In the last Federal election I was interviewed by Mark Kelley for a piece on CBC's The National about Alberta politics. One of my points was a key strategy for Harper was there were two groups of Canadians he could ignore - and did ignore. There are those who would never vote for his authoritarian totalitarian type of governing and those who vote Conservative no matter what. Albertans have fallen into the latter category with minor but notable exceptions like Liberal and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan and NDP Environment expert Linda Duncan.
With the most recent and obvious indifference and disdain for Alberta, and Edmonton in particular, the Harper Conmen have rejected the Expo 2017 bid and for no reasons of substance. The political machinations of the power hungry Stephen Harper are a constant calculation for personal political advantage and never a thought is given to doing the right thing for the right reason. The only time you you will see Prime Minister Harper and the words Integrity, Honestly, Transparency and Accountability in the same sentence is to note he lacks all of these characteristics.
The fabricated reason for rejecting the Edmonton 2017 Expo bid is the high cost of security. The Harper Conmen ran up the security costs of the G20 into a police-state bacchanal of excessive "security" and phony arrests of citizens engaged in legitimate peaceful protest. If you are going to intimidate people with police force - well that takes money - lots of borrowed money. Harper was happy to oblige that propensity to provide a false sense of "protection" to show off just how mush he is in CONTROL.
The sad irony is that self induced excess and abuse of security is now touted as the reason the Edmonton Expo bid can't be "afforded" right now...even though the event in 7 years away. Alberta, and Edmonton in particular, is being punished for it electoral loyalty to the Harper Conmen. The politics aside, and they stink, it is time to restore democracy to Alberta federal politics. We need to not only send a message to the presumptive arrogance of the Harper Conmen that the jig is up over taking Alberta voter support for granted.
We have research results that shows Albertans are not at all impressed with our MPs when it comes to protecting Alberta's interest in Ottawa. This reflection of Edmonton's aspiration to use Expo 2017 as a central event to celebrate 150 years of Confederation is just another indication of the indifference inherent in the Harper Conmen as they take our votes for granted. These guys are no longer about ensuring that the West is In...the battle cry that got them elected. When it comes to assuring us how the West is In, the "in" they provide is an attitude that is indifferent, insouciant and inept when it comes to promoting Alberta's best interests.
Has Alberta had enough of Harper yet? Other than Harper himself, the Social Conservative Jason Kenny and the soon to be departed Jim Prentice - can you name three more of your faceless and feckless Alberta based Conmen MPs? They are an unimpressive and a nondescript lot. Hardly the kind of characters that can articulate and express the new aspirations and the new narrative that is forming about the next Alberta. Alberta deserves better and we can do better with a change in whom we grant our consent to govern us.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
AMA President's Letter Supports Raj Sherman
One of the dilemmas facing Raj Sherman is the different oaths he has taken. One as a Doctor and the other as a Member of the Alberta Legislature. Then there is the culture of political party discipline where Caucus and Cabinet Members are sworn to secrecy about their deliberations.
For Raj all of these duties as a doctor, parliamentarian, caucus and cabinet member must have started to contradict each other. There are certain values we can trade off. We do values trade-off all the time and it is never easy. The behaviours we choose indicate our character. The way we make those choices indicate our integrity as people.
This week Raj Sherman showed great character and integrity by defaulting to his professional oath as a doctor over the political "duty" as a political partisan. He also fulfilled his duty as a public servant in elected office to speak honestly, openly and transparently about what he saw not happening in the Stelmach government handling of the health care concerns of Albertans. He called out his government's accountability because he saw it lacking on serving the public interest in its duty to citizens on providing health care.
Raj is obviously taking this lack of integrity, limited honesty and indifference to accountability and transparency by his own government very personally. You can see that by the tone and content of the email he sent to his medical colleagues and then forwarded to his political colleagues. Here is a link to the unedited text of his message. You can judge for yourself the level of Raj's frustration from this email.
For this he was no doubt scolded, intimidated and quite possibly threatened with censure or even expulsion from the PC government caucus. What in fact seems to have happened is he got a meeting with the Premier and a airing of concerns with fellow caucus members. He also has enormous support from his professional colleagues as this AMA President's Letter from Dr.PJ White outlines. Check out the November 19th link.
Raj is getting support from other health care professionals, thought leaders and ordinary citizens in Alberta. This is because he is standing up to the abusive and speaking against the outmoded command and control top-down political culture that prevails in this province.
Where we are at today is the Premier has asked Raj to stay on and help fix the health care problems. It is not about money it is about political attitudes in the PC ranks and the governing culture of the executive branch (Cabinet). There seems to be a belief amongst those who have power to make the political decisions that all health care professionals lack integrity. The anti-intellectual attitude stems back to early Klein days that believes professionals and experts lack "common sense" and are only after what is in there own best interests, not the public interest. No doubt there are some individuals who are inclined that way but it is not the norm.
This week Raj Sherman faced a choice. He made the right choice. He could go professional and wear his doctor hat or go political and wear his party hat. What he did was a creative third way. He did both. He publicly spoke out as a doctor on the crisis in health care and put the blame squarely at the feet of the government in which he serves as a member and did a mea culpa in that regard.
In that simple and responsible act he opened up the cracks in the PC caucus solidarity and let in some sunlight. The typical response is to kick out the trouble maker in some kind of a Lord of the Flies frenzy. I am sure that was the hope of many in the PC Caucus. But the Premier intervened and asked for Raj's help instead of bringing him up on the carpet. As a result Raj lives to fight another day as a PC politician and to use his knowledge and now considerable influence on pressing for the fundamental changes we have known we need in the health care system for years and years.
I have two other observations on this last week of Raj Sherman. He has done what any opposition member and even government backbencher must be free to do. That is to keep the government , the Premier and Cabinet to be exact, honest, open, transparent, accountable and able to demonstrate personal and collective integrity in how they govern the province. That is the theory of our parliamentary Westminster system of governance but it has been lost as the public interest get trumped by personal political aspirations and abuse of power.
My other observation is that Raj Sherman now has all the trump cards in this game of getting better governance of health care. As the only doctor at the cabinet table he has been asked to help "fix" the mess. If his suggestions are ignored for political reasons or some other abusive of power he can quit the PC Party. And he should. He is not likely to get fired now for bringing up problems - and continuing to do so in public. He has to keep the Premier's feet to the fire. He should not be so naive to believe that the most recent high level political promises are truly authentic in their intent. Actions speak louder than words. Raj knows that by his personal example. Lets hope his colleagues in caucus and cabinet are ready to take action...and they start with the total dismantling of the Super Board and the management that runs it.
UPDATE NOV 19: LOTS OF GREAT NEWS AND COMMENTS ON THE COURAGE OF RAJ SHERMAN: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/enough+Sherman/3858261/story.htmlhttp://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Graham+Thomson+Hero+horror+party/3860402/story.html; http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/vows+fight+crisis/3853926/story.html
For Raj all of these duties as a doctor, parliamentarian, caucus and cabinet member must have started to contradict each other. There are certain values we can trade off. We do values trade-off all the time and it is never easy. The behaviours we choose indicate our character. The way we make those choices indicate our integrity as people.
This week Raj Sherman showed great character and integrity by defaulting to his professional oath as a doctor over the political "duty" as a political partisan. He also fulfilled his duty as a public servant in elected office to speak honestly, openly and transparently about what he saw not happening in the Stelmach government handling of the health care concerns of Albertans. He called out his government's accountability because he saw it lacking on serving the public interest in its duty to citizens on providing health care.
Raj is obviously taking this lack of integrity, limited honesty and indifference to accountability and transparency by his own government very personally. You can see that by the tone and content of the email he sent to his medical colleagues and then forwarded to his political colleagues. Here is a link to the unedited text of his message. You can judge for yourself the level of Raj's frustration from this email.
For this he was no doubt scolded, intimidated and quite possibly threatened with censure or even expulsion from the PC government caucus. What in fact seems to have happened is he got a meeting with the Premier and a airing of concerns with fellow caucus members. He also has enormous support from his professional colleagues as this AMA President's Letter from Dr.PJ White outlines. Check out the November 19th link.
Raj is getting support from other health care professionals, thought leaders and ordinary citizens in Alberta. This is because he is standing up to the abusive and speaking against the outmoded command and control top-down political culture that prevails in this province.
Where we are at today is the Premier has asked Raj to stay on and help fix the health care problems. It is not about money it is about political attitudes in the PC ranks and the governing culture of the executive branch (Cabinet). There seems to be a belief amongst those who have power to make the political decisions that all health care professionals lack integrity. The anti-intellectual attitude stems back to early Klein days that believes professionals and experts lack "common sense" and are only after what is in there own best interests, not the public interest. No doubt there are some individuals who are inclined that way but it is not the norm.
This week Raj Sherman faced a choice. He made the right choice. He could go professional and wear his doctor hat or go political and wear his party hat. What he did was a creative third way. He did both. He publicly spoke out as a doctor on the crisis in health care and put the blame squarely at the feet of the government in which he serves as a member and did a mea culpa in that regard.
In that simple and responsible act he opened up the cracks in the PC caucus solidarity and let in some sunlight. The typical response is to kick out the trouble maker in some kind of a Lord of the Flies frenzy. I am sure that was the hope of many in the PC Caucus. But the Premier intervened and asked for Raj's help instead of bringing him up on the carpet. As a result Raj lives to fight another day as a PC politician and to use his knowledge and now considerable influence on pressing for the fundamental changes we have known we need in the health care system for years and years.
I have two other observations on this last week of Raj Sherman. He has done what any opposition member and even government backbencher must be free to do. That is to keep the government , the Premier and Cabinet to be exact, honest, open, transparent, accountable and able to demonstrate personal and collective integrity in how they govern the province. That is the theory of our parliamentary Westminster system of governance but it has been lost as the public interest get trumped by personal political aspirations and abuse of power.
My other observation is that Raj Sherman now has all the trump cards in this game of getting better governance of health care. As the only doctor at the cabinet table he has been asked to help "fix" the mess. If his suggestions are ignored for political reasons or some other abusive of power he can quit the PC Party. And he should. He is not likely to get fired now for bringing up problems - and continuing to do so in public. He has to keep the Premier's feet to the fire. He should not be so naive to believe that the most recent high level political promises are truly authentic in their intent. Actions speak louder than words. Raj knows that by his personal example. Lets hope his colleagues in caucus and cabinet are ready to take action...and they start with the total dismantling of the Super Board and the management that runs it.
UPDATE NOV 19: LOTS OF GREAT NEWS AND COMMENTS ON THE COURAGE OF RAJ SHERMAN: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/enough+Sherman/3858261/story.htmlhttp://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Graham+Thomson+Hero+horror+party/3860402/story.html; http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/vows+fight+crisis/3853926/story.html
A Way to Brighten Your Friday
This is worth a watch. It will give your spirits a lift on a busy chilly Friday. It will connect you with the creativity of the human species and remind you of the joy of being a part of it. H/T to Graham Fletcher for bringing it to my attention.
http://www.flixxy.com/welcome-back-heathrow-airport-t-mobile.htm
http://www.flixxy.com/welcome-back-heathrow-airport-t-mobile.htm
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Citizenship, Stewardship and Leadership Alberta Style
I had the privilege of being one of the speakers at the Speakers Series at the Banff Centre on Tuesday night this week. It was a white-knuckle drive there with the first serious snow fall of the season but it was well worth the effort to get to speak on Citizenship, Stewardship and Leadership from an Albertan point of view.
My theme was tied to the democratic deficit and decline in Alberta. This is manifesting itself in many ways including the sad state of citizen engagement in being an informed voter. We have seen a bit of a turnaround over voter turnout at local municipal and school board elections this year so there is hope. Reboot Alberta is going to be come more focused on citizen engagement by the looks of it.
The theme of this presentation is also stewardship and that is tied to a wade range of ideas and concepts from environmental to natural capital, to social infrastructure and even inter-generational equity. What kind of a province are we leaving future generations economically, environmentally, socially, culturally and even politically? Albertans as owners of the oil sands means we have the ultimate stewardship responsibility for them and that reality touches all of the stewardship aspects. How well as we doing in insisting our tenant, the energy industry, are taking proper care of this enormous and critically important natural capital asset beyond project investments and job creating. Those are good to have but they are far from sufficient in themselve in meeting a social license to operate in a stewardship context.
Finally there is the issue of leadership and my main point there is everyone has some responsibility to be a leader in their community and to be careful who we select as leaders in all aspects of civil society, business and especially politically. I agree with Daveberta when he says we do not have corrupt or bad leaders in our political culture, just a rash of mediocre leaders. As a result we do not come anywhere close to reaching our potential as a people or as a province. That is not just the fault of those in leadership roles. It comes on our heads as citizens for letting this happen. I will have more to say about this in future blog posts.
In the mean time here is a blog link to Kim Bater a friend of mine (and client) who was at the Banff Centre presentation. It will give you another perspective
My theme was tied to the democratic deficit and decline in Alberta. This is manifesting itself in many ways including the sad state of citizen engagement in being an informed voter. We have seen a bit of a turnaround over voter turnout at local municipal and school board elections this year so there is hope. Reboot Alberta is going to be come more focused on citizen engagement by the looks of it.
The theme of this presentation is also stewardship and that is tied to a wade range of ideas and concepts from environmental to natural capital, to social infrastructure and even inter-generational equity. What kind of a province are we leaving future generations economically, environmentally, socially, culturally and even politically? Albertans as owners of the oil sands means we have the ultimate stewardship responsibility for them and that reality touches all of the stewardship aspects. How well as we doing in insisting our tenant, the energy industry, are taking proper care of this enormous and critically important natural capital asset beyond project investments and job creating. Those are good to have but they are far from sufficient in themselve in meeting a social license to operate in a stewardship context.
Finally there is the issue of leadership and my main point there is everyone has some responsibility to be a leader in their community and to be careful who we select as leaders in all aspects of civil society, business and especially politically. I agree with Daveberta when he says we do not have corrupt or bad leaders in our political culture, just a rash of mediocre leaders. As a result we do not come anywhere close to reaching our potential as a people or as a province. That is not just the fault of those in leadership roles. It comes on our heads as citizens for letting this happen. I will have more to say about this in future blog posts.
In the mean time here is a blog link to Kim Bater a friend of mine (and client) who was at the Banff Centre presentation. It will give you another perspective
Monday, November 15, 2010
The Alberta Party is on the Move and Making Waves.
I had a great time at the Alberta Party Policy Convention last Saturday. Could not stay for Sunday but I watched a lot of the events online through the Alberta Party website. I have been to a lot of these events over the years and this one felt comfortable in its format but more engaging in the content and context. This is because of the new party feel and the mix of people in the room. I was mostly struck by the much lower than usual age of the crowd. It is encouraging.
The authentic openness to discuss ideas and the respectful request for explanation and information at the discussion tables was refreshing. It is not unique to any one political to be respectful as Albertans sit down to explore ideas about the direction of the province. What the Alberta Party has as a blessing and a burden is they are starting a policy process from scratch. Well not exactly from scratch because they were trying to respect the inputs they received from the 100 individual Big Listen meetings held all over the province and not be prescriptive. They still had to respect the meaningful inputs from those who showed up at the Policy Convention to add, amend or reject the initial proposals. I think they found the balance and I look forward to seeing the final policy results.
There was an vibrant energy in the room that Dave King reflected on as reminiscent of the times he spent travelling all over Alberta with former Premier Peter Lougheed when the re-emerging PC Party caught the temper of the times and imagination of the citizenry. Dave should know how all that happened and how it felt because he was Lougheed's EA. He was an elected PC candidate at 25 years old and went into the Lougheed Cabinet.
I got involved with the Alberta PC Party after the 1971 election while I was in Law School and was captured by the sense of something new, exciting and significant was happening to design the next Alberta back then too. It was about a new narrative for Alberta then, and it is about another new narrative foe Alberta now.
There was a similar sense of something significant happening around the Alberta Party on Saturday in Red Deer. There were people there who believe in the province and who are personally committed to its future. That is not unique amongst political partisans. What is different about Alberta Party members is the level of dissatisfaction with the current public policy trajectory and the hard shift to the right they see in the political culture of the province. For the first time many are seeing a glimmer of hope and an emerging reason to believe that progressive political change may be possible for Alberta. The best evidence of this was the number of people who attended the Alberta Policy Policy Conference initially as observers but who bought memberships that weekend as a result of what they heard, saw and got to say.
The fact that one could fully participate in the formal policy discussion of a political party without being a member is unique in itself. Opening up public policy and political conversations at party event with ordinary citizens attending as citizens and not requiring them to take out party membership is a unique enhancement of democracy that was shown by the Alberta Party. Live streaming the policy process on the Internet so anyone could watch and even participate with comments and Twitter feeds was another opening up of the political and policy making process. That openness will pay dividends to the Alberta Party as being seen and accepted as a preferred agent for positive democratic change going forward to the next election.
My final observation is the potential for the Alberta Party to form government in the next election. It is possible if not probable at this time but times are a-changin' and quickly. My late friend Robert Theobald observed awhile back that Alberta was getting better and better, worse and worse and faster and faster, all at the same time. I think that was true over10 years ago when he said it and it even more accurate today going forward.
The classic conventional political presumptions of what it takes to win elections have been challenged in many of the dramatic changes seen in recent local elections all over Alberta. Some things in Alberta's elections are getting better, others are getting worse but everything is moving faster and faster...that is for sure. There is also a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the status quo and a disillusionment with the current offerings of political alternatives. There are feeling of uncertainty in the air and a growing concern about the future of Alberta that are just below the surface but could emerge as a political game-changer at any time and on any issue.
There is a feeling that the Alberta Advantage is a worn out and forlorn governing philosophy that generated rapid economic growth but at an unacceptable environmental and social costs. The economic benefits generated were not equitable distributed either. All boats did not rise with the economic growth of the Alberta Advantage just the yachts. The rich got richer, the poor are still poor and the middle class is struggling just to keep up.
There is a feeling that Alberta is not living up to its potential, especially given all our blessings. There is a sense that we are not leaving a positive legacy to future generations with the social and environmental deficits we are creating along with a limited economic diversification. The race to the bottom with an ideologically instilled tax policy that says they are only going down...always. That means, to sustain current necessary public services we are using substituting non-renewable, one-time natural resource capital revenues instead of paying our own way now for the social, health, and education needs we have. That is squandering the birthright of future generations because we choose to, not because it is right to do.
Today we have a new sense of a need for change. The traditional political party alternatives are not able to capture the mood of the public and are not seen as the kind of change people want. The other "alternative" is a hybrid of old-line narrow, market-model conservatives with a hard line libertarian "every man for himself" social/economic philosophy. And now we have the emergence of the yet to be defined but diverse, young and democratically interesting Alberta Party as a new kid on the block.
It took Peter Lougheed two elections to come to office and change Alberta into a modern province. He had the sense of change in the province working for him. He had youth and energy working for him too as a contract to the stodgy, tired and tepid Social Credit incumbents. What he did not have was the Internet and Social Media as a way to reach, engage and energize citizens directly as a supplement to the tried and true election campaign activities. Will all of this new media and traditional campaigning converge and be sufficient to capture the public imagination through the launch a new party and be dramatic and trusted enough to garner a new mandate?
I think the real Alberta battle isn't a battle between various political parties. It is all about changing the Alberta narrative. We need to move beyond the Klein era of the Alberta Advantage that was about being the best IN the world as defined by the lowest taxes and royalties to attract investment along with lax environmental enforcement and a push to privatize the public interest. We need to reject ideologically driven by top down, command and control governance models that is at the root of the political culture war between the PCs and the Wildrose Alliance
We need to move the narrative now to the Alberta Aspiration of being the best FOR the world. We can do the by using our enormous natural resources and develop responsible prosperity with environmental stewardship. We can become a leader around inclusive, caring and compassionate social policy with evidence based decision making. We need leadership that is pioneering for these times, not caught in a political marketing mindset that seeks to perfect yesterday or, worse yet, drag us back to the 1950s ways of thinking.
Is the Alberta Party up for that? Time will tell!
The authentic openness to discuss ideas and the respectful request for explanation and information at the discussion tables was refreshing. It is not unique to any one political to be respectful as Albertans sit down to explore ideas about the direction of the province. What the Alberta Party has as a blessing and a burden is they are starting a policy process from scratch. Well not exactly from scratch because they were trying to respect the inputs they received from the 100 individual Big Listen meetings held all over the province and not be prescriptive. They still had to respect the meaningful inputs from those who showed up at the Policy Convention to add, amend or reject the initial proposals. I think they found the balance and I look forward to seeing the final policy results.
There was an vibrant energy in the room that Dave King reflected on as reminiscent of the times he spent travelling all over Alberta with former Premier Peter Lougheed when the re-emerging PC Party caught the temper of the times and imagination of the citizenry. Dave should know how all that happened and how it felt because he was Lougheed's EA. He was an elected PC candidate at 25 years old and went into the Lougheed Cabinet.
I got involved with the Alberta PC Party after the 1971 election while I was in Law School and was captured by the sense of something new, exciting and significant was happening to design the next Alberta back then too. It was about a new narrative for Alberta then, and it is about another new narrative foe Alberta now.
There was a similar sense of something significant happening around the Alberta Party on Saturday in Red Deer. There were people there who believe in the province and who are personally committed to its future. That is not unique amongst political partisans. What is different about Alberta Party members is the level of dissatisfaction with the current public policy trajectory and the hard shift to the right they see in the political culture of the province. For the first time many are seeing a glimmer of hope and an emerging reason to believe that progressive political change may be possible for Alberta. The best evidence of this was the number of people who attended the Alberta Policy Policy Conference initially as observers but who bought memberships that weekend as a result of what they heard, saw and got to say.
The fact that one could fully participate in the formal policy discussion of a political party without being a member is unique in itself. Opening up public policy and political conversations at party event with ordinary citizens attending as citizens and not requiring them to take out party membership is a unique enhancement of democracy that was shown by the Alberta Party. Live streaming the policy process on the Internet so anyone could watch and even participate with comments and Twitter feeds was another opening up of the political and policy making process. That openness will pay dividends to the Alberta Party as being seen and accepted as a preferred agent for positive democratic change going forward to the next election.
My final observation is the potential for the Alberta Party to form government in the next election. It is possible if not probable at this time but times are a-changin' and quickly. My late friend Robert Theobald observed awhile back that Alberta was getting better and better, worse and worse and faster and faster, all at the same time. I think that was true over10 years ago when he said it and it even more accurate today going forward.
The classic conventional political presumptions of what it takes to win elections have been challenged in many of the dramatic changes seen in recent local elections all over Alberta. Some things in Alberta's elections are getting better, others are getting worse but everything is moving faster and faster...that is for sure. There is also a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the status quo and a disillusionment with the current offerings of political alternatives. There are feeling of uncertainty in the air and a growing concern about the future of Alberta that are just below the surface but could emerge as a political game-changer at any time and on any issue.
There is a feeling that the Alberta Advantage is a worn out and forlorn governing philosophy that generated rapid economic growth but at an unacceptable environmental and social costs. The economic benefits generated were not equitable distributed either. All boats did not rise with the economic growth of the Alberta Advantage just the yachts. The rich got richer, the poor are still poor and the middle class is struggling just to keep up.
There is a feeling that Alberta is not living up to its potential, especially given all our blessings. There is a sense that we are not leaving a positive legacy to future generations with the social and environmental deficits we are creating along with a limited economic diversification. The race to the bottom with an ideologically instilled tax policy that says they are only going down...always. That means, to sustain current necessary public services we are using substituting non-renewable, one-time natural resource capital revenues instead of paying our own way now for the social, health, and education needs we have. That is squandering the birthright of future generations because we choose to, not because it is right to do.
Today we have a new sense of a need for change. The traditional political party alternatives are not able to capture the mood of the public and are not seen as the kind of change people want. The other "alternative" is a hybrid of old-line narrow, market-model conservatives with a hard line libertarian "every man for himself" social/economic philosophy. And now we have the emergence of the yet to be defined but diverse, young and democratically interesting Alberta Party as a new kid on the block.
It took Peter Lougheed two elections to come to office and change Alberta into a modern province. He had the sense of change in the province working for him. He had youth and energy working for him too as a contract to the stodgy, tired and tepid Social Credit incumbents. What he did not have was the Internet and Social Media as a way to reach, engage and energize citizens directly as a supplement to the tried and true election campaign activities. Will all of this new media and traditional campaigning converge and be sufficient to capture the public imagination through the launch a new party and be dramatic and trusted enough to garner a new mandate?
I think the real Alberta battle isn't a battle between various political parties. It is all about changing the Alberta narrative. We need to move beyond the Klein era of the Alberta Advantage that was about being the best IN the world as defined by the lowest taxes and royalties to attract investment along with lax environmental enforcement and a push to privatize the public interest. We need to reject ideologically driven by top down, command and control governance models that is at the root of the political culture war between the PCs and the Wildrose Alliance
We need to move the narrative now to the Alberta Aspiration of being the best FOR the world. We can do the by using our enormous natural resources and develop responsible prosperity with environmental stewardship. We can become a leader around inclusive, caring and compassionate social policy with evidence based decision making. We need leadership that is pioneering for these times, not caught in a political marketing mindset that seeks to perfect yesterday or, worse yet, drag us back to the 1950s ways of thinking.
Is the Alberta Party up for that? Time will tell!
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