Is Alberta Tired of Being Taken For Granted by Harper?

Susan Riley writes an interesting take on Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff's possibilities in a forthcoming by-election in Calgary.  With the sudden and unexpected departure of Jim Prentice, the last progressive voice in the Harper government, there is a need for a by-election by May 2011.  There may be a general election before then but I doubt it will happen until the fall of 2011.  The Liberals should wait for Canadians to see the continuing failure of integrity the hardcore Harper Cons to live up to their fundamental political ideology. Harper's hypocritical character flaws will show again as he will retreat even further from what he touts as sound and conservative fiscal management in their upcoming budget.

Could Calgary send a message for the rest of Alberta in this by-election and elect a Liberal in protest to the indifference and disdain Harper has shown for his home province and his home city?  Harper has been increasingly estranged from Albertans ever since he got all that personal political power and his iron-fist control over everything that happens in the federal government.

Nenshi's election as Mayor last October give us hope.  He won handily over two variations conventional Conservatism. One rejected candidate was run by the Harper machine and the other had her strings pulled by the old Klein crowd.  Provincially there are now more Liberals elected in Calgary than in Edmonton and they used to call us Redmonton back in the day when that was reversed.  Stranger things have happened is all I am saying.

I am not making any political predictions but we know from our conjoint research last May that only 17% of Albertans are in any way satisfied with the way Alberta's federal MPs protect and promote our interests in Ottawa. That indicates changes could happen and a by-election that elects a Liberal is just the ticket to send Harper a much overdue "we are not amused" political message.

When Premier Klein was kicked out by the PC rank and file his "safe" seat was lost to a Liberal in a by-election.  Klein was a lot more popular in Alberta then than Harper can ever hope to be.  When Deputy Premier Stevens quit provincial politics, as quickly and mysteriously as Prentice, the by election that followed went to the Wildrose Alliance as a way to send Premier Stelmach a "we are not amused" political message.  The Liberal vote stayed the same but the protest vote went to the Wildrose Alliance in that by-election.

So stay tuned Alberta and consider the strategic opportunity to send a wake up call to the Harper-Cons in the   soon to be announced by-election.  And if there is a general election beforehand, the opportunity is even greater to ensure Alberta is not taken for granted by the presumptive arrogance of the Harper political machine that we are all mindless sheep without voting or political options.

Welcome to one small piece of the new narrative that is being written about the next Alberta by a revived sense of citizenship that is happening all over the province.

CalgaryGrit: 2010 in Pictures: Let's Get Municipal

Good morning and welcome to 2011. The Calgary Grit has put together a great compilation of photos that will remind you of where we have been in the past year.

CalgaryGrit: 2010 in Pictures: Let's Get Municipal

As for the coming year, we will have to create some of those memorable moments ourselves. In other cases circumstances will create them for us and to us. Welcome to 2011 the year of emergent possibilities.

Stiglitz on How Should We Measure Progress

Noble winner Joseph Stiglitz in a brief conversation about what is wrong with relying on Gross Domestic Product measures to evaluate if a society is doing well.  GDP is a very crude and very misleading measure  does not measure the change of income of the citizens or how that income is distributed.  It does not measure well being and has nothing to do with happiness.



Genuine Wealth Indicators and Genuine Progress Indicators are so much more integrated and effective measures of how well we are doing economically, environmentally and socially - stuff that is ignored by GDP measures.

Here is a link to a City of Edmonton study done on this much more comprehensive and meaningful approach to measuring success.   This works was done by Mark Anielski, the author of  "The Economics of Happiness." I will be inviting Mark to participate and use this information at a workshop being organized for March 17 in Edmonton as part of the Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta project spearheaded by the Alberta Teachers Association.  The workshop will gather together some enterprising opinion and thought leaders from various segments of our society, ecology and economy to look beyond the Alberta Advantage to consider what ought to be the Alberta Aspirations.  My personal context preference is to have Alberta striving to be the best FOR the world in a substantial and sustainable way, not merely a trite goal of being the best IN the world in some shallow consumptive competitiveness game.

I will keep you posted and provide informative links to interesting content and context on the updated Learning Our Way website that goes live next week.  (H/T to Duncan Kinney for the Stiglitz video link via LinkedIn)

Creative People in Business

The magazine Fast Company has published its list of the 10 Most Creative People in Business....it is mostly American business but that is typical US narcissism.  What is interesting to me is #6 on the list: Steve Burd, the CEO of Safeway.  You don't usually look to a grocery store for creativity but there he is.  The reasons he is on the list are encouraging.

The reason that  recognition of Steve Burd interests me is that creative culture and corporate leadership is alive and well in the Alberta division of Safeway too.  Bill Campbell is the Safeway head of human resources and is one of those corporate thought leaders and creativity doers in Alberta.  His work with the community based Save Our Fine Arts (SOFA and #sofab on Twitter) is a great example of corporate talent seeing culture as a critical aspect of our quality of life.  As an HR guy Bill know the arts and a wider deeper sense of literacy are part of the skill sets we must develop and enhance if we are to compete in the conceptual age we are entering economically.

There is more good stuff SOFA and Campbell are doing including hosting a public meeting on the role of creativity and fine arts education with Education Minister Dave Hancock in Calgary January 25.  Make it one of your New Years resolutions to join with SOFA and attend this meeting to learn more about the importance of art in education.

If the the Alberta economy is to survive and thrive, we have to adapt to create creative based assets that serve a full range of human needs and wants.  That imagination and innovation will be more about our brain as a natural resource and less about our brawn in extracting energy from hydrocarbons.    Creative based assets are all around us and are not just about frolicking and juggling performances, as much fun as that is.  It is about new technologies and techniques that do conventional economic activity better, faster, cheaper, and cleaner.  That is our future and creativity is the key.  There is a new book coming out that deals with this transition by Robert McGarvey called "Undressing Capitalism."  I have read the manuscript and will be talking more about Bob's intriguing ideas in future posts too.

I will be blogging a lot about creativity and innovation in 2011 and the work of Creative Alberta as a lead group in helping to promote awareness, trigger some imagination and make it all more meaningful for folks through international relationship of creative districts.  You will be hearing a lot more about my work with the ATA and the Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta project too, including a major event about a new partnership of high performing public education systems in the world.  That includes the top 2 in the world, Finland and Alberta who are forming this partnership.  More on all that next week.

In the meantime I wish all of you a Happy New Year and an interesting and creative 2011.

Are You Into New Years Resolutions?

If so watch this video and reflect on what resolutions make sense for you as an individual agent of change in the larger context of the planet.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150347710280581

What will you resolve to do more of, less of, and be better at in the coming year?  After all we are all in this together and alone.

H/T to  Esme Comfort for the link