2.0 were asked to look at this group of values and use them to share what they saw as a preferred vision for Alberta. I will share those outcomes and their implications for the political agenda in Alberta in future blog posts as well.

I will also share the outcomes of the Influentials assessment and the level of Cultural Creative engagement of the survey participants. Influentials are the 10% of the general populations whose opinions matter to the rest of us as we try to make sense of a complex and fast changing world. The Reboot Alberta survey participants are astonishing Influential with 88% of them qualifying in the survey. That means if the progressives in the Reboot Alberta movement ever start using their influence they will be a force for any political party, government, governing agency, board or commission to pay close attention to what they are saying. That influence is already being shown given the rapid rise of participation and awareness of Reboot Alberta in the 100 days or so since it came on the scene in late November 2009.

The alignment of progressive Albertans with the growth or the Cultural Creative component of society is also extraordinarily strong. Paul Ray has done extensive work on defining and tracking the growing power and potential of cultural creatives to influence the society we see emerging in Alberta. Again a full 86% of progressives who took the survey were overwhelmingly in sync with the values of cultural creatives. The 18 value elements Paul Ray uses to test for qualifying as a cultural creative were used. I will deal with some of those elements and the implications for progressive values and the future of Alberta in follow up blog posts.

The survey tested the level of satisfaction and personal engagement participants had towards the province. This was perhaps the most interesting aspect of the survey findings. It shows that progressive Albertans are kind of iffy about what they say about living in Alberta and if they would strongly recommend people move here. But they are overwhelming committed to the future of the province and believe their personal actions are contributing positively to the future well being of the province. That coupled with a very strong sense of dissatisfaction with how we are being governed currently and a belief that the government is not listening nor considering the opinions of progressives.

This all makes for a very volatile political future for the province espeically IF Alberta's progressives decide to engage, use their influence and start forming into an activist citizen’s movement.  That would be a new force to drive some serious changes in the direction of the political culture of our province.  It will be an effective counterbalance the more radical social conservative, social libertarian and short-term shallow fiscal and environmental policy thinking we have seen happening in the province.

O Canada Should Not be Sexist

O Canada need not be sexists and should not be sexists.

Janet Keeping weighs in with a piece published in the Calgary Beacon

http://www.calgarybeacon.com/2010/03/time-for-canadas-national-anthem-to-reflect-gender-equality/

How about "True Patriot Love that all our hearts command"

An Update on the Foster Child and Alberta Director's Contempt of Court Case.

UPDATE MARCH 5, 2010 5:11 PM - GOOD NEWS.  I have just been contacted by the Deputy Minister of Alberta Children and Youth Services who advised that they are not appealing the Guardianship Order of the Foster Mother as stated in this blog.  I understood from earlier communications that the department intended to appeal.  If the facts about the appeal intentions of the department are in accurate in this blog post I owe both Children and Youth Services and the Foster Mother an apology.  I hope they both consider this factual update to correct the record an appropriate apology.  I am going to correct the content of this blog post to refect this update from the department by overstriking the irrelevant commentary and incorrect facts according to Children and Youth Services advice to me.

For those of you who follow this blog on a regular basis (and I thank you) you will recall I did a series of posts on problems in the Alberta Department of Children and Youth Services last summer. I centered the series on a Contempt of Court finding against a Director level official in department over a foster child and the impact and implications for the child. I am writing this post as an update on the case but first let me put you back in context.


I have to be careful in writing about the case to ensure the parties are not identified due to privacy concerns for the child at the centre of the case. I also wrote the series about the Foster Mother who was a champion for the child to stay with her. She took court action to that end and won in spite of the contrary and rejected recommendations of the government.

The attitude and actions of those in control of these matters in the Department of Children and Youth Services were criticized by the Court of Appeal. The former Minister launched an external review of how these matters were handled and I was interviewed by the external reviewers as part of their work. One of the things I said to the review committee was I believed there may a destructive culture in the senior levels of the department if this case was an example that could be generalized.

My impression was garnered from reading the Court files, background documents, as well as considering the actions of senior management involved in this case and the attitudes expressed in their communications from the department. My sense was that senior management was more interested in protecting the Minister from political ramifications than it was in serving its duty to represent the best interest of children in care. I pointed this impression out to the review committee and asked them to be aware of this possibility in their work and in their reporting.

Now for the update! It is timely given the death of a 21 month old little girl in foster care in Morinville this week but that is another story and perhaps for another time. Since the blog series last summer the Foster Mother who went to bat for this little boy has contacted me directly and kept me posted on developments. I will still have to be careful not to disclose identities but I can tell you as part of the original court process there were competing interests vying to take care of this child. The Foster Mother applied for Guardianship. Others, with a competing interest in the child and who had temporary custody granted from the lower court, had also applied to adopt the child. I can tell you the child is aboriginal and so cultural issues arise as well as caring, safety and other best interests’ issues.

I have just been advised by the Foster Mother there is good news.  The good news is her application to the Courts for Guardianship of the child was granted. The Adoption petition of the others was denied, in fact the other party’s request for continuing contact with the child was also denied. In addition the Foster Mother was awarded all her costs in the matter to be paid by the Director of Child, Youth and Family Enhancement. The Foster Mother was granted a similar order by the Court of Appeal to have all her costs paid in the original action. That means she not only won on the merits based on the law, the award of total costs is a major victory on the equity of the situation.

Now for the bad news! It seems as though the Director of Child, Youth and Family Enhancement intends to appeal the Guardianship Order and rejection of the Petition for Adoption. This department has lost at every instance and issue on this matter every time except for the first trial and that decision was a travesty of justice in my opinion. So this Foster Mother has to continue to fund and fight if the Director follows through with the threat to appeal.

The arrogance of this approach by the Department of Children and Youth Services is breath taking. How much abuse must this Foster Mother endure and how much uncertainty must this child suffer? How is this abuse of power by our government serving the best interests of this child? If the department can’t get it right the first time given all the power and resources they have at their disposal, what justifies them to continue to persecute and pursue this family? Please tell me it is not political or bullying and intimidation of citizens and at-risk vulnerable citizens as we are seeing in other areas like PDD funding.

When a child in care dies it is a tragedy. When a child in care becomes a pawn of in an unnecessary nightmare of administrative insouciance and insensitivity it is still a tragedy that can last a lifetime for this already vulnerable little boy. Minister Fritz, you were was given this portfolio to fix up this department. You obviously have a lot of work to do. Call off the departmental dogs in this case and so get that departmental review fast-tracked and made public as soon as possible.

I have just done a conjoint study amongst progressive thinking Albertans on the values they want to see applied by our government when it makes laws, policy and other decisions that impact the lives of citizens. Those Albertans told us they mostly wanted integrity, honesty, accountability and transparency from their government. It is time to start delivering on these values Madame Minister. This case is an appropriate place to start to change the culture of your department and to start to show that you will reflect those core values of Albertans.

UPDATE AND CORRECTION MARCH 5, 2010:

THIS BLOG POST HAS BEEN EDITED TO CORRECT AN APPARENT ERROR OF FACT THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA INTENDED TO APPEAL THE RECENT SUCCESSFUL GUARDIANSHIP ORDER GRANTED TO THE FOSTER MOTHER OF THIS CHILD.  I HAVE BEEN INFORMED BY THE DEPARTMETN YTHAT THIS IS NOT THE CASE.  I WISH TO APOLOGIZE TO THE MINISTRY OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERVICES AND THE FOSTER MOTHER TOO IF I MISUNDERSTOOD THE FACTS AROUND AN INTENTION OF THE GOVERNMENT TO APPEAL THIS RECENT COURT DECISION.

An Olympic Thank You Note From NBC

I did not have time to watch much of the Olympics, even missed the Gold Medal hockey game because I was driving home from Reboot2.0.  What a saw was an astonishing Opening Ceremonies and with it the gift of poetry and humanity and being Canadian that is Shane Koyczen.  Then the magnificence of k.d. lang interpreting Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah as only she can do.

What I saw in the Closing Ceremonies was that classic unmistakable Canadian understatement of patriotism as we poked fun at our foibles.  The fun of the flame lighting fiasco of the Opening Cermonies finally being fixed and still celebrated was quintessential Canadian.  Then the self-depricating fun of the parade of Canadian stereotypes from moose to Mounties all the way to beavers and beer and beyond.  In typical Canadian fashion we did ourselves proud by being humble.  That Canadian quality of quiet deep pride was shown as we stayed humble and reserved while setting a new host country record 14 of gold medals relieved from our  collective self-consciousness as being the only host country ever to not win a single gold medal pre-Vancouver. 

What sparked this post was an e-mail I received form a friend enclosing a closing comment from Brian Williams of the NBC, the American Olympic broadcaster.  Canadians don't seek or need external validation to know and love who we are, but it is always nice to get recognized, especially in a way that resonates with us.  Here is what Brian Williams said about us and our hosting of the world at the Vancouver Olympics:

Leaving behind a thank-you note



Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
to-night's broadcast and after looting our hotel mini-bars, we're going to try to brave the blizzard and fly east to home and hearth, and to do laundry well into next week. Before we leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.


Thank you, Canada:


For being such good hosts.


For your unfailing courtesy.


For your (mostly) beautiful weather.


For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.


For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.


For your unique TV commercials -- for companies like Tim Hortons -- which made us laugh and cry.


For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.


For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games -- you've made wearing your name a cool thing to do.


For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.


For not honking your horns. I didn't hear one car horn in 15 days -- which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.


For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.


For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.


For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.


For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.


For always saying nice things about the United States...when you know we're listening.


For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.


For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.


Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.

So my fellow Canadians, next time you visit a Chapters bookstore and you see the sentiment on the wall, "The world needs more Canada" reflect for a moment and know it is true.

Is There a Wave of Change Coming to Alberta's Politics?

REBOOTALBERTA 2.0 GOES THIS WEEKEND FEB 26-28 IN KANANASKIS


The gathering of Alberta progressives called RebootAlberta2.0 is happening in Kananaskis this weekend. The instigators expect to draw over 120 progressive thinking Albertans together to talk about how they feel about Alberta and its future.

Reboot Alberta is an emerging citizen’s movement that is focusing on four theme streams of interest. Some Reboot progressives believe a new centrist political party has to be formed to respond to the dramatic shift to the right of Alberta’s political culture. Others are committed to changing the existing political parties and governing institutions from within to consider more progressive approaches to policy making. Still others want democratic and electoral reform in Alberta. Then there is a large group of Reboot people who are part of volunteer based, not-for-profit civil society organizations who want to look at changing the very nature of Alberta’s political culture.

The civil society people at Reboot want to move beyond old-fashioned adversarial decision models at makes marginal winners and disgruntled loser. The feel we need a more collaborative, networked, integrated and responsible decision making model for public policy.

Reboot2.0 is essentially about creating more citizen engagement. It will see all of these approaches used by participants to look at what can be done to enable and encourage citizens to be engaged in public policy design and development. The already engaged citizens of the civil society sector are going to be a strong basis to work with to start changing the Alberta political culture. All change starts with a thought and a conversation and Reboot2.0 will be all about people taking about what they are thinking about.

In a resent conjoint survey of 544 self identified Alberta progressives identified some major values they wanted law and policy makers to use when decisions are being made that affect people’s lives. The top five values progressive Albertans want to see used to drive and guide public policy are Integrity, Honest, Accountability, Transparency and Environmental Stewardship.

It is interesting that such fundamental values are top of mind for progressive Albertans. Is that because they are so fundamentally necessary for a strong democracy? Or is it because progressives feel they are missing from our democracy and governance that they need to be reaffirmed? Reboot2.0 people will no doubt spend some time to clarify that difference.

Another interesting finding from the Citizen’s Values Survey was the level of Influentials and Cultural Creatives who participated in the survey and in Reboot Alberta. Influentials are that group of people whose opinions are sought out and respected. They are trend spotters, trend setters and opinion leaders. Influentials are community activists and engaged citizens. They have large and active personal networks and help others decide many things, include who to vote for.

Influentials make up about 10% of the general population but 88% of those who answered the Reboot Citizen’s Value Survey were Influentials. These are people who can make a difference and set trends and a very large portion of the Reboot community is Influential.

The other interesting survey result was around the Cultural Creatives. These are the people who work and live in creative endeavours. They are not just artists, but include people architects, lawyers, writers, educators, media-types and anyone else who works with their imagination and design skills. They have been studied by Paul Ray since the mid 1990s when about 23% of the American population fit the description.  He wrote a very interesting book called The Cultural Creatives that I recommend you read.

Updated research found that this Culture Creative group has grown to about 43% of the American population. These are the people who create and thrive in the information, knowledge and cultural industries economy. The Reboot Alberta Citizen’s Values Survey found that 86% of participants met the criteria for Cultural Creatives.

There were 76% of the Reboot Alberta Citizen’s Values Survey participants who are both Influential and Cultural Creatives. Measuring their interests and levels of engagement saw that 87% of them wanted politics and government resources to have more emphasis on children’s education, well-being and on rebuilding neighborhoods and communities. Around 80% of them volunteer for one or more good causes and place a great deal of importance on developing and maintaining relationships.

So with this as a base and the growing concerns about the direction Alberta is heading economically, environmentally, socially and politically, Reboot Alberta is tapping into some fear, uncertainty and doubt progressives are expressing about the future of the Province. So far Reboot Alberta has been about conversations but, as one person said at the first Reboot Alberta gathering, “Conversations are game-changers.”

Time will tell but there is a sense that a wave of change is coming to Alberta politics. If that is the case the next vital question is what will that wave of change do to the political landscape of Alberta? Will it go far right and be like a little Republican Alberta? Or will the Influential, Cultural Creatives and Progressives be the leaders of the next and new Alberta? Yes, time will tell, but I sense it will be sooner than later that the change takes shape and shows what direction will prevail.