Dave Clemenhaga once again provides a well researched and coherent commentary on things political in our province. His insight into the implications of the rise of the Wildrose Alliance Party coincide with my own, No wonder I like his perspective.
Since this post was written new developments sparked by the Liberal leader David Swann have triggered some serious conversations in progressive political circles about what to do. Reboot Alberta has been instrumental in starting policy conversations amongst progressive thinking Albertan. But the time has come to get more focused on the politics side of the progressive agenda.
I have been in a number of conversations with progressive thinkers in the province and the MSM in the past few days. There is a plan emerging in my mind about how to use the conversation space David Swann has opened up with his invitation. Expect a blog post on the ideas and events peculating around shortly.
Friday, July 09, 2010
So You Think You Want to be a School Trustee!
The Alberta School Boards Association is doing a candidate school for people standing for school trustee in the October elections. The next workshop for candidates is mid-September. I am doing the politics part of it. Go figure eh! We did this for the first time in conjunction with the ASBA Spring Conference. It was a lot of fun and very well received. I am looking forward to the next one.
Here is a link for more information. If you are thinking of running as a school trustee this workshop is for you. Here is the link to register
If you are interested in some of the new directions education and learning is going in Alberta you will want to check this links to Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta.
Here is a link for more information. If you are thinking of running as a school trustee this workshop is for you. Here is the link to register
If you are interested in some of the new directions education and learning is going in Alberta you will want to check this links to Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
David Swann Calls on Alberta Progressive to Come Together.
Got a call last night from Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann giving me a heads up on his effort to reach out to progressive thinking Albertans to do politics differently. As part of Reboot Alberta I am all in favour of that and pleased to see David making the gesture.
This is part of a larger discussion he and I had a week or so ago about getting a larger gathering of progressives together in the new year to really get serious about how we want to be governed,with whom and what are the core values we want expressed and applied by our politicians and in how we are to be governed in the future. It has to be much more that vote for me and lets get rich quick!
To linear people that sound like a lot of navel gazing I know. But the reality is we are so badly governed in Canada and Alberta these days that something has to change and dramatically. I am of the opinion that major transformations do not happen incrementally from the status quo. Something altogether new replaces the status quo. A superficial example is with the advent of cell phones just try and find a payphone. They have become virtually extinct.
What is the transformational replacement for the inert, inept, and inadequate model of politics and government these days? I don't think for a minute that the reversal of decades of positive social development that the Wildrose Alliance Party wants to accomplish with its social conservative "us versus them" approach to politics is the way to go. None of the existing political "alternatives" are resonating. There are 45% of Albertans in a recent poll said they had no confidence in any existing Alberta party or leader to adequately manage Alberta's growth.
As Monty Python said, "...and now for something completely different" is where most Albertans at at. The Alberta progressives are overwhelmingly committed to making a positive contribution to the province's future and feel their personal efforts make a difference. How do we focus that commitment, energy and spirit into actual political and democratic change? That is the question before us and I am delighted that people like David Swann are prepared to pose it dramatically and purposefully.
I will await with great interest what he and others like the fledging Alberta Party are ready to do. There are progressive thinking people who are showing up and stepping up to the plate. Time to take a swing and even more timely to make a pitch. (sic)
Stay tuned Alberta. This could get interesting.
This is part of a larger discussion he and I had a week or so ago about getting a larger gathering of progressives together in the new year to really get serious about how we want to be governed,with whom and what are the core values we want expressed and applied by our politicians and in how we are to be governed in the future. It has to be much more that vote for me and lets get rich quick!
To linear people that sound like a lot of navel gazing I know. But the reality is we are so badly governed in Canada and Alberta these days that something has to change and dramatically. I am of the opinion that major transformations do not happen incrementally from the status quo. Something altogether new replaces the status quo. A superficial example is with the advent of cell phones just try and find a payphone. They have become virtually extinct.
What is the transformational replacement for the inert, inept, and inadequate model of politics and government these days? I don't think for a minute that the reversal of decades of positive social development that the Wildrose Alliance Party wants to accomplish with its social conservative "us versus them" approach to politics is the way to go. None of the existing political "alternatives" are resonating. There are 45% of Albertans in a recent poll said they had no confidence in any existing Alberta party or leader to adequately manage Alberta's growth.
As Monty Python said, "...and now for something completely different" is where most Albertans at at. The Alberta progressives are overwhelmingly committed to making a positive contribution to the province's future and feel their personal efforts make a difference. How do we focus that commitment, energy and spirit into actual political and democratic change? That is the question before us and I am delighted that people like David Swann are prepared to pose it dramatically and purposefully.
I will await with great interest what he and others like the fledging Alberta Party are ready to do. There are progressive thinking people who are showing up and stepping up to the plate. Time to take a swing and even more timely to make a pitch. (sic)
Stay tuned Alberta. This could get interesting.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Have You Met OSQAR? You Should!
OSQAR is "Oil Sands Questions and Responses" and an effort of Suncor to help answer the "who can you trust" question on the oil sands. I recently did another blog post on this question.
Here is a link to the latest offering of OSQAR on air quality in the oil sands producing region. It is worth a read and even worth you subscribing to for future editions if you take your rights and responsibilities as a citizen owner of the oil sands. Full disclosure, I am a Suncor shareholder and have done work for them on occasion but not for some time.
Notice a couple of thing in this effort by OSQAR. They quote evidence based scientific research to substantiate the claims. They identify the individual who did the study and provide a link to learn more about the research. They also provide a link to the original material they are challenging. This time from Environmental Defence. Lots of context, content and authoritative sources you can read and judge for yourself.
This is clearly a more trustworthy approach than the glossy paid advertising approaches being used in too many instances by government and industry. But I have to say, it is not quite there yet. What they don't do is provide for a capacity for readers to have a conversation on the issue so people can share their thoughts, information, reaction and insights to the material and the issues. This is still a one-way - let me tell you what you need to know approach to reach an audience. It will inform and raise awareness but it will not create a trusting relationship with a recipient. Nor will it likely form a community of conversation amongst Albertans on the issues being addressed so the sharing of ideas helps everyone learn more from each other as well as from authorities and experts. It is not participatory.
The overarching question in all of this for Albertans still is who can we trust. Research quoted in Reader's Digest in 2009 shows that some of the least trusted people in our society are CEOs and Politicians. The least trusted industries are Oil companies and Advertising. It is a tough up hill battle for oil sands companies but that is no reason not to engage but REALLY engage.
I think Suncor is one of the leading companies and one of the bright lights and most worthy on its social license to operate in the Alberta oil sands. There are lots of reasons, OSQAR is only one very small but personal reason I hold this opinion.
So good start Suncor but open OSQAR up for some community feedback please. People are already talking online and in person about oil sands, Suncor, air quality and a host of other topics that will interest and be about you. You may as well know what is being said out there about you and your issues. So come into the new media world with a bit more courage. Create a space in OSQAR for a dialogue and participate along with Albertans in the conversations that will occur. You will have ample opportunity to listen, be heard, correct the facts, add evidence and challange some incorrect assumptions if need be.
Here is a link to the latest offering of OSQAR on air quality in the oil sands producing region. It is worth a read and even worth you subscribing to for future editions if you take your rights and responsibilities as a citizen owner of the oil sands. Full disclosure, I am a Suncor shareholder and have done work for them on occasion but not for some time.
Notice a couple of thing in this effort by OSQAR. They quote evidence based scientific research to substantiate the claims. They identify the individual who did the study and provide a link to learn more about the research. They also provide a link to the original material they are challenging. This time from Environmental Defence. Lots of context, content and authoritative sources you can read and judge for yourself.
This is clearly a more trustworthy approach than the glossy paid advertising approaches being used in too many instances by government and industry. But I have to say, it is not quite there yet. What they don't do is provide for a capacity for readers to have a conversation on the issue so people can share their thoughts, information, reaction and insights to the material and the issues. This is still a one-way - let me tell you what you need to know approach to reach an audience. It will inform and raise awareness but it will not create a trusting relationship with a recipient. Nor will it likely form a community of conversation amongst Albertans on the issues being addressed so the sharing of ideas helps everyone learn more from each other as well as from authorities and experts. It is not participatory.
The overarching question in all of this for Albertans still is who can we trust. Research quoted in Reader's Digest in 2009 shows that some of the least trusted people in our society are CEOs and Politicians. The least trusted industries are Oil companies and Advertising. It is a tough up hill battle for oil sands companies but that is no reason not to engage but REALLY engage.
I think Suncor is one of the leading companies and one of the bright lights and most worthy on its social license to operate in the Alberta oil sands. There are lots of reasons, OSQAR is only one very small but personal reason I hold this opinion.
So good start Suncor but open OSQAR up for some community feedback please. People are already talking online and in person about oil sands, Suncor, air quality and a host of other topics that will interest and be about you. You may as well know what is being said out there about you and your issues. So come into the new media world with a bit more courage. Create a space in OSQAR for a dialogue and participate along with Albertans in the conversations that will occur. You will have ample opportunity to listen, be heard, correct the facts, add evidence and challange some incorrect assumptions if need be.
Could There Be an American Style Tea Party in Alberta's Future?
I subscribe to an American progressive site http://www.democracyinaction.org/. I just got a note about the Glenn Beck (Fox News ultra right-wing talk show host ) pushing the “conservative message machine” as the “chief cheerleader” for the Tea Party types. He is tapping into the resentment of working and unemployed people in the USA....and there are a lot of them that is for sure.
There are allegations that a lot of misinformation being spread by Mr. Beck including suggestions President Obama was not prepared to meet Tony Hayward the British Petroleum CEO because he was “a white CEO.” Beck apparently is also saying the American progressive movement is a “cancer” that was “designed to eat the Constitution.”
The conclusion is “...many progressives, liberals and Democrats are in denial, not tuned in to what is happening in Tea Party-land.” There is a concern that the money and machine behind the otherwise kooky and incoherent rage of Tea Party supporters "...is a powerful cartel of right-wing interests with very deep pockets...(and) a cabal of high-priced political operatives and lobbying groups....”
We have not seen the Tea Party effects in Alberta ... yet. What is just as interesting is what if the progressive voice in Alberta is in denial too. If so the political culture and political power can be highjacked very easily as a result of continued indifference – never mind actual denial.
Alberta has been more of less socially progressive and fiscally conservative for a long time. The shift of focus as of late by the PC and the WAP has been to be conservative on social issues, loose on economic issues and narrow focused on environmental issues too. The progressive element is all but lost in the current Alberta political culture. The trend lines are not promising that positive progressive change will happen automatically.
I have said before that progressives live in their heads and Alberta is no exception. The old ethos of the Lougheed PCs is long gone and actually very much forgotten. If progressive continue to be distant and indifferent to politics and to the realities – not merely the possibilities – of a hard fundamentalist shift to the right in Alberta we will have ruined the possibility of a pluralist, progressive and inclusive province. Such a waste of the potential for our place in time and for us as a people going forward.
So if you don’t want a Tea Party Alberta style in your future, you have to get informed and engaged. I suggest you start looking for and supporting progressive candidates, or better yet, become a progressive political candidate yourself. I strongly urge you to join whatever political party you feel most at home in and start working for whatever candidates that comes closest to reflecting your values.
Many progressives in the Reboot Alberta citizen’s movement are already doing this in the forthcoming civic and school board elections. This is good but we also need to get geared up for the next provincial election too. There will be more on that in later posts-for now a word to the wise is all I am suggesting. There is no time to waste. Hope is not a strategy and denial is not an option.
There are allegations that a lot of misinformation being spread by Mr. Beck including suggestions President Obama was not prepared to meet Tony Hayward the British Petroleum CEO because he was “a white CEO.” Beck apparently is also saying the American progressive movement is a “cancer” that was “designed to eat the Constitution.”
The enraging of vulnerable and fearful people in the Tea Party has been effective in mobalizing them for the November elections in the States. The “enthusiasm gap” which is the difference between positive feelings Republicans have for their candidates versus the same for Democrats is a 35 point spread in favour of the Republicans.
The conclusion is “...many progressives, liberals and Democrats are in denial, not tuned in to what is happening in Tea Party-land.” There is a concern that the money and machine behind the otherwise kooky and incoherent rage of Tea Party supporters "...is a powerful cartel of right-wing interests with very deep pockets...(and) a cabal of high-priced political operatives and lobbying groups....”
We have not seen the Tea Party effects in Alberta ... yet. What is just as interesting is what if the progressive voice in Alberta is in denial too. If so the political culture and political power can be highjacked very easily as a result of continued indifference – never mind actual denial.
Alberta has been more of less socially progressive and fiscally conservative for a long time. The shift of focus as of late by the PC and the WAP has been to be conservative on social issues, loose on economic issues and narrow focused on environmental issues too. The progressive element is all but lost in the current Alberta political culture. The trend lines are not promising that positive progressive change will happen automatically.
I have said before that progressives live in their heads and Alberta is no exception. The old ethos of the Lougheed PCs is long gone and actually very much forgotten. If progressive continue to be distant and indifferent to politics and to the realities – not merely the possibilities – of a hard fundamentalist shift to the right in Alberta we will have ruined the possibility of a pluralist, progressive and inclusive province. Such a waste of the potential for our place in time and for us as a people going forward.
So if you don’t want a Tea Party Alberta style in your future, you have to get informed and engaged. I suggest you start looking for and supporting progressive candidates, or better yet, become a progressive political candidate yourself. I strongly urge you to join whatever political party you feel most at home in and start working for whatever candidates that comes closest to reflecting your values.
Many progressives in the Reboot Alberta citizen’s movement are already doing this in the forthcoming civic and school board elections. This is good but we also need to get geared up for the next provincial election too. There will be more on that in later posts-for now a word to the wise is all I am suggesting. There is no time to waste. Hope is not a strategy and denial is not an option.
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