Hearing Sir Ken Robinson in Red Deer Tonight

Looking forward to enjoying the company of 700 cultural creatives and fellow progressives who will gather from all over the province in Red Deer tonight to hear the insightful articulate and entertaining Sir Ken Robinson.

For those readers in the room here is the review of Sir Ken's new book "The Element."  It will give those of you who are not coming tonight a sense of what you are missing.

The Element

by Ken Robinson

Viking USA | January 13, 2009 | Hardcover

From one of the worldas leading thinkers and speakers on creativity and self-fulfillment, a breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement
The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. "The Element" draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons"; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera"; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities.
With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element and those that stifle that possibility. He shows that age and occupation are no barrier, and that once we have found our path we can help others to do so as well. "The Element" shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is also an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the twenty-first century. 

Wildrose Policy Wants to Put a Price on Volunteering

The Wildrose Alliance is talking about giving a tax break for volunteering.  I can't see that is anything close to a good idea.  It runs contrary to the human motives about wanting to contribute to the greater good. Volunteering is not about individual rewards but participating in something greater than yourself.

Daniel Pink talks about the motivators of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose for volunteering.  People do what they love because the love it and payment - like tax credits sullies the sense of contribution.  Community is formed by intrinsic rewards being enough of a motivator.  You don't strengthen a community by paying people to do what they love.  Remove barriers and increase capacity for people but don't insult them with payment to do what they love to do.

Listen to this video on the research that shows why this is.



The attitude that you can put a cost on everything tends to be blind to the fact that what people really value.

Glenn Taylor's CBC Radio Alberta Party Leadership Interview

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.

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?

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.