Sunday, February 04, 2018
Is There New Political Compass Emerging in Alberta?
What is the New Political Compass?
The concept of a New Political Compass, one that moves beyond the linear spectrum of Left vs Right was introduced in 2008 by Dr. Paul Ray, the co-author of "The Cultural Creatives."
The research this post references is based on American data but I think it translates well into the Alberta political culture. We seem to be the part of Canada that is the most akin to and influenced by our relationships to the USA, especially in our oil and gas industry.
Dr. Ray's premise is that political culture in the States is no longer a horizontal binary model of left-right options. Rather we are experiencing a more complex east vs west and north vs south set of "compass" points to delineate our political culture evolution. This richer redefinition of what values people stand for frees us from the overly simplistic labeling of someone as either left or right,,,or even centrist, seen as some form of mushy middle compromise.
The old left vs right political culture model is too rigid as it over-simplifies our complex political culture and hampers the effective performance of our institutions from political parties to election reforms. Left vs Right sets up adversarial politics and offers citizens few practical options. It also seems to encourage and attract more extreme views, on either end of the spectrum. The extremes on the left and right use propaganda to crowd out the systems and design thinking necessary to deal with complex public policy issues and options.
Is There a New Political Compass in Alberta?
The majority of Albertans are in the "centre" of the Left vs Right spectrum and also believe the current political model fails to speak for them. The left and right party activists work hard to frame and label the other side as some extremist political from Communist/Socialist or Libertarian/Anarchist. We saw this in 2016 Primaries where the Republicans stirred up their base by challenging Hillary Clinton as an establishment elitists, and calling Bernie Sanders a "socialist" regardless that he identified himself as such.
In the Alberta political context this effort to label the other as extreme is alive and well. The UCP messages the NDP as collectivists and socialist, union-friendly and therefore a threat to growth and economic prosperity. The NDP pushes the impression that the UCP is economically Republican-lite as business conservatives, and Tea-Party type socially conservatives. The BCNDP government is the most obvious example of using propaganda to push extreme positions. Social conservatism in Alberta is mostly elderly and dying off due to simple demographics. The aggressive Eco-activist leftists are also losing influence seeing fewer people identifying with them and that trend is anticipated to continue.
The majority of Albertans identify as progressives but in the "mushy middle" sense of that concept. The "centre" has not been effectively defined in Alberta's political culture so it really doesn't communicate anything meaningful to those who want to see an integrated holistic political approach. They see their current options as between a plutocracy where big business makes the rules and exercises economic controls are used mostly for the benefit of the rich, or a collectivism that is seen as stifling innovation and hindering changes for more productivity and growth.
Is Alberta Ready for a Different Political Movement?
The old political model is a failure by any metric. Voter turn out is chronically low, confidence and participation in political parties is almost non-existent and trust in our democratic institutions, media, politicians and parties is low and declining. The content and compliant so-called Alberta centrist is politically alienated, disengaged and consequently ignorant about who to vote for...so they don't. As a result the election results are far from optimal in their opinions and that reinforces the alienation and disengagement.
The New Political Compass research by Paul Ray uncovered a new sense of citizenship, the so-called "New Progressive." They are not so much a bunch of mushy middling but more at "right-angles" to the socialist left or social conservative right and they are also very opposed to political control by big business. The American expression of this is the rise of the Independents who are not opting for the Democrats or Republicans, with some efforts to form a third political party Is the Alberta Party the potential provincial equivalent of the rise of Independents in America and the emergence of the "third party" evolution?
The New Progressives, according to the American research, are aligned with the values of the Cultural Creatives, more likely to volunteer, donate to charity, engaged in social justice movements and want to change the culture more than the rest of society. They are in the front of some big issues from climate change to women's concerns.
The American research shows the New Progressives are 36% of the population and estimated to be 45% of those likely to vote. Are those the new Alberta Party supporters? The "Longing for the Old Ways Cultural Conservatives, the Alberta Social Conservative UCP Rebel Media viewer types, are 19% of Americans and 22% of likely voters.
The "Stand Pat of the Left Modernists and New Deal Liberals" are 12% of Americans and 15% of likely voters. Is that equivalent of the traditional NDP supporter? There are 14% of American who identify as "Profits Over Planet and People, Business Conservatives and the Establishment Right" with 19% of the likely voters. That is the equivalent of the Calgary Belt-line big energy tower-dwellers, Canadian Federation of Independent Business members and Fraser Institute fans. Then there are 20% in the nexus of all this who feel alienated and ignored and not likely to engage or change.
Will the Alberta Party Be the Gathering Place for New Progressives?
The core question for the New Progressives, and especially in Alberta, is will they mobilize under a single banner like the Alberta Party, as a big political tent, like the Lougheed Progressive Conservatives did, and become a dominant political force? Alberta is into a time of transformation and we are seeing a change in many of our institutions, including political institutions. They are in dire need of repair or replacement but potentially driven by a desire for a re-enlightenment and a new progressive social contract.
We Albertans have lots of potential but not if we don't change from the status quo. The tired stale-dated unimaginative return to the Alberta Advantage of the United Conservative Party is the exact wrong way to go. We need to define a new Alberta Aspiration that looks beyond the superficial competitive framing of "Being the Best in the World" and stretch our New Progressive vision ino "Being the Best for the World."
That means we need to learn how to create, innovate, adapt and design our way forward as a movement dedicated to practical progressive political policies. Otherwise the writing is on the wall and Alberta is destined to decline and be a disappointment economically, ecologically, socially and politically.
Thursday, February 01, 2018
What Do We Do Now?
The Political Paradox that is Alberta
The political paradox for Alberta is that, while we have had majority governments since 1971 we have had unstable governance since about 2004. In that election year Ralph Klein kept a majority government but was loosing popular support. He gave up 12 seats that election, mostly in the Edmonton region.
The End of King Ralph
The Progressive Conservative 2004 election message to citizens on the doorsteps was this would be Ralph's last election and he would be retiring. After the election Ralph mussed about staying on as party leader. The PC rank and file membership sent him a strong message in the end of March 2006 leadership review vote at the AGM. Klein went from a typical 90% public and party approval rating to essentially a vote of non-confidence where he eked out a slim majority in the leadership review vote. Ralph was pushed out by the party members and a leadership campaign began.
One Person One Vote & Open PC Party Memberships
By October 2006 eight candidates were in the running, including (irony alert) Lyle Oberg. This Minister had been fired from Cabinet and suspended from the PC Caucus on March 22, before the dump Ralph party vote but ran for the leadership anyway. Long-shot Ed Stelmach lead on preferential vote system by less that 500 votes but was the overwhelming second choice and beat the establishment candidate Jim Dinning by more than 12,000 votes in the end.
Stelmach
The three front runners, in perceived order of power, were Jim Dinning. Ted Morton and Ed Stelmach. Dinning had support of 38 caucus member and three federal Conservatives. Stelmach had 13 caucus member's on the first ballot and 6 more on the second. Ted Morton, really a federal Reform Party and Canadian Alliance party member had one caucus member support him but the strong Reform Party grassroots machine to sell memberships.
Since May 27, 2011 the day Ed Stelmach resigned, and March 18, 2017, when Rachel Notley was elected, Alberta has had 6 Premiers. All had majority governments but they hardly evidenced anything approximating certainty and stability in governance.
Redford
When Redford won the contest she, like Stelmach, came from behind and up the middle to win. The contest was seen to be between an urban establishment candidate, Gary Mar, a rural establishment candidate, Doug Horner and, yet again, Ted Morton. Mar held an impressive 41% of the first ballot vote. Redford was a surprisingly in second place at 18.74% and Horner was a disappointing third with 14.55%. Ted Morton was never really in this contest but garnered 11.73% for 4th place and was eliminated.
Redford was over 13,000 votes behind on the first ballot but won by a mere 1600 votes with overwhelming second ballot support. She had only 1 caucus member supporting here on the first ballot and 5 more joined her for the second go round. whereas Gary Mar had 27 caucus member supporting him and 7 more came over on the second ballot. Mar had been out of politics from 2007 representing the province in Washington D.C. The rural establishment candidate Doug Horner had 14 caucus members behind him.
With such low caucus support and the influence of outsider "instant Tories" who bought PC memberships only to vote in the leadership, Redford had no clout as leader. Her disappointing style and narcissistic style and overt sense of entitlement destroyed her leadership and she resigned on March 19, 2014 and gave up her seat in August 2014.
Prentice & the Final Acts of the PC Passion Play
Dave Hancock was the unanimous caucus choice for interim leader until Jim Prentice won on September 6 2014 with the first ballot total of almost 18,000 votes while his combined opposition only garnered 5400 between them. Prentice called an earl;y election for May 5, 2015, ignoring the PC's much vaunted fixed election law. He lost badly to Rachel Notley and the NDP and resigned his seat even before this own riding results were counted.
Kenney Comes to Alberta and the UCP is Born
For some inexplicable reason, Harper's political acolyte, Jason Kenney passed on he federal Conservative party leadership and moved in on the provincial Progressive Conservative Party leadership. He was out to Unite the Right by purging the progressives from the PC party, taking it over as a conservative rump then consolidating with the Wildrose Party into a new "true" conservative party that he would lead to defeat the socialist NDP. And he did with the political death of the PCAA, the Wildrose and the birth of the United Conservative Party.
On March 18, 2017 Kenney won the PCAA leadership on the first ballot with 1,113 supporters and 75.5% of the 1,476 total votes cast. The other two candidates ran to keep the PCAA and rebuild it but to no avail.
In late July 2017 the PCAA and Wildrose membership held votes on forming the United Conservative Party. IN both cases the decision was profound.
There was a turnout of 25,000 Wildrose members, representing 57% of total members They overwhelming accepted the UCP option at 95.4%. No one knows where the other 43% of Wildrose members stood on this because there was no comments from them at all.
The Progressive Conservative party had over 27,000 members participate and voted 95% in favour of the new united party. That was a 55% turnout, again little if anything was heard from the 45% of PCAA members who stayed away from the unity vote.
A mere seven months later, on October 28, 2017, Kenney again won the UCP leadership on the first ballot with 61% leaving Brian Jean, the Wildrose candidate at 31.5, with the token progressive Doug Schweitzer at a mere 7.3% support. Since then Messrs. Jean and Schweitzer have hardly been seen or heard of as Kenney purges the Brian Jean supporters from party operations, as he did with progressives in the PCAA. He consolidates his power and turns the UCP into the KenneyCons.
Leadership Volatility Not Over Yet.
Every political Party in Alberta has a turnover in leadership. Notley became NDP leader in October 2014 and lead them to majority government in May on 2015.
The Alberta Liberals elected David Khan as leader on June 5, 2017. The Alberta Greens chose Romy Tittel as leader on November 4, 2017.
Greg Clark became Alberta Party leader in 2013 and was the longest serving party leader until he recently resigned. He now leaves Notley as the longest serving provincial party leader at 3 years and 3 months at the time of writing. The next rookie leader will be the Alberta Party who will take office on Feb 28th.
What Do We Do Now?
This brief history Alberta's political leadership shows how we got to where we are today. It illustrates just how volatile our political culture is and how the partisan fortunes and forces are shifting. Notwithstanding perpetual majority governments political volatility is likely to continue into and through the next election.
Will it result in a minority government or will Albertans sustain the support for the NDP majority? Are the unscientific political polls right and is the province about to shift to the ultra-right to a UCP majority? Next post I will lay out some scenarios and speculate on what I think will happen...or at least could happen...and why.
Subscribe?
. You might want to subscribe to this blog to get notice of new posts. I will be doing a series of posts on Alberta politics beyond the horse race analysis. However I will do some analysis on the skills and policy positions of the three Alberta Party Candidates and share my views on what they bring to Alberta politics and the fortunes of the Alberta Party itself.
I will delve more into what the Alberta Aspiration should be and what we need to change so we can adapt and reach our potential. I will explore the dangers of tired old-thinking mindset of those who say we should return to the antediluvian Alberta Advantage. I will look at the risks associated with the adversarial ideological left versus right bipolar politics we have today. I will try to offer ideas and options and reasons for moderate progressive citizens to rethink their reasons and responsibilities for political participation. Stay tuned and come along for the ride.
The political paradox for Alberta is that, while we have had majority governments since 1971 we have had unstable governance since about 2004. In that election year Ralph Klein kept a majority government but was loosing popular support. He gave up 12 seats that election, mostly in the Edmonton region.
The End of King Ralph
The Progressive Conservative 2004 election message to citizens on the doorsteps was this would be Ralph's last election and he would be retiring. After the election Ralph mussed about staying on as party leader. The PC rank and file membership sent him a strong message in the end of March 2006 leadership review vote at the AGM. Klein went from a typical 90% public and party approval rating to essentially a vote of non-confidence where he eked out a slim majority in the leadership review vote. Ralph was pushed out by the party members and a leadership campaign began.
One Person One Vote & Open PC Party Memberships
By October 2006 eight candidates were in the running, including (irony alert) Lyle Oberg. This Minister had been fired from Cabinet and suspended from the PC Caucus on March 22, before the dump Ralph party vote but ran for the leadership anyway. Long-shot Ed Stelmach lead on preferential vote system by less that 500 votes but was the overwhelming second choice and beat the establishment candidate Jim Dinning by more than 12,000 votes in the end.
Stelmach
The three front runners, in perceived order of power, were Jim Dinning. Ted Morton and Ed Stelmach. Dinning had support of 38 caucus member and three federal Conservatives. Stelmach had 13 caucus member's on the first ballot and 6 more on the second. Ted Morton, really a federal Reform Party and Canadian Alliance party member had one caucus member support him but the strong Reform Party grassroots machine to sell memberships.
Since May 27, 2011 the day Ed Stelmach resigned, and March 18, 2017, when Rachel Notley was elected, Alberta has had 6 Premiers. All had majority governments but they hardly evidenced anything approximating certainty and stability in governance.
Redford
When Redford won the contest she, like Stelmach, came from behind and up the middle to win. The contest was seen to be between an urban establishment candidate, Gary Mar, a rural establishment candidate, Doug Horner and, yet again, Ted Morton. Mar held an impressive 41% of the first ballot vote. Redford was a surprisingly in second place at 18.74% and Horner was a disappointing third with 14.55%. Ted Morton was never really in this contest but garnered 11.73% for 4th place and was eliminated.
Redford was over 13,000 votes behind on the first ballot but won by a mere 1600 votes with overwhelming second ballot support. She had only 1 caucus member supporting here on the first ballot and 5 more joined her for the second go round. whereas Gary Mar had 27 caucus member supporting him and 7 more came over on the second ballot. Mar had been out of politics from 2007 representing the province in Washington D.C. The rural establishment candidate Doug Horner had 14 caucus members behind him.
With such low caucus support and the influence of outsider "instant Tories" who bought PC memberships only to vote in the leadership, Redford had no clout as leader. Her disappointing style and narcissistic style and overt sense of entitlement destroyed her leadership and she resigned on March 19, 2014 and gave up her seat in August 2014.
Prentice & the Final Acts of the PC Passion Play
Dave Hancock was the unanimous caucus choice for interim leader until Jim Prentice won on September 6 2014 with the first ballot total of almost 18,000 votes while his combined opposition only garnered 5400 between them. Prentice called an earl;y election for May 5, 2015, ignoring the PC's much vaunted fixed election law. He lost badly to Rachel Notley and the NDP and resigned his seat even before this own riding results were counted.
Kenney Comes to Alberta and the UCP is Born
For some inexplicable reason, Harper's political acolyte, Jason Kenney passed on he federal Conservative party leadership and moved in on the provincial Progressive Conservative Party leadership. He was out to Unite the Right by purging the progressives from the PC party, taking it over as a conservative rump then consolidating with the Wildrose Party into a new "true" conservative party that he would lead to defeat the socialist NDP. And he did with the political death of the PCAA, the Wildrose and the birth of the United Conservative Party.
On March 18, 2017 Kenney won the PCAA leadership on the first ballot with 1,113 supporters and 75.5% of the 1,476 total votes cast. The other two candidates ran to keep the PCAA and rebuild it but to no avail.
In late July 2017 the PCAA and Wildrose membership held votes on forming the United Conservative Party. IN both cases the decision was profound.
There was a turnout of 25,000 Wildrose members, representing 57% of total members They overwhelming accepted the UCP option at 95.4%. No one knows where the other 43% of Wildrose members stood on this because there was no comments from them at all.
The Progressive Conservative party had over 27,000 members participate and voted 95% in favour of the new united party. That was a 55% turnout, again little if anything was heard from the 45% of PCAA members who stayed away from the unity vote.
A mere seven months later, on October 28, 2017, Kenney again won the UCP leadership on the first ballot with 61% leaving Brian Jean, the Wildrose candidate at 31.5, with the token progressive Doug Schweitzer at a mere 7.3% support. Since then Messrs. Jean and Schweitzer have hardly been seen or heard of as Kenney purges the Brian Jean supporters from party operations, as he did with progressives in the PCAA. He consolidates his power and turns the UCP into the KenneyCons.
Leadership Volatility Not Over Yet.
Every political Party in Alberta has a turnover in leadership. Notley became NDP leader in October 2014 and lead them to majority government in May on 2015.
The Alberta Liberals elected David Khan as leader on June 5, 2017. The Alberta Greens chose Romy Tittel as leader on November 4, 2017.
Greg Clark became Alberta Party leader in 2013 and was the longest serving party leader until he recently resigned. He now leaves Notley as the longest serving provincial party leader at 3 years and 3 months at the time of writing. The next rookie leader will be the Alberta Party who will take office on Feb 28th.
What Do We Do Now?
This brief history Alberta's political leadership shows how we got to where we are today. It illustrates just how volatile our political culture is and how the partisan fortunes and forces are shifting. Notwithstanding perpetual majority governments political volatility is likely to continue into and through the next election.
Will it result in a minority government or will Albertans sustain the support for the NDP majority? Are the unscientific political polls right and is the province about to shift to the ultra-right to a UCP majority? Next post I will lay out some scenarios and speculate on what I think will happen...or at least could happen...and why.
Subscribe?
. You might want to subscribe to this blog to get notice of new posts. I will be doing a series of posts on Alberta politics beyond the horse race analysis. However I will do some analysis on the skills and policy positions of the three Alberta Party Candidates and share my views on what they bring to Alberta politics and the fortunes of the Alberta Party itself.
I will delve more into what the Alberta Aspiration should be and what we need to change so we can adapt and reach our potential. I will explore the dangers of tired old-thinking mindset of those who say we should return to the antediluvian Alberta Advantage. I will look at the risks associated with the adversarial ideological left versus right bipolar politics we have today. I will try to offer ideas and options and reasons for moderate progressive citizens to rethink their reasons and responsibilities for political participation. Stay tuned and come along for the ride.
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Why Are Alberta's Energy Sector Wages So High?
Alberta has the highest average weekly wages in Canada. The Oil and Gas employees make twice what average industrial wages are in other sectors. Here is a link to an ATB top line analysis on these facts.
The last 3 years in the energy sector has relied on a "new normal" mantra about commodity prices being "lower for longer." The more enlightened and revised sector mantra now is "lower forever." Sure there are those who still believe that oil prices will rebound because "they always have."
Those who believe that the rebound is just around the corner are not adapting to the new reality and trying to hold on waiting for the rebound. Even if they did rebound, the consequences would be for us to revert back to old wasteful, extravagant expectations, poor and unsafe work conditions and disastrously poor productivity results.
Oil trading at $100+ hide a lot of sins and left the energy sector and its supply chains in construction, manufacturing and logistics with well founded reputation as expensive, poor quality, questionable reliability, rigid attitudes, dangerous safety records and noncompetitive from an international investment perspective.
The dramatic drop ion oil prices from $100+ to around $50 forced cost cutting and recalibrating the commercial relationships between energy customers and suppliers all the way through the system. Lots of companies with band balance sheets and mediocre management have gone under...as they should in a free market economy.
There were also serious layoffs in the oil sands energy sector developers and operators as new projects were deferred, delayed and abandoned. This was particularly in the higher paying professional ranks and repeated in very well paid contractors conventional energy service providers.
While supply and services cost have come down throughout the full range of energy sector operators, the much higher than average wages of sector workers has not come down. New initiatives are underway in progressive companies for improved productivity, adopting innovations and automation, expanding workforce skills and competencies and many more process improvements.
According to the ATB analysis, this seems to mean energy sector wages are staying high, perhaps because of the productivity improvements and innovations, not as many workers are needed any more. This is a difficult and harsh reality for many previously highly paid but laid-off wage earners. These less agile, less adaptive, less skilled, and now, a less required part of the emerging workforce, that the KenneyCons propaganda is courting for support. They are doing this by political messaging and manipulation by blaming their plight on the current government instead of working to help them adapt to the new normal of lower forever.
If these unemployed energy sector workers are waiting for prices to bounce back and presuming they will go back to the same old wasteful unproductive workplace culture of the past, they are likely to to be very disappointed. Concurrently they may find very little sympathy from other wage earners in comparable industrial sector jobs who have had flat and stagnant wages for years. They have not benefited from the booms of the past, and in fact has suffered from them in many ways.
And this doesn't even come close to dealing with the even more severe income gap between the energy sector haves in Alberta and the working poor or struggling middle-class in the rest of the economy who are the have-nots.
The last 3 years in the energy sector has relied on a "new normal" mantra about commodity prices being "lower for longer." The more enlightened and revised sector mantra now is "lower forever." Sure there are those who still believe that oil prices will rebound because "they always have."
Those who believe that the rebound is just around the corner are not adapting to the new reality and trying to hold on waiting for the rebound. Even if they did rebound, the consequences would be for us to revert back to old wasteful, extravagant expectations, poor and unsafe work conditions and disastrously poor productivity results.
Oil trading at $100+ hide a lot of sins and left the energy sector and its supply chains in construction, manufacturing and logistics with well founded reputation as expensive, poor quality, questionable reliability, rigid attitudes, dangerous safety records and noncompetitive from an international investment perspective.
The dramatic drop ion oil prices from $100+ to around $50 forced cost cutting and recalibrating the commercial relationships between energy customers and suppliers all the way through the system. Lots of companies with band balance sheets and mediocre management have gone under...as they should in a free market economy.
There were also serious layoffs in the oil sands energy sector developers and operators as new projects were deferred, delayed and abandoned. This was particularly in the higher paying professional ranks and repeated in very well paid contractors conventional energy service providers.
While supply and services cost have come down throughout the full range of energy sector operators, the much higher than average wages of sector workers has not come down. New initiatives are underway in progressive companies for improved productivity, adopting innovations and automation, expanding workforce skills and competencies and many more process improvements.
According to the ATB analysis, this seems to mean energy sector wages are staying high, perhaps because of the productivity improvements and innovations, not as many workers are needed any more. This is a difficult and harsh reality for many previously highly paid but laid-off wage earners. These less agile, less adaptive, less skilled, and now, a less required part of the emerging workforce, that the KenneyCons propaganda is courting for support. They are doing this by political messaging and manipulation by blaming their plight on the current government instead of working to help them adapt to the new normal of lower forever.
If these unemployed energy sector workers are waiting for prices to bounce back and presuming they will go back to the same old wasteful unproductive workplace culture of the past, they are likely to to be very disappointed. Concurrently they may find very little sympathy from other wage earners in comparable industrial sector jobs who have had flat and stagnant wages for years. They have not benefited from the booms of the past, and in fact has suffered from them in many ways.
And this doesn't even come close to dealing with the even more severe income gap between the energy sector haves in Alberta and the working poor or struggling middle-class in the rest of the economy who are the have-nots.
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Deal With Dark Money PACs Before Any Bye-Election Call
So Mr. Kenney, the leader of the United Conservative Party has a chance to get a seat in the Alberta Legislature through a bye-election, with the retirement of one of his "faithful." Premier Notley has to set the date within six months of the retirement of the former Member.
Given the questionable integrity track record of Mr Kenney in his PCAA Leadership run, new donor disclosure laws are needed before he gets to seek a seat in the Alberta Legislature.
He has already broken a promise of full disclosure in his PC Leadership campaign financial backers through an American-style Political Action Committee. These dark-money PAC operations are using a "legislative loophole" in the donor disclosure obligations in the Alberta Elections laws. As a result we can't trust him not to abuse the same loopholes in a bye-election.
Here is a link to an earlier blog post I did on the background on these danger to democracy dealings through PACs.
Elections Alberta is on it. They want legislated powers to deal with full disclosure of these dark-money political influence and financing operations.
Let's hope Premier Notley tightens up the election laws before calling the bye-election. We don't have to worry then about who, if anyone, "owns" Mr. Kenney's through anonymous purse strings in backrooms.
If we sit back and do nothing before calling the bye-election, given Mr. Kenney's anonymous dark- money fund raising tactics of the past, we may as well call it a BUY-election.
Given the questionable integrity track record of Mr Kenney in his PCAA Leadership run, new donor disclosure laws are needed before he gets to seek a seat in the Alberta Legislature.
He has already broken a promise of full disclosure in his PC Leadership campaign financial backers through an American-style Political Action Committee. These dark-money PAC operations are using a "legislative loophole" in the donor disclosure obligations in the Alberta Elections laws. As a result we can't trust him not to abuse the same loopholes in a bye-election.
Here is a link to an earlier blog post I did on the background on these danger to democracy dealings through PACs.
Elections Alberta is on it. They want legislated powers to deal with full disclosure of these dark-money political influence and financing operations.
Let's hope Premier Notley tightens up the election laws before calling the bye-election. We don't have to worry then about who, if anyone, "owns" Mr. Kenney's through anonymous purse strings in backrooms.
If we sit back and do nothing before calling the bye-election, given Mr. Kenney's anonymous dark- money fund raising tactics of the past, we may as well call it a BUY-election.
Monday, November 13, 2017
The Closed Nature of the UCP Kenney Party
I've been doing some reading about values and mindsets and applying some of these learnings to political organizations and trends. In the previous post I spoke about Arrested, Closed and Open mindsets and related them to the Alberta NDP, UCP and Alberta Party respectively.
I want to delve a bit deeper into the characteristics of a Closed organization like the Kenney lead United Conservative Party. It is essentially a binary mindset. You are for them or against them. We saw that with the HarperCons when they framed the debate on a piece of get-tough-on-crime draft legislation of you are either "with the pornographers or against them."
As a Minister in Prime Minister Harper's Cabinet Mr. Kenney spawned his politically autocratic tendencies and honed his single-minded political focus. Winning isn't just the best thing, it's the only thing when in pursuit of political power.
There is no flexibility in the Closed organization mindset. They have difficulty accepting alternative ways of perceiving or different values. Closed organization, like the HarperCons and now the United Conservative Party, seem to be happiest with then can hunker down and try to make the world fit into what they believe to be the only truth...their truth.
Politically closed operations have tendencies to harbour zealots and extremists who not only reject alternative perspective, they can tend to demonize the "other." Those who disagree or oppose them are often labelled heretics, fools or idiots. You see this frequently in Twitter posts of, mostly anonymous, conservative trolls.
Complexity and nuance is rejected in favour of simplistic solutions and group-think leader-driven policy approaches. The default state of mind is "This is all there is." Fresh ideas and new methodologies are rare . They tend hold fast to what they see as "tried and true" so there is no need to change.
The lack of adaptability or capacity to accept new ideas or changing circumstances is seen as inappropriate because there is only the one way to be. Countervailing facts, events or circumstances are rejected by the inner circle and the rest follow along willingly accepting the "wisdom" of their leadership.
As a result we can see many UCP partisans as very tribal and absolutist in their thinking while also being differential with strong allegiance to internal authorities and leadership. Their world is full of threats so they find security in rituals, religion as they pursue power-seeking political goals. They value loyalty, traditions and like to celebrate their wins especially if they are at the expense of others.
This is not the kind of political culture that will enable Alberta to transition, to an adaptive, inclusive, integrated and progress as a province. But the UCP could become government easily if progressives choose to stay into their mindset of self-satisfied, comfortable, contented and disengaged from politics.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)