Haley Simons is the driving force behind Creative Alberta and one of the key people behind Sir Ken Robinson coming to Red Deer last week.
Creative Alberta is also a strong supporter of the citizen's movement to Save Our Fine Arts (SOFA) that has 7000 people involved in the cause. SOFA convened almost 700 citizens to an evening n Calgary on January 25 to hear Minister Dave Hancock and others talk about the role of arts education in Alberta. You can watch the SHAW TV coverage of the SOFA event and see the broadcast time slots at this link.
Haley recently wrote a piece on the SOFA meeting that was published by the Alberta Teachers' Association. I highly recommend you read it.
I was at both evenings and thoroughly enjoyed both of them...and am part of Creative Alberta and a fan of SOFA too.
Next up in the public engagement on the future of public education is a public lecture by Michael Adams and Jean Twenge on March 17 at Sutton Place Hotel in Edmonton. This is part of the Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta project we are doing in conjunction with the ATA. You can learn more and get tickets here.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Watching the Culture War in Right Wing Alberta
The latest Environics Research Group Poll of 1,011 random Albertans 18 years old and over, in six geographic segments, Edmonton, Calgary, small cities, rural south, central and northern done between January 20 and 31, 2011 with a margin of error of +/-3.1% 95 times out of 100.
Good News for the PCs? Not So Much!
The results are very interesting and imply some surprising changes. Notwithstanding the turmoil in health care from Duckett to Sherman and the emergency room crisis, the PC support not only held, it improved from a pretty consistent base of 34% in three surveys from October 2009, March and November 2010 to 38% today.
There is a misplaced sense of relief in the PCs based on finally having hit the bottom...an presuming the only way to go it up. Remember Premier Stelmach announced he is leaving politics (eventually) on January 25, with wall to wall media coverage and right in the middle of this poll.
What is the contributing factor of the 4% bounce for the PCs? Some will say the Stelmach departure announcement and I expect that is partly right. Others will say the Wildrose Alliance has peaked and the support was a parking place to send a message of dissatisfaction to Premier Stelmach. He seems to have gotten the message by quitting so it is time to return to the PC fold. That is partly right too. It looks like it is definitely right when yo see a 10% up tick for the PCs outside Edmonton and Calgary...that will be cause for a sigh of relief in Toryland. The anger fomenting in rural Alberta over land bills and fears of private property rights in the face of increased Ministerial power over people is not turning folks off the PC or causing them to rush to the Alliance. In fact the Alliance support in rural and small city Alberta is down 8%. Go figure
Bottom line, the PCs are in minority government territory no matter which way you slice the numbers. That is merely survival at best and not success by any measure given the dynasty they have created.
Wildrose Alliance Peaked and Piqued?
The question about the WAP is how solid is their support and what level is it at when push come to shove at the actual ballot box? As a place to protest the Alliance has been handy since the Calgary Glenmore By-election when the Deputy Premier quit. The Alliance won but the Liberal vote held and the PCs dropped to third place from a very comfortable margin of support from before. The message was being sent by some Calgary PCs staying home and others in open anger with their perceived loss of influence on the Premier's office from the Ralph Klein days.
The drop of 2% in Calgary for the PCs and the Alliance with a 3% drop by the NDP resulted in a 5% bounce for the Liberals. Calgary is getting interesting and volatile now too as voters there showed with the election of Mayor Naheed Nenshi, an Alberta Party supporter. Danielle Smith is more than Calgary-centric but the "entitled" power elites in Calgary now longer control the vote results. Nenshi proved that last October.
The dramatic drop of Alliance support in Edmonton (-7%) and the Rest of Alberta (-8) has to be unnerving for the Smith supporters. The anger with the PCs and the media hype over Smith versus Stelmach is over so Albertans are now taking a serious look at the Alliance and their politics.
Whither the Liberals and the NDP?
The overall results show the Liberals up 3% and the NDP down 3%, and this poll was done before Dr. Swann quit the Liberal leadership. The NDP are trending down 3% everywhere in Alberta. If this holds they may be seen as irrelevant in the next election, especially if the major trends are who will win the culture war on the right and who in the centre can we count on to replace both the Morton and Smith factions in the social conservative and public service stifling approach they both take.
For the Liberals there is some reason to hope not all is lost with a 3% overall bounce coming mostly from Calgary and Edmonton areas. At 22% they are within the margin of error with the Alliance. Will they be the choice for opposition or will the Alliance get the nod? Way too early to tell and lots more political drama to unfold before that question is top of mind.
Things Not Considered!
There are two serious other issues not captured or reported in this poll. The Undecided is said to be 18% overall slightly more than past polls. However the poll results are blended answers of two questions. "If a provincial election were held today, which one of the following parties would you vote for?" The second question is of the Undecided. "Perhaps you have not yet made up your mind; is there nevertheless a party you might be presently inclined to support?"
When you back out the second "inclined to support question" you get the true undecided. I called Tony Coulson of Environics to find out the actual Undecided without the leaning aspect. It is a whopping 27% - not the blended decided and leaning numbers that left a 18% Undecided!
That is very significant to show the volatility of the Alberta voter these days. We don't know how that 27% distributes between Edmonton, Calgary and the Rest of Alberta but with a population of 1/3 in each segment, it could be significant in final seat results. If you back out that 9% leaning vote and distribute it proportionately with the Decided votes the hard core support for the PCs and the Alliance is significantly softer and less than reported.
What: No Alberta Party?
Finally there is no reference to the Alberta Party in the results. I understood that the Alberta Party was excluded from the November 2010 Environics Poll because they did not have a seat. In all fairness that was true for the most part in this survey period. Dave Taylor joined the Alberta Party as its first MLA on January 25th, right in the middle of the data gathering. However, next time I expect the Alberta Party will be included. It will be interesting to see what impact the Alberta Party has overall and on Liberal, NDP and progressives in the PCs who are afraid of that party moving more to the right under Morton.
Good News for the PCs? Not So Much!
The results are very interesting and imply some surprising changes. Notwithstanding the turmoil in health care from Duckett to Sherman and the emergency room crisis, the PC support not only held, it improved from a pretty consistent base of 34% in three surveys from October 2009, March and November 2010 to 38% today.
There is a misplaced sense of relief in the PCs based on finally having hit the bottom...an presuming the only way to go it up. Remember Premier Stelmach announced he is leaving politics (eventually) on January 25, with wall to wall media coverage and right in the middle of this poll.
What is the contributing factor of the 4% bounce for the PCs? Some will say the Stelmach departure announcement and I expect that is partly right. Others will say the Wildrose Alliance has peaked and the support was a parking place to send a message of dissatisfaction to Premier Stelmach. He seems to have gotten the message by quitting so it is time to return to the PC fold. That is partly right too. It looks like it is definitely right when yo see a 10% up tick for the PCs outside Edmonton and Calgary...that will be cause for a sigh of relief in Toryland. The anger fomenting in rural Alberta over land bills and fears of private property rights in the face of increased Ministerial power over people is not turning folks off the PC or causing them to rush to the Alliance. In fact the Alliance support in rural and small city Alberta is down 8%. Go figure
Bottom line, the PCs are in minority government territory no matter which way you slice the numbers. That is merely survival at best and not success by any measure given the dynasty they have created.
Wildrose Alliance Peaked and Piqued?
The question about the WAP is how solid is their support and what level is it at when push come to shove at the actual ballot box? As a place to protest the Alliance has been handy since the Calgary Glenmore By-election when the Deputy Premier quit. The Alliance won but the Liberal vote held and the PCs dropped to third place from a very comfortable margin of support from before. The message was being sent by some Calgary PCs staying home and others in open anger with their perceived loss of influence on the Premier's office from the Ralph Klein days.
The drop of 2% in Calgary for the PCs and the Alliance with a 3% drop by the NDP resulted in a 5% bounce for the Liberals. Calgary is getting interesting and volatile now too as voters there showed with the election of Mayor Naheed Nenshi, an Alberta Party supporter. Danielle Smith is more than Calgary-centric but the "entitled" power elites in Calgary now longer control the vote results. Nenshi proved that last October.
The dramatic drop of Alliance support in Edmonton (-7%) and the Rest of Alberta (-8) has to be unnerving for the Smith supporters. The anger with the PCs and the media hype over Smith versus Stelmach is over so Albertans are now taking a serious look at the Alliance and their politics.
Whither the Liberals and the NDP?
The overall results show the Liberals up 3% and the NDP down 3%, and this poll was done before Dr. Swann quit the Liberal leadership. The NDP are trending down 3% everywhere in Alberta. If this holds they may be seen as irrelevant in the next election, especially if the major trends are who will win the culture war on the right and who in the centre can we count on to replace both the Morton and Smith factions in the social conservative and public service stifling approach they both take.
For the Liberals there is some reason to hope not all is lost with a 3% overall bounce coming mostly from Calgary and Edmonton areas. At 22% they are within the margin of error with the Alliance. Will they be the choice for opposition or will the Alliance get the nod? Way too early to tell and lots more political drama to unfold before that question is top of mind.
Things Not Considered!
There are two serious other issues not captured or reported in this poll. The Undecided is said to be 18% overall slightly more than past polls. However the poll results are blended answers of two questions. "If a provincial election were held today, which one of the following parties would you vote for?" The second question is of the Undecided. "Perhaps you have not yet made up your mind; is there nevertheless a party you might be presently inclined to support?"
When you back out the second "inclined to support question" you get the true undecided. I called Tony Coulson of Environics to find out the actual Undecided without the leaning aspect. It is a whopping 27% - not the blended decided and leaning numbers that left a 18% Undecided!
That is very significant to show the volatility of the Alberta voter these days. We don't know how that 27% distributes between Edmonton, Calgary and the Rest of Alberta but with a population of 1/3 in each segment, it could be significant in final seat results. If you back out that 9% leaning vote and distribute it proportionately with the Decided votes the hard core support for the PCs and the Alliance is significantly softer and less than reported.
What: No Alberta Party?
Finally there is no reference to the Alberta Party in the results. I understood that the Alberta Party was excluded from the November 2010 Environics Poll because they did not have a seat. In all fairness that was true for the most part in this survey period. Dave Taylor joined the Alberta Party as its first MLA on January 25th, right in the middle of the data gathering. However, next time I expect the Alberta Party will be included. It will be interesting to see what impact the Alberta Party has overall and on Liberal, NDP and progressives in the PCs who are afraid of that party moving more to the right under Morton.
Albertan's Have to Take Back Control of Their Democracy
There is a great deal of defensiveness from some Alberta government-side politicians who are feeling at-risk these days with the new volatility in the Alberta political culture. That defensiveness is being expressed in public meetings by some - not all - PC MLAs lashing out at citizens and accusing advocates of being liars. Not good.
Danielle Klooster has done a very engaging blog post around such an experience that I recommend you read and reflect on. (H/T to AlbertaVote.ca for the link)
There is an increasing level of anxiety and angst reflected in what amounts to casual corruption through acts of intimidation and bullying of employees, agencies, boards and commissions by political people in "our" government. that behaviour includes politicians actually calling staff people directly making vague threats and innuendos clearly embedded in the kinds of questions they ask.
It is very difficult to bring truth to power when power has its own agenda. It is even more difficult to bring truth when that agenda is abusive of those who are vulnerable and pushed to compliance for personal survival.
We know that Albertans see Integrity and Accountability as the most important values in their politicians. We also know we don't have enough of it in our current political culture. An election is coming up. That is a time of citizen's making choices and sending messages. Silence and cynicism is no longer an option if you value your democracy and want to have your say.
Compliance in the face of bullying is not an option if you want respect from the politicians who are supposedly working you. Complacency is not an option if you want self respect. Citizenship is about leadership and in a democracy that leadership starts by looking yourself in the mirror and staking a stand.
It's time for Albertans to take back control of our democracy by engaging. It is time to empower and embrace alternatives to the status quo. It is time to delete those from political power who are inept, abusive and believe they are above accountability to the public. It's time for Albertans to start thinking for a change in government and about a change in governance.
Danielle Klooster has done a very engaging blog post around such an experience that I recommend you read and reflect on. (H/T to AlbertaVote.ca for the link)
There is an increasing level of anxiety and angst reflected in what amounts to casual corruption through acts of intimidation and bullying of employees, agencies, boards and commissions by political people in "our" government. that behaviour includes politicians actually calling staff people directly making vague threats and innuendos clearly embedded in the kinds of questions they ask.
It is very difficult to bring truth to power when power has its own agenda. It is even more difficult to bring truth when that agenda is abusive of those who are vulnerable and pushed to compliance for personal survival.
We know that Albertans see Integrity and Accountability as the most important values in their politicians. We also know we don't have enough of it in our current political culture. An election is coming up. That is a time of citizen's making choices and sending messages. Silence and cynicism is no longer an option if you value your democracy and want to have your say.
Compliance in the face of bullying is not an option if you want respect from the politicians who are supposedly working you. Complacency is not an option if you want self respect. Citizenship is about leadership and in a democracy that leadership starts by looking yourself in the mirror and staking a stand.
It's time for Albertans to take back control of our democracy by engaging. It is time to empower and embrace alternatives to the status quo. It is time to delete those from political power who are inept, abusive and believe they are above accountability to the public. It's time for Albertans to start thinking for a change in government and about a change in governance.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
An Alberta Party Update from Sue Huff
Sue Huff, Interim Leader of the Alberta Party speaks in Lethbridge at a special meeting of the Southern Alberta Council of Public Affairs on the development and growth of the the Alberta Party.
If you are Alberta Party curious, and who isn't these days, you can get a real sense of who we are and where we are on policy, people and progress of the Alberta Party. Listen to this audio file of Sue Huff's in a speech to over 100 folks who came out to learn more about the Alberta Party.
The Q and A is very interesting too.
If you want to know more about Alberta Party leadership candidate Glenn Taylor I encourage you to visit his website too.
If you are Alberta Party curious, and who isn't these days, you can get a real sense of who we are and where we are on policy, people and progress of the Alberta Party. Listen to this audio file of Sue Huff's in a speech to over 100 folks who came out to learn more about the Alberta Party.
The Q and A is very interesting too.
If you want to know more about Alberta Party leadership candidate Glenn Taylor I encourage you to visit his website too.
Embrace the Act of Imagination
I was at the Sir Ken Robinson lecture in Red Deer last night. This amazing event drew over 700 people and was sponsored by the ATA, Red Deer College, Creative Alberta and the Red Deer Advocate. Another indication of a yearning for real change in Alberta.
The lecture was video taped and I hope we will be able to feed the need for change at the next Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta events in Edmonton March 17th. You can get tickets online using this link. It promises to be another inspiring evening.
I received a tweet from a teacher who was at the SirKen event. She bought his recent book and asked him to write a line to new teachers when he signed the book. What he wrote resonated with me, and I expect with most of the readers of this blog. He wrote: "Embrace the Act of Imagination."
This is not an abstract ephemeral aphorism but more of an admonition that the status quo for our society is unsustainable, socially, economically and environmentally. I would even say our adversarial and personally nasty approach to political culture is unsustainable.
There is a shifting consciousness starting amongst a growing group of previously apathetic Albertans that we need to start thinking for a change. It is not a groundswell yet but it is gathering momentum. The opportunity for the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party and the Alberta Liberal Party to respond to the change will come from the results of their pending leadership decisions. The same can be said for the newer, smaller but intriguing Alberta Party as an agent for positive political change is these revived citizens seek a leader.
Full disclosure I am an Alberta Party member and working on the Glenn Taylor campaign to lead this new movement. I also had an Alberta Liberal Party membership to support David Swann' s leadership and as a PC member I supported Dave Hancock's leadership bid in 2006 and moved my support along with Dave to Ed Stelmach on the second ballot. I have let both of these memberships lapse and feel a bitter sweet irony that both these gentlemen are now leaving political leadership positions and I expect politics as well.
My sense is the Alberta Party with it aim of "doing politics differently" is the closest thing Albertans have as a choice that will pick up and deliver on the spirit behind Sir Ken Robinson's advice to "Embrace the Act of Imagination." Alberta is ready to move beyond the Alberta Advantage of corporate tax cuts, royalty breaks and industry subsidies.
The next Alberta is about a struggle for defining narrative about the Alberta Aspiration. What does that mean and how will we see in ourselves and define ourselves as we move forward into the creative age and not just the industrial age of resource extraction as our reason to be. The new narrative will be written by Albertans in part as a result of who these political parties choose for leadership. Another big part of writing the next Alberta narrative will be decided when we citizens select and elect our new government as we pause about how we are poised for striving and thriving in the changing world we must all face individually and together.
Granting your consent to be governed is partly a forfeiture of personal power to a politician so be careful who you vote for. In a generative time like Alberta is in today full of challenges, threats as well as strengths and opportunities citizenship should be more than merely voting. It should be the active act of embracing and imagining our aspirations as Albertans.
That is the stuff that motivates me to be so heavily engaged in the Alberta Party and the leadership campaign of Glenn Taylor. Visit his website and the party website and if you are at least curious take the next step and join the party and become a Glenn Taylor supporter. Be the change you want to see happen.
The lecture was video taped and I hope we will be able to feed the need for change at the next Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta events in Edmonton March 17th. You can get tickets online using this link. It promises to be another inspiring evening.
I received a tweet from a teacher who was at the SirKen event. She bought his recent book and asked him to write a line to new teachers when he signed the book. What he wrote resonated with me, and I expect with most of the readers of this blog. He wrote: "Embrace the Act of Imagination."
This is not an abstract ephemeral aphorism but more of an admonition that the status quo for our society is unsustainable, socially, economically and environmentally. I would even say our adversarial and personally nasty approach to political culture is unsustainable.
There is a shifting consciousness starting amongst a growing group of previously apathetic Albertans that we need to start thinking for a change. It is not a groundswell yet but it is gathering momentum. The opportunity for the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party and the Alberta Liberal Party to respond to the change will come from the results of their pending leadership decisions. The same can be said for the newer, smaller but intriguing Alberta Party as an agent for positive political change is these revived citizens seek a leader.
Full disclosure I am an Alberta Party member and working on the Glenn Taylor campaign to lead this new movement. I also had an Alberta Liberal Party membership to support David Swann' s leadership and as a PC member I supported Dave Hancock's leadership bid in 2006 and moved my support along with Dave to Ed Stelmach on the second ballot. I have let both of these memberships lapse and feel a bitter sweet irony that both these gentlemen are now leaving political leadership positions and I expect politics as well.
My sense is the Alberta Party with it aim of "doing politics differently" is the closest thing Albertans have as a choice that will pick up and deliver on the spirit behind Sir Ken Robinson's advice to "Embrace the Act of Imagination." Alberta is ready to move beyond the Alberta Advantage of corporate tax cuts, royalty breaks and industry subsidies.
The next Alberta is about a struggle for defining narrative about the Alberta Aspiration. What does that mean and how will we see in ourselves and define ourselves as we move forward into the creative age and not just the industrial age of resource extraction as our reason to be. The new narrative will be written by Albertans in part as a result of who these political parties choose for leadership. Another big part of writing the next Alberta narrative will be decided when we citizens select and elect our new government as we pause about how we are poised for striving and thriving in the changing world we must all face individually and together.
Granting your consent to be governed is partly a forfeiture of personal power to a politician so be careful who you vote for. In a generative time like Alberta is in today full of challenges, threats as well as strengths and opportunities citizenship should be more than merely voting. It should be the active act of embracing and imagining our aspirations as Albertans.
That is the stuff that motivates me to be so heavily engaged in the Alberta Party and the leadership campaign of Glenn Taylor. Visit his website and the party website and if you are at least curious take the next step and join the party and become a Glenn Taylor supporter. Be the change you want to see happen.
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