Fraser Institute Report Comparing Schools is Educational Folly

I always dispair at the superficial analysis and misleading inferences from the Fraser Institute when it ranks  schools based on standardized test results.  When you ask a shallow and silly question you are bound to get a useless answer.  As the world gets more complex and informed engaged citizenship becomes more important than ever we need to ensure the skills we teach are those that are essential for this new and emerging world. 

Of course the traditional subjects are still important but not as the only things worth teaching and testing. To compare schools and insist that they compete for credibility when private schools can restrict who they enroll and public schools will and must take all comers and to say this is a quality measure is misleading at best.  This fundamental reality about enrollment and the socio-economic differences in schools make the Fraser Institute comparison reporting such a disservice.  How are students, teachers, parents and the public able to use such selective comparisons when trying to discern if our education system is doing the job it needs to do to prepare the whole student for the changing and emerging reality they will face.

If students and teachers are only ranked and rated on narrow focued standardized test results we only get a bellcurve distribution but no insight as to how well prepared the whole student is for adaptation, resilience, self-sufficiency and survival in a complex interdependent globalized social, environmental, economic and political culture. 

The Fraser Institute reports on public education is as helpful as counting the number of nails in a house and presuming that measures its value to those who live in it.  It is not even worthy of being taken with a grain of salt.  It is beyond useless, it is dangerous

Jon Stewart's Classic Piece of Political Satire on Progressives.

Here is a clip by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show that is destined to be a classic.  As a friend of mine said about this clip "It would be funny if it were not so true."  The sad state of fearmongering and misleading from some of the media in America is also present in Alberta. You just have to scratch the surface a little and you will find it in more than a few places.

This piece of sketch comedy should cause Progressives in Alberta to laugh and reflect but not cry or dispair.  We have to stand up and decrie such prejudice and bigotry. We have to speak out against the kind of screed that get passed off by some as a preferred but uncivil society that would put us back into an unjust and doctraire society.

I think I have said enough.  Go to the link and let Jon Stewart speak for himself. He also speaks for many others of us who are progressives but have been too complacent and too indifferent and for far too long.

http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/Displayblog.aspx?bpid=4843e0b6-7dbc-44d7-be1b-615a35ac155f

Stelmach and Emerson Both Speaking at Oilsands National Buyer/Seller Forum

There is an amazing amount of activity in and around the oilsands these days. Deferred projects are back on the front burners, mergers are happening and foreign investment is looking aggressively for places to play. The impact of the oil sands development in Alberta, across the country and throughout North America and now infiltrating into Asia has been the focus of many project conversations and contract negotiations for at least a decade.


The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association have been sponsoring the National Buyers and Sellers Forum for a decade now too. It brings people into Edmonton from all over the world to look at how they can participate in the opportunities inherent in Alberta‘s oil sand development. To underscore the importance of future oilsands development Premier Stelmach and The Honourable David Emerson, Chair of the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy are both speaking at a National Buyers and Sellers Forum dinner on March 23 in Edmonton.

The theme for this year’s NBSF is aptly entitled “The Maturing of the Oil Sands.” I like the theme because it has a few nuances around the concept of maturity. There is enough longitudinal experience with the oilsands, as well as recognition that it is more than economics but also an environmental and a social concern.

Consistent with the theme, Premier Stelmach will be speaking on his government’s priorities with particular attention to the new Competitiveness Act. David Emerson will be making the first public presentation on the progress of the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy as it delves into the unique challenges and opportunities for the future wellbeing and prosperity of Alberta.

There is an estimated $1Trillion of economic value to be created by oil sands development in the next decade. Environmental responsibility and energy efficiency are rapidly emerging part of the corporate culture and consciousness in oil sands development. The recoverable oilsands, using current technology, and at current commodity prices is a $25Trillion asset.

This oilsands asset is owned by each and every Albertan and we each individually have a $4.5million stake in the potential of that resource. This is not just a get rich quick opportunity. But it is an enormous opportunity for individual Albertans to realize the benefits and burdens we have carry to ensure we can be proud and profit from its proper exploitation.

As the owner of the oilsands, every Albertan needs to become more aware, informed and engaged in the public policy discussions on it responsible and sustainable effective development. I am a big fan of oilsands development but see it as an integrated social, ecological, economic and political set of issues and opportunities. Government is our agent and proxy holder and it supposed to serve our best interests. Industry is our tenant and contracted to develop the resource for the benefit of investors, markets and the greater good. That will only happen if citizens are duly diligent, engaged and informed enough to insist that these goals are all served.

I will be doing a future blog post on the Premier’s remarks and Chairman Emerson’s comment too at the dinner to try and add to the light and reduce some of the heat around oilsands development. I hope this will help Albertans get tuned in, stay tuned in and make sure that government and industry are in tune with the hopes and aspirations of Albertans around proper development of our oilsands.

BTW if you are interested attending in the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association NBSF, you can register here.

Reboot Alberta is Getting Momentum

When I see Letters to the Editor like this one by Alan Hayman I get the sense that there is a real possibility of serious citizen's movement forming around a more progressive political culture in Alberta.  This is independent proof for me that the Reboot Alberta Citizens Movement exists and is growing.  The conservative culture wars between the reactionay Stelmach government and the reductive Smith wanna-be government is waking up and unnerving the somnabulist centre of the Alberta citizenry. 

We Albertans have had a pretty easy ride for quite some time. We have become dis-engaged, complacent queiscent and querulous in our relationship to our govenment and governors.  We have recently come to the realization that it is our province, our govenment and our resources and our responsibility to do something about the direction and desitination that the reactionary right is pushing our province.  We are now becoming respondant instead of dispondent as we see the unrealized potential and unrequited response to crystallizing concerns of citizens over the legacy w of environmental degradation and debt we are leaving our children.

The tired old and tedious tendency to see everything as right and wrong, left and right, us and them, winners and losers is past its prime and turning into something very dangerous in our new interdependent global reality.  We need to get past the pro-forma political positioning of traditional partisan poliitics that sees choices between the idealization of the welfare state or the ideology of the markets as the only optoins open to us.

We need a pragmatic progressive political culture that builds on the strengths of the welfare state and the marketplace but also finds ways to overcome their weaknesses. We need citizens to reinvigorate and to return to the public life of a vibrant democracy.  Fear-mongering and an epidemic of ennui are not viable go-forward attitudes for Albertans.

Join the Reboot Alberta Citizen's Movement and be the change you want to see happen You only have yourself to blame if it does not happen.

Alberta Venture Magazine "The Right Call" Column is On-Line.

Here is the link to the March edition of Alberta Venture magazine and The Right Call column on business ethics that I often contribute to.  This month we tackle about what to do with an employee who publicly expresses views in conflict with a company's mission.

This month the other contributors are Heather Douglas the CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and Janet Keeping, President of the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics and Leadership along with our noble leader and author, Fil Fraser. 

Alberta Venture also did a review of the book Green Oil written by my business partner Satya Das.