This is an audio link to the interview done with Glenn Taylor today on CBC Radio Alberta at Noon.
Give it a listen and share it with your friend, family and people in your community. Then consider joining the Alberta Party and help change Glenn and your fellow progressive thinking citizens change the political culture of Alberta.
We will have the text of his speech on his website and Facebook page soon as well as the full video of his campaign launch for the leadership of the Alberta Party.
Check out Glenn's Facebook page too. Glenn Taylor A New Day. A New Way.
Times are changing in Alberta - it is time to be part of the change. Contact me (ken@cambridgestrategies.com)
if you want to help Glenn become the people's choice for leader of the Alberta Party and to get this new movement election ready.
Doing politics differently also means thinking about politics differently. How do you want to change things about how you are governed? Let us know what you want to see changed for the better - and get involved.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Glenn Taylor Announces Alberta Party Leadership Bid
This morning at 10:30 am from the Art Gallery of Alberta, Glenn Taylor will announce that he is seeking the leadership of the Alberta Party.
We will stream it live at http://www.facebook.com/GlennTaylorAlberta?v=app_142371818162 and of course we will tape it for posting later in case you can't come down or view it live.
This is just the third Tuesday in a row where there has been a game changing announcement that impacts the future of Alberta. Two weeks ago Premier Stelmach said he was finished with Progressive Conservative politics. One week ago Dr. David Swann did the same when he stepped down from the Liberal Party leadership. Both of these leaders deserve our thanks for their service to Alberta.
Today, on this Tuesday, Glenn Taylor steps into provincial politics from an effective record of service at the municipal level. Glenn wants to get Albertans to re-engage in the political culture of our times. Unlike those past Tuesdays where leaders were stepping down, Glenn is stepping up today. He is offering his skills, experience and commitment to Alberta through the Alberta Party.
I wonder what is in store for next Tuesday?
We will stream it live at http://www.facebook.com/GlennTaylorAlberta?v=app_142371818162 and of course we will tape it for posting later in case you can't come down or view it live.
This is just the third Tuesday in a row where there has been a game changing announcement that impacts the future of Alberta. Two weeks ago Premier Stelmach said he was finished with Progressive Conservative politics. One week ago Dr. David Swann did the same when he stepped down from the Liberal Party leadership. Both of these leaders deserve our thanks for their service to Alberta.
Today, on this Tuesday, Glenn Taylor steps into provincial politics from an effective record of service at the municipal level. Glenn wants to get Albertans to re-engage in the political culture of our times. Unlike those past Tuesdays where leaders were stepping down, Glenn is stepping up today. He is offering his skills, experience and commitment to Alberta through the Alberta Party.
I wonder what is in store for next Tuesday?
Monday, February 07, 2011
A Message for Moderation in Alberta Politics
Here is a very well thought out and articulated plea for more civility in Alberta's political discourse in the Edmonton Sun yesterday.
We see the Harper government returning to the half-truth attack ads again. This time it is on Ignatieff and before on Dion but the intent is the same...belittling and unfounded personal attacks. The Harper brain trust do this to bolster the support of the Conservative base voter...and to divert attention on just how much he has betrayed the principles of those supporters with his policies that have caused big debts and big government?
The Harper Cons are also using taxpayer subsidized dollars to effectively campaign before the election writ so they don't have to account for the money under the election law. This is not illegal but it is way outside the spirit of the law. Disingenuous is a polite way to describe this lack of integrity.
Can this happen in Alberta? Stelmach when he announced his intent to step down as PC leader and Premier alluded to a concern that the next election would be rife with personal attacks against him too. I don't know where he got his information from but he is not a man prone to exaggeration.
We have a democratic deficit in Canada and in Alberta. Part of it is due to the importation to Canada of nasty negative adversarial campaigning from the darker side of the Republican party in the United States by the Harper government. The Tea Party movement in the United States bolstered by media ranters on Fox News like Glen Beck is a focal point for this kind of destructive political culture.
We don't want or need this kind of political campaigning in Alberta. One wonders just how much the Harper -Rove destructive election approach will infiltrate the culture war on the right between The Wildrose and the Morton campaign. Harper has influence on both camps. It will be interesting to see if the Harper nastiness, mean-spirited disingenuous electioneering will also be used by the hard right to try and unfairly discredit those in other parties in the coming election. I hope not but time will tell.
It is legitimate to take issue about the integrity and character of candidates and the consistency of their words and deeds but it needs to be relevant to their policy not just their personality . For example the media reports of Ted Morton claiming to be a "moderate" in the PC party is fair comment. He gives no evidence in support of such a statement - just a personal assertion that since the progressives find him too conservative and the Wildrose find him too progressive he must be in the middle???? This is a cynical framing comment designed to change the impressions of moderate Albertans of his persona and distance him from his pronounced social conservative past.
Taking Stelmach to task for calling on full disclosure of PC leadership campaigns now when he would not do so himself in the 2006 contest is also fair comment. That is not nasty campaigning it is asking for clarity on integrity and intent of his recent proclamations in conflict with past actions. It is important for politicians to be able to learn, grow and change over time and is that what Stelmach has done? Disagreeing and calling candidates to account is not nasty politics so long as it is evidence based and intended to increase honesty, accountability and transparency in politics and politicians.
But there is a line and it does get crossed and when it does citizens now have the Internet to protect against such abuse and to pronounce it unacceptable to a fully functioning and fair democracy. Yes and bloggers will have to be taken to account too if and when we cross the line. So citizens of Alberta - don't be taken in by the negative ads and the nastiness of some anonymous trolls who comment on the events of the day with out evidence or elan. Insist on a higher standard of conduct for our democracy and be harsh on those who don't meet those standards publicly and a the ballot box.
We see the Harper government returning to the half-truth attack ads again. This time it is on Ignatieff and before on Dion but the intent is the same...belittling and unfounded personal attacks. The Harper brain trust do this to bolster the support of the Conservative base voter...and to divert attention on just how much he has betrayed the principles of those supporters with his policies that have caused big debts and big government?
The Harper Cons are also using taxpayer subsidized dollars to effectively campaign before the election writ so they don't have to account for the money under the election law. This is not illegal but it is way outside the spirit of the law. Disingenuous is a polite way to describe this lack of integrity.
Can this happen in Alberta? Stelmach when he announced his intent to step down as PC leader and Premier alluded to a concern that the next election would be rife with personal attacks against him too. I don't know where he got his information from but he is not a man prone to exaggeration.
We have a democratic deficit in Canada and in Alberta. Part of it is due to the importation to Canada of nasty negative adversarial campaigning from the darker side of the Republican party in the United States by the Harper government. The Tea Party movement in the United States bolstered by media ranters on Fox News like Glen Beck is a focal point for this kind of destructive political culture.
We don't want or need this kind of political campaigning in Alberta. One wonders just how much the Harper -Rove destructive election approach will infiltrate the culture war on the right between The Wildrose and the Morton campaign. Harper has influence on both camps. It will be interesting to see if the Harper nastiness, mean-spirited disingenuous electioneering will also be used by the hard right to try and unfairly discredit those in other parties in the coming election. I hope not but time will tell.
It is legitimate to take issue about the integrity and character of candidates and the consistency of their words and deeds but it needs to be relevant to their policy not just their personality . For example the media reports of Ted Morton claiming to be a "moderate" in the PC party is fair comment. He gives no evidence in support of such a statement - just a personal assertion that since the progressives find him too conservative and the Wildrose find him too progressive he must be in the middle???? This is a cynical framing comment designed to change the impressions of moderate Albertans of his persona and distance him from his pronounced social conservative past.
Taking Stelmach to task for calling on full disclosure of PC leadership campaigns now when he would not do so himself in the 2006 contest is also fair comment. That is not nasty campaigning it is asking for clarity on integrity and intent of his recent proclamations in conflict with past actions. It is important for politicians to be able to learn, grow and change over time and is that what Stelmach has done? Disagreeing and calling candidates to account is not nasty politics so long as it is evidence based and intended to increase honesty, accountability and transparency in politics and politicians.
But there is a line and it does get crossed and when it does citizens now have the Internet to protect against such abuse and to pronounce it unacceptable to a fully functioning and fair democracy. Yes and bloggers will have to be taken to account too if and when we cross the line. So citizens of Alberta - don't be taken in by the negative ads and the nastiness of some anonymous trolls who comment on the events of the day with out evidence or elan. Insist on a higher standard of conduct for our democracy and be harsh on those who don't meet those standards publicly and a the ballot box.
Health Care Reform in Alberta - Who Has the Answers?
There is a major concern over access to health care in Alberta. The quality of the care once you are in the system seems to be very good but we need both.
The solutions offered by the culture war on the right in Alberta are difficult to follow but some changes proposed are a more "market-based" and "competition" approach to the publicly funded health care system. They don't like to call it privatization because they know that would be rejected in the next election. So they couch the language but you have to wonder if that is just hiding the privatization approach. It is hard to know what is really proposed and what is really going on with such language. There will be a debate in the PC, Liberal and Alberta Party leadership campaigns around all this I am sure.
Comforting political reassurances from the far right that privatization is not on their political agenda do not align with past pronouncements of those who are proposing this "competitive" approach to health care reform. Even Ted Morton of the hard right Calgary School is now claiming to be a "moderate" in the Progressive Conservative Party. This re-packaging of the hard line right wing past of some in the PCs and the Wildrose Alliance is just too hard to swallow and sure does not pass the sniff test based on past performance and policy positions. Have these leopards really changed their spots?
IS HEALTH CARE TOO EXPENSIVE NOW?
Other fiscal conservatives bemoan that the cost of health care is eating up a growing percentage of the provincial budget and that is "not sustainable." Is that percent of total government budget a good test of what we are committing to health care in Alberta? We are a growing economy and I understand we spend a smaller portion of our GDP on health care now that we did in 1968 when it first came in - and we get a lot more services now that we did back then. Isn't that a better measure of the cost of health care as a portion of the Alberta economy and not just of the government budget?
We have some political parties totally bent of reducing the role of government by starving necessary public services like health, seniors, children services and education. Ironically they see no problem is increasing subsidies and reducing rents to sunset energy sectors at the same time. This excessive subsidy to business puts the burden of personal income tax and strangles the capacity of the government to do the job the citizens expect of it. If you reduce the denominator of total government spending you increase the percentage attributed to health care but that isn't a public policy disaster as a result...it is just arithmetic based on a governing philosophy.
Look at it in another way. Our rush to the bottom in tax rates and revenues with our ridiculously low royalty regimes and then we use a significant portion of non-renewable resource revenues to pay for current government operations means this generation is not paying its way and robbing from the birthright of future generations. Again this is intentional with the goal to drive down tax revenues and reduce the capacity for the public sector service providers to do their jobs. Are there political forces in Alberta that want to be elected to that they can assure that the public system to provide necessary social services like education, health, and seniors services will fail?
ARE WE SETTING UP THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM TO FAIL?
Setting up the community based service providers, health care professionals and public sector services to fail by starving them of resources means we will then be told that the only saviour of the system will be market-based private sector providers. There will be soothing words that competition will keep the private providers honest and costs low but all too often we see reduced services, higher costs and feigned competitiveness.
There is a strong role for the private sector in many parts of our society but it must serve the needs of the society not the other way around. Solving the health care concerns in Alberta is very important but it is embedded in a much more foundational issue and that is what is the role of government in our society. Citizens also have to come to grips with what is our personal responsibility for our life style choices and the implications for the quality and cost of heath care too.
All these elements have to part of the discussion and design of a health care system that gives us access, quality and value for tax dollars. To reduce it to a private versus public health care debate is an over simplification of a complex social, cultural and political challenge. For every complex problem there is a simple answer that is usually wrong. Albertans should not be fooled by soothing over simplifications as we struggle to design a quality and sustainable health care system for now and the future.
The solutions offered by the culture war on the right in Alberta are difficult to follow but some changes proposed are a more "market-based" and "competition" approach to the publicly funded health care system. They don't like to call it privatization because they know that would be rejected in the next election. So they couch the language but you have to wonder if that is just hiding the privatization approach. It is hard to know what is really proposed and what is really going on with such language. There will be a debate in the PC, Liberal and Alberta Party leadership campaigns around all this I am sure.
Comforting political reassurances from the far right that privatization is not on their political agenda do not align with past pronouncements of those who are proposing this "competitive" approach to health care reform. Even Ted Morton of the hard right Calgary School is now claiming to be a "moderate" in the Progressive Conservative Party. This re-packaging of the hard line right wing past of some in the PCs and the Wildrose Alliance is just too hard to swallow and sure does not pass the sniff test based on past performance and policy positions. Have these leopards really changed their spots?
IS HEALTH CARE TOO EXPENSIVE NOW?
Other fiscal conservatives bemoan that the cost of health care is eating up a growing percentage of the provincial budget and that is "not sustainable." Is that percent of total government budget a good test of what we are committing to health care in Alberta? We are a growing economy and I understand we spend a smaller portion of our GDP on health care now that we did in 1968 when it first came in - and we get a lot more services now that we did back then. Isn't that a better measure of the cost of health care as a portion of the Alberta economy and not just of the government budget?
We have some political parties totally bent of reducing the role of government by starving necessary public services like health, seniors, children services and education. Ironically they see no problem is increasing subsidies and reducing rents to sunset energy sectors at the same time. This excessive subsidy to business puts the burden of personal income tax and strangles the capacity of the government to do the job the citizens expect of it. If you reduce the denominator of total government spending you increase the percentage attributed to health care but that isn't a public policy disaster as a result...it is just arithmetic based on a governing philosophy.
Look at it in another way. Our rush to the bottom in tax rates and revenues with our ridiculously low royalty regimes and then we use a significant portion of non-renewable resource revenues to pay for current government operations means this generation is not paying its way and robbing from the birthright of future generations. Again this is intentional with the goal to drive down tax revenues and reduce the capacity for the public sector service providers to do their jobs. Are there political forces in Alberta that want to be elected to that they can assure that the public system to provide necessary social services like education, health, and seniors services will fail?
ARE WE SETTING UP THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM TO FAIL?
Setting up the community based service providers, health care professionals and public sector services to fail by starving them of resources means we will then be told that the only saviour of the system will be market-based private sector providers. There will be soothing words that competition will keep the private providers honest and costs low but all too often we see reduced services, higher costs and feigned competitiveness.
There is a strong role for the private sector in many parts of our society but it must serve the needs of the society not the other way around. Solving the health care concerns in Alberta is very important but it is embedded in a much more foundational issue and that is what is the role of government in our society. Citizens also have to come to grips with what is our personal responsibility for our life style choices and the implications for the quality and cost of heath care too.
All these elements have to part of the discussion and design of a health care system that gives us access, quality and value for tax dollars. To reduce it to a private versus public health care debate is an over simplification of a complex social, cultural and political challenge. For every complex problem there is a simple answer that is usually wrong. Albertans should not be fooled by soothing over simplifications as we struggle to design a quality and sustainable health care system for now and the future.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Alberta Party Becomes a Political Punching Bag
There is a new and nasty reaction to the rise of the Alberta Party from sources in the traditional political parties. The rumour mills, media quotes and online chatter is full of anger and angst aimed at the Alberta Party as some upstart new kid on the block that needs to be put in its place. It is as if our new found validation as a viable political option in the eyes of the media and others was our fault and not theirs.
The Alberta Party is now a target by some saddened practitioners of the politics-as-usual We in the Alberta Party are being punched way above our weight these days. But beating on us will not change the reality that Alberta citizens have rejected the old-style Alberta political culture. The tired and untrue political spin cycles just remind citizens why they avoid politics and see voting a pointless. It shows why we don't get our best and brightest people participating in public service and politics. They rightly conclude "Who needs this grief?"
Speaking of grieving, the soul searching of the NDP and Liberals and progressive in PC party has begun in earnest, especially with the recent resignations of Stelmach and Swann. The core partisans in these parties are grieving. They were in the denial stage of "this can't be happening" as they saw the infighting result in the loss of two good men as party leaders - within a week. That makes the continuation of the denial stage pretty pointless. There are some who are well into the anger stage now of "why me...this is not fair." If you look at the comment thread on this Daveberta post you can see the anger stage playing out in real time.
If the grieving continues we will see some examples of the bargaining stage emerge in the progressive wing of the PC Party. That will start to happen when they see who actually steps up to run for the PC leadership from the progressive side. There will be desperate bargains struck about who gets the nod as the preferred progressive candidate. There will be concerns of will he or she be strong enough to beat Ted Morton. If the preferred progressive is not strong enough to win expect more progressives to drift into the Alberta Party. Expect a wave of progressives to to the Alberta Party from the PCs if there is a purge of their ranks as a result of a Morton leadership victory.
On the Liberal side we have seen many rank and file members already make the value trade-off decision and have joined the Alberta Party. Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman's recent media comments about considering running for the leadership of either the Liberals or the Alberta Party is an example of a bargaining stage of grief. This ambivalence is totally understandable and this kind of decision making process is not easy. It is much more than just keeping political options open. It about being authentically open to new ways of thinking about politics. It is about trading past loyalties for the potential for new hope when everything is uncertain.
Some partisans will just go into the depression stage now or after the PC and Liberal leaderships have been decided. They will likely respond by withdrawing from political life and politics all together concluding "what is the point any more." Other partisans, displeased with the leadership decision of their party, will emerge out of all this looking for new hope and a new home. They will go through the final Acceptance stage of grieving. They will come to realize that Alberta has changed and they must change too. Perhaps the Alberta Party will be their new hope and their new home - but only time will tell.
I went through this kind of political soul searching and grieving in my own decision making process to leave the PCs. I realized, through my involvement with Reboot Alberta, that Alberta had fundamentally changed from what I had assumed was the political truth of the times. We found through research that Albertans were losing their sense of pride in the province but their personal commitment to making Alberta better was still extraordinarily strong. The research results we so strong that it was obvious that something was about to change dramatically in Alberta politics. Who knew how, where, what and when that change would happen - but it is happening now.
The research uncovered the fundamental values Albertans wanted to see from political parties before they would grant their consent to be governed. Those values are integrity, honesty, accountability, transparency, fiscal and personal responsibility and environmental stewardship. Albertans also felt these values were seriously lacking in the current political culture. My sense from the Reboot Alberta experience and research was that something new and different was needed in the Alberta political landscape. The politics as usual approach could not respond to the longing and yearning for a more caring, compassionate and responsible political culture.
The Alberta Party idea emerged from the first Reboot Alberta gathering. In time I came to see and accept that the Alberta Party was the best chance to do politics differently in our province. I have become active and have not been disappointed nor have I second guessed my decision. In fact I have been delighted with my new political home. I trust other moderates and progressives will eventually find their way to the Alberta Party using their own paths and processes. Check out the Alberta party website, stay tuned to its progress and see if it aligns with your values and aspirations for a better Alberta.. When you decide you want to become part of the co-creation of the next Alberta you should come join us.
The Alberta Party is now a target by some saddened practitioners of the politics-as-usual We in the Alberta Party are being punched way above our weight these days. But beating on us will not change the reality that Alberta citizens have rejected the old-style Alberta political culture. The tired and untrue political spin cycles just remind citizens why they avoid politics and see voting a pointless. It shows why we don't get our best and brightest people participating in public service and politics. They rightly conclude "Who needs this grief?"
Speaking of grieving, the soul searching of the NDP and Liberals and progressive in PC party has begun in earnest, especially with the recent resignations of Stelmach and Swann. The core partisans in these parties are grieving. They were in the denial stage of "this can't be happening" as they saw the infighting result in the loss of two good men as party leaders - within a week. That makes the continuation of the denial stage pretty pointless. There are some who are well into the anger stage now of "why me...this is not fair." If you look at the comment thread on this Daveberta post you can see the anger stage playing out in real time.
If the grieving continues we will see some examples of the bargaining stage emerge in the progressive wing of the PC Party. That will start to happen when they see who actually steps up to run for the PC leadership from the progressive side. There will be desperate bargains struck about who gets the nod as the preferred progressive candidate. There will be concerns of will he or she be strong enough to beat Ted Morton. If the preferred progressive is not strong enough to win expect more progressives to drift into the Alberta Party. Expect a wave of progressives to to the Alberta Party from the PCs if there is a purge of their ranks as a result of a Morton leadership victory.
On the Liberal side we have seen many rank and file members already make the value trade-off decision and have joined the Alberta Party. Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman's recent media comments about considering running for the leadership of either the Liberals or the Alberta Party is an example of a bargaining stage of grief. This ambivalence is totally understandable and this kind of decision making process is not easy. It is much more than just keeping political options open. It about being authentically open to new ways of thinking about politics. It is about trading past loyalties for the potential for new hope when everything is uncertain.
Some partisans will just go into the depression stage now or after the PC and Liberal leaderships have been decided. They will likely respond by withdrawing from political life and politics all together concluding "what is the point any more." Other partisans, displeased with the leadership decision of their party, will emerge out of all this looking for new hope and a new home. They will go through the final Acceptance stage of grieving. They will come to realize that Alberta has changed and they must change too. Perhaps the Alberta Party will be their new hope and their new home - but only time will tell.
I went through this kind of political soul searching and grieving in my own decision making process to leave the PCs. I realized, through my involvement with Reboot Alberta, that Alberta had fundamentally changed from what I had assumed was the political truth of the times. We found through research that Albertans were losing their sense of pride in the province but their personal commitment to making Alberta better was still extraordinarily strong. The research results we so strong that it was obvious that something was about to change dramatically in Alberta politics. Who knew how, where, what and when that change would happen - but it is happening now.
The research uncovered the fundamental values Albertans wanted to see from political parties before they would grant their consent to be governed. Those values are integrity, honesty, accountability, transparency, fiscal and personal responsibility and environmental stewardship. Albertans also felt these values were seriously lacking in the current political culture. My sense from the Reboot Alberta experience and research was that something new and different was needed in the Alberta political landscape. The politics as usual approach could not respond to the longing and yearning for a more caring, compassionate and responsible political culture.
The Alberta Party idea emerged from the first Reboot Alberta gathering. In time I came to see and accept that the Alberta Party was the best chance to do politics differently in our province. I have become active and have not been disappointed nor have I second guessed my decision. In fact I have been delighted with my new political home. I trust other moderates and progressives will eventually find their way to the Alberta Party using their own paths and processes. Check out the Alberta party website, stay tuned to its progress and see if it aligns with your values and aspirations for a better Alberta.. When you decide you want to become part of the co-creation of the next Alberta you should come join us.
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