Nature is Disrupting Our Lives! Can We Change or Will Nature Have to Change?

I love the fuzzy logic of climate change deniers that the “science is not conclusive.” What they can’t get their head aroudn is that is why we call it science. New ideas, innovations, realizations, discoveries and understandings are replacing old ideas all the time, thanks to science. Inconclusiveness and change is the essence of science.


That said, my real motivation behind this blog post is to consider the way we, as a species, cope and adapt to the impluses of Nature that disrupt our lives. The Iceland volcano impacted the world, most obviously parts of Europe but the ripple effect of grounded airlines is a global story of enormous economic proportion. It has shown us, in no uncertain terms, just how much humanitiy is embedded in the planet and how much we humans are embedded in each other - and how uncertainty is the default state of nature and man.

As I have said before the future of planet Earth is fine. Nature will adapt and evolve. The real over arching question for humanity is what is our future, as a species, going to be on the planet? Are we going to be adaptable and nimble enough to survive? Or are we, self-consious, self-satisfied and self-distructing in the face of what we are doing to the planet’s ecology. One thing for sure, the planet won’t miss us and does not need us. The converse is not so true.

In the short term we are being inconvenienced by Nature’s Icelandic antics that disrupt has many lives but nobody had died from this event. We have other serious disruptions of Nature going on right now that are causing death and dispair like earthquakes, floods, tsunamis. The point about the effect of disruptions is well made by Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter. In her blog, “Surprise! Four Strategies for Coping with Disruptions” she aptly notes that “Surprises are the new normal, and they are not fun.”

She outlines manmade disruptions like “…financial crises, currency fluctuations, disruptive technologies, job restructurings, shortages of vital drugs, populists’ rebellons, possible pandemics, and terrorist threats….” Those are some of the joys of us humans being embedded in each other. She then notes we get to add on the “…devastating earthquakes and extraordinary weather events.” Man embedded in Nature!

The consequences of the unexpected, according to Kanter, are a “leadership imperative” and that is about the ability to make fast effective decisions in the face of surprises. She outlines four leadership based strategies for quick response and to minimize disruptions. They are Backup, in the form of a Plan B. Communications that must be quick and spread virally. Collaboration based on human relationships grounded in commitment to one another and resiliency that empowers people to act. Finally she points out the importance of values and principles. Clear standards and values are needed to guide people in deciding on what is the right thing to do and doing it without waiting for permission.

Good food for thought. At Reboot Alberta we have taken extra effort to look at communications, collaboration and values and prinicples in our political and governing culture in Alberta. Reboot people feel there is a leadership shortfall and a shallow aenimic public policy agenda in Alberta these days. What Albertans have not come up with yet is a viable alternaitve to the status quo. We have not yet engaged in making a Plan B and turning it into the Plan A.

In the future Reboot Alberta progressive citizen’s movement has to move beyond bitching and complaining about the democratic deficit and leadership shortcomings. We have to quit merely admiring the problems and get into an activist solution space for citizens to re-imagine the purpose of politics in a more modern democracy. We need to get serious about designing some alternatives that will replace the conventional political institutions. In short we need more than a reboot of the existing political and governance culture of Alberta. We need a system upgrade.

School Closures Never Easy But How Are They Decided?

The recent process that the Edmonton Public School Board went through resulted in the closure of a number of schools.  There was a very interesting Edmonton Journal story that only ran in the on-line editions.  It will help citizens get an idea on what basis the elected Trustees used to come to those decisions.

 http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Edmonton+public+school+trustees+talk+about+closures/2783750/story.html

I think it is terrific that the public gets to see and read the opinions and reasoning behind those opinions of each of the elected school Trustees.  You don't see that kind of accountability and transparency in the hyper-partisan message managing, command and contol world of provincial government politics these days.  We can actually see the different perspectives and personal thinking of the School Trustee policy makers in this Edmonton Journal piece.  Whether yo agree or disagree, this openness is refreshing!

Full disclosure:  My firm did some research for the EPSB on the values that Edmontonians thought should guide Trustees around school closures. Here is a link to an earlier blog post where I linked to the findings of that research.  

The earllier blog post also outlines my feelings about finding more collaborative and creative set of solutions as viable alternatives to school closures.  That search for viable alternatives will take cooperation between School Trustees and municipal politicians and their respective administrations.  There are barriers to coming up with a reasonable set of alternative proposals but they are mostly due to an ineffective adherance to a traditional political culture bias and just plain hide-bound thinking . 

There must be pressure applied on local politicians, at the school board and municipal levels, to find mutually acceptable proposals to preserve schools and enhance communities.  They will then have to be presented to the provincial government to bring them on board too but if there is a demonstrated and overt demands by taxpayers/voters for change, it will happen.  We saw it in health care - public education should be next.

The current provincial, school board and municipal policy approaches around school clousres are not adept at serving the best interests of citizens, parents, students, taxpayers or other potential users of such facilities.  There are municipal and school board elections in October and a provincial election in 2 years.  The political timing seems perfect to make some serious policy changes and to update the principles and approaches to school use and community use of schools too. 

What do you think Edmonton?  Should we find better alternatives to low enrollment schools other than closure and consolidation?  Can't we make the facilities community based in ways that serve kids, families and the needs of the surrounding community?  Looking forward to your comments.  I will make more specific suggestions on how to do this in future blog posts -  so stay tuned.

Dave King on the Politics of Fear and Politics of Hope

We have a few statesmen in Alberta politics. Peter Lougheed always comes to mind. Well there is another Alberta man worthy of the respect as a statesman. That is Dave King. Dave was an energetic young man who spent three years on the road with Peter Lougheed as they criss-crossed the province meeting folks to revive and revitalize the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. They did the hard on-the-ground work that was needed to create the confidence and the policy base that the PC party has been living off for almost 40 years.


Dave King is retiring soon and is returning to his roots of political organization. He is going to be working just as hard and doing the travel and personally connecting with Albertans to re-engage in the progressive politics of the province. This time he will be working on two fronts. As a fellow instigator of Reboot Alberta Dave intends to continue to foster a progressive citizen's movement all over Alberta. He will also be organizing for the revived and revitalizing Alberta Party as an alternative political party for progressive thinking Albertans to support.

To get a sense of the mind and the substance of Dave King and to see why I see him as an Alberta statesman, read his latest blog post: The Politics of Fear and the Politics of Hope. We know that many people are being intimidated and bullied by the current government as they try to retain power by political force and not good government.

That culture of fear in the poilitical culture of Alberta was a major part of the conversations at Reboot 2.0. Dave has picked up on this reality and I encourage all Albertans to ensure that this kind of intimidation is stopped. Send the link to Dave's blog post to your networks and friends in the social service sectors and not-for-profit volunteer based organizations so they can be encouraged to stand up to intimidation and bullying.  That is the best way to stop it.

Jaffer Affirms Martin Luther King's Aspiration

My business partner Satya Das had an interesting observation at the end of the day on Friday. He said one of Martin Luther King's aspirations is being affirmed in Canada. He noted that Rahim Jaffer is being "judged on the content of his character and not the colour of his skin."


This is still a strange situation that gets stranger every day. It is as much about Prime Minister Harper's character these days.  Glad to see the Toronto Star and the CBC still have the resources and journalist chops to stay on the story to get us some facts. We are not getting much integrity, honesty, transparency and accountability from our Prime Minister on this matter. That is obvious and very disappointing for Canadians.  Citizens should be able to presume these values from our Prime Minister. Anything less is a betrayal of the public's trust. That is not the first time Harper has betrayed the trust of Canadians.

What more does Prime Minister Harper know about Guergis situation that he is not saying? He needs much more substantial evidence than what has been uncovered by media sources so far. Why has Harper stonewalled again?  Why is Harper refusing to tell us the truth about what he knows?  Why isn't our Prime Minister hading the facts that caused him to kick Guergis out of Cabinet and the Caucus.

Why did Harper try to leave the impression about the seriousness of the situation by saying he "referred" it to the Conflicts of Interest Commissioner and the RCMP. How does the representations of our Prime Minister square with the Commissioner saying she has no Prime Minister referral and no evidence about the concerns from the Prime Minister, except what she has read in the media. OUCH!  Is this serious stuff! The most serious concerns of Canadian citizens so far are the misleading statements from Prime Minister Harper.  That is the really serious stuff! 

Please tell us Mr. Prime Minister that this action was not political and that was based more than sketchy third-party representations from less than credible sources.  Please tell us Mr. Prime Minister that you had some substantial evidence to justify targetting Guergis and Jaffer in this way. If all Harper had to make his call to throw Guergis under the bus is what we have been told by investigative media reports, one has to presume Harper's judgment is impaired.  This is looking like yet another incident of cover-up, deceit and misleadling politics that tend to prove Harper's character is impaired too. This incident seems to be moving towards being more about power politics and personal vengeance of the Prime Minister than the good of the country...at least from what we know so far.  Time to come clean Mr. Prime Minister.

Remember the Harper attack ads on Stephane Dion saying he was not a leader? Seems to me what goes around comes around. We have mounting proof that Harper is not a leader. He is proving to us yet again that his deceptive, reckless and often abusive political style does not align with the values of Canadians.

It is time to terminate this Harper fiasco and failed experiment. We have no peace, disorder and nothing approaching good government.  Harper has to go. It is time for an election!

What do Progressive Albertan's Believe and Why?

The last blog post on the Reboot Alberta Progressive Values survey covered the priority ranking and intensity levels of some 22 values we tracked that relate to a progressive point of view for a 21st century Alberta. If you have not read it yet you should. It will help you to understand this related blog post. Here is a link.


This survey was part of the process to help people get a better understanding of what people in the Reboot Alberta citizen’s movement meant by the term “progressive.” There is more discussion exploring the modern meaning of the term “progressive” in a series of blog posts at http://www.rebootalberta.org/ at the “What is a Progressive” button.

This post is focused more on how the Reboot Alberta progressive thinking survey participants saw themselves in terms of Paul Ray’s research on Cultural Creative values in the United States. It was research conducted over more than 20 years and included over 100,000 people and hundreds of focus groups. I recommend his book "The Cultural Creatives" if you want to get a better understanding of the rise of powerand influence of this group of citizens.

It is an open question if this research can translate directly into the Alberta context. But for the purposes of getting some insight into what progressive Albertans see as some priority issues and what level of concern they have, the American Cultural Creatives survey results are instructive. Ray says all Cultural Creatives are progressives but not all progressives are necessarily Cultural Creatives. My sense is the same in meeting and working with both types of people for over a decade in Alberta.

Cultural Creative Citizen Movement Rooted in the 60s:
Rebooters and other progressive Albertans need some context on the roots of the current consciousness of Cultural Creatives. For that, Ray takes us back to the struggles in the various social justice and protest movements of the 60’s. The women’s movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement, the race issues in the American south, the emergence of the environmental movement, according to Ray, all “…fed the longings and hopes of a vast population.” He notes at the same time there were “…new consciousness movements for spirituality, new forms of psychology, and holistic healing and health” happening.

These earlier movements changed the world views and mindsets, especially of the Baby Boomers who are still dominant the control of weath, opinions and the thoughtscapes of our society and culture today. Some significant progress has been made on these concerns but ironically the cynical indifference and distain for politics by these same people who were at the centre of the 60’s movements have put us back into protesting the same kind of crap today. Our democracy is frail, fragile and disappearing. Power gets more centralized in a reckless and abusive command and control, authority driven, politically expedient governance culture.

This retreat to traditionalist culture represented by the Wildrose Alliance is socially, environmentally and economically unacceptable, especially to progressives. The current government’s modernist mindset based on rapid, unrestricted growth in the consumption of natural resources to feed the short-term brand of success found in the Stelmach government is also being rejected by progressives. That is why Reboot Alberta is resonating with so many people. It is seen as a gathering place to transform the current political culture into something more representative, responsible, sustainable, conservationist, inclusive and participatory than the current conventional institutional models allow.

The Progressive Albertan's Worldview and Mindset:
So what exactly is the Alberta progressive worldview and mindset? One can’t be totally comprehensive in answering that question but the key is a 21st century progressive Albertan does have a different worldview and mindset from the current conventional conservative or the ultra-conservative options being touted today as worthy of our consent to govern us.

From the answers to the Cultural Creatives survey results we have some indication of where the hearts and minds are at of those progressive Albertans who are gathering together in a community and an adventure called Reboot Alberta. Here is a sampling of what they said:

When asked if they wanted Alberta’s politics and government spending to put more emphasis on children’s education and well-being, on rebuilding neighbourhoods and communities, 87% agreed.

Consistent with the enormous commitment of progressive Albertans to engage in helping make Alberta a better place, 86% of survey participants said they wanted to be involved in creating a new and better way of life in our country and province.

There were 85% who said they were concerned about violence and abuse of women and children, including when it happens around the world. There are 80% who volunteer for one or more good causes as well. Some 70% want more priority focused on equality for women in the workplace and more women in leadership roles in business and politics.

Consistent with being Influentials and having many vibrant and active personal networks, 83% said they placed a great deal of importance in developing and maintaining personal relationships. Progressives are very concerned about their relationships with nature, 79% said they love nature and are deeply concerned about its destriction and 76% are stongly aware of problems of the whole planet including concerns over global warming, destruction of forests and the lack of ecological sustainability. Given this ecological concern 76% said they would be prepared to pay more taxes for consumer goods if they were assured the money would go to clean up the environment and stop global warming.

Some 67% of Progressives are unhappy with the old-style left versus right of conventional politics and want to find a new way that is not the “mushy middle.” There were 64% who said they were somewhat optimistic about the future but they distrust the dominant cynical and pessimistic view as perpetrated in the mainstream media.

There are 74% who reject the consumption model of “making it.” This is aptly expressed in the rejection of the bumper sticker philosophy of “He who dies with the most toys wins” mentaility. There are 77% who are also concerned about what big corporations see as success in merely making more and more short-term profits by cutting costs and creating social, safety and environmental problems as a result.

Is it Time to Return to Progressive Citizen Activism?
In conclusion I see progressive Albertans preparing for the 21st century with a potential for a very positive image of the future. But many things will have to change, including citizens returning to active participation in creating that positive future. Without a positive image of the future a culture stagnates, declines and eventually dies. Remember we also found in this survey that Albertans are not as proud of being Albertan as the mythology suggests.

There is nothing inevitable about being an Albertan these days, nor about the kind of future that lies ahead of us. Progressives in Alberta are pretty clear that the future they want for their province and it is not to be alienated or disconnected from Canada and the larger world even with its complex and inter-related issues.

With every single citizen of Alberta holds the ownership benefit and burden of the oilsands our responsbilities are clear. We need to start acting like owners and making demands of our government and industry tenants so that they align with our better Alberta values and citizenship expectations. With the world attention on Alberta and our “world famous” oilsands that means we are under a microscope environmentally, economically, politically, and socially. The chance for Alberta to be an isolated island and aloof from engagement with the planet and its people is nil.

It is Not About Alberta Being the Best Place IN THE WORLD But the Best Place FOR THE WORLD:
Our challenge as Albertans is not to be the best place in the world but rather be the best place for the world. That capacity to realize such an aspiration is within us as a people and a province but we cannot achieve it with the limitations and ineptness of the current political and governing culture. Citizen’s let this happen and citizens have to fix it. Reboot Alberta is one way to get responsible citizenship as a means to regaining responsible representative government in Alberta.

Rebooting Alberta is all about Controls, Alternatives and Deletions. It means we have to return contol of democracy to citizens. The politicians are merely our agents, not our masters. We have to design some new alternative political institutions that are more effective to replace the current atrophied institutions. I think it was Buckminster Fuller who said in effect, you don’t change things by opposing the current realities. You design new models that made the old ways obsolete. Then we have to delete some of the destructive directions, decisions and policy approaches that are inappropriate because they are not responsible, sustainable, accountable, and transparent nor even honest in too many cases.

If this intrigues you and you are a progressive who want to help make a difference to Alberta’s destiny, then go to http://www.rebootalberta.org./ Sign up, show up and step up as a re-engaged citizen. You will be glad you did and you will find your tribe there too.