New party or no party?

I want to take another opportunity to thank everyone for Reboot Alberta. I originally had the names of those four wonderful pioneers and the two hard working associates written here, but I don't want to assume that they have come out completely.

At two points this weekend, I had to make a difficult choice about two conversations of which I could take part. In a nutshell, one conversation had to do with creating a new party for progressives in Alberta and the other one had to do with creating a broad movement for progressive change. Both times, I chose to join the movement conversation and now I want to use this post to sum up my thoughts on that issue.

First off, I want to be clear. I have great respect for everyone who decided to sit in on the new party group and in particular, for all of the people that are working so hard to develop the Renew Alberta concept. I hope that those people will take this critique in the spirit of which it is intended, which is an examination of the pitfalls that can lie ahead for that group. Secondly, I want them to know that I am very interested in the concept and will likely find myself at home in that party.

The main reason we need a new party in Alberta is because we have a strong and complex system in place that needs changing - and the traditional legitimate way to achieve that change is by supporting a party that can achieve it. Furthermore, between here and fundamental change there will be elections and I will need a place to park my vote and direct my efforts.

Thus, my conundrum. As I tweeted incessantly, the party system is part of the problem, but the party is the vehicle with which that change is most likely to occur. Partisan politics has gone awry. The single biggest issue in our parliamentary system is the position of caucus whip. Members cannot engage in meaningful debate about how they truly feel on the floor of the legislature because the caucus will have already voted on each issue. There is no point listening to the points brought forward by the opposition because you are not allowed to change your mind. Legislature debate is an absolute farce and everyone in the system knows it.

I remember the day in social ten when we had a class debate. I remember how everyone studied the issue came in to class with points prepared and chose which side of the room to sit on based on their preconceived stance. I remember how we politely (for the most part) listened as each person presented their points of view. I remember students getting up and moving to the other side of the room because of some passionate points being presented from the opposition.

Maybe I'm still too idealistic, but what is wrong with that? What is wrong with having an open and honest debate about the direction government should head, being humble when we triumph and being proud when we lose.

The problem is the parties are too worried about losing the pockets of power that they have already established and they have party whips to maintain their appearance of strength and solidarity. The floor of the legislature is seen as a vicious battle ground and you better ensure your troops are in line.

The idea of forming a new party is very seductive. Hearing from across the room the birth of what could be the next big party in Alberta was like being one of the Argonauts hearing the sirens on the rocks.

But all too often ambition is inversely proportional to the distance one is from power.

Which makes it very hard for the party to change the system that they just used to obtain power, right Mr Harper?

In the meantime I will be proud to be part of the group that works to keep the party pioneers honest.

PS - Alberta Liberals doomed in an un-party state, in today's Edmonton Journal is a great piece with impeccable timing. Happy Reading!

I'm coming out!

For many of you, what I am about to say won't come as much of a surprise. For those others, you may want to sit down.

For some time, I feel like I've been leading a double life. I have this secret that I've been hiding from too many people for too long. I kept a very significant part of my life private from many people, because I was worried about the repercussions. I've been worried that some people might not agree with my choices or approve of people like me. In fact, there have been people who have been ridiculed, bullied, fired or even physically hurt for promoting the lifestyle that I want to live.

While I was a teacher I would go into school and be the person that I felt my colleagues, students and the community wanted me to be. Yet, at night I would go home and spend hours on websites interacting with other people like me, and reading about their lifestyle. At social gatherings I would avoid bringing up how I really felt because I didn't know how people would react or whether they would even want to talk to me anymore.

This weekend without telling most of my friends, family and coworkers I left town and went to a hotel with a bunch of other men (and some women, too) just like me and went to a space where we all felt more comfortable being ourselves and talking openly about what we want our lives to be like.

So here it is... I'm a progressive Albertan

Phew, I feel so much better now.

Okay, so maybe it's not that much of a surprise, but I am going to change my life a bit because of what I took away from Reboot Alberta this weekend. I'm not going to worry about talking about politics anymore - in any social circle. I'm going to tell more people about my blog. I'm going to ask you to follow me on Twitter. I'm going to use my facebook profile to advocate for change.

It comes down to this. We deserve to have a better province and we are not going to get it unless we talk about what it should look like. I want to hear what you think about Alberta and what you think about politics. I want you to bring it up with me in conversation. We are going to disagree, but that's okay. I'm not going to think any less of you and I hope you won't think any less of me.

So, thanks for reading and before you go I have three things to ask of you.

1. Visit the Reboot Alberta website.

2. Share this post with others you know - on Twitter, on Facebook, by email.

3. Consider coming out to your friends.

Let's start affecting the change that we want to see.

Progressives gather to Reboot Alberta.

What do you get when you put 100 progressive thought leaders in a room?

http://www.moviesounds.com/topgun/target.wav

Actually, what you get is a number of absolutely incredible discussions about what Alberta should look like and how we should get there.

I have relished in the opportunity that Twitter has given me to discuss issues of importance to Alberta with a diverse group of people. I am now so happy with the opportunity that Reboot Alberta has given me to meet those people (amongst many others) and have a deeper more interactive discussion.

At Friday night's reception, I kept asking the question, "what hopes or expectations do you have for this event?"

The general answer was "not much" or "a good conversation." Good answers.

The spirit of the event has been about getting together without pretenses or defined outcomes and find out where our commonalities lie. We came into the room as progressives, but we all came with diverse definitions of what that meant.

The morning featured a nice breakfast and an exercise in determining the 15 themes that would make up the discussions for the morning. I found myself in conversations about engaging youth, open and honest government and bridging the urban/rural divide.

The discussions were meaningful, respectful and diverse. In essence what democracy should be about. The focus was on creating the best Alberta that was possible. In my mind, the goal now is to create a governance system that achieves what Reboot has. A system that enables meaningful, respectful and diverse dialogue on making Alberta the best place it could be for all citizens. We have great potential and politics too often get in the way.

The challenge, as the afternoon discussions revealed, is to come up with a vision for the change we wish to pursue and a strategy to obtain it within the contexts of the system that currently exists.

There is much work still to be done.

The four Ps of governance

I am getting really excited about this weekend and Reboot Alberta. I'm looking forward to a meeting of progressive thought leaders that will focus on the future of this province. Most of all, I'm looking forward to meeting so many of the people that I have come to know online.

In advance on this meeting, I have decided to finally write this post on governance that I have been thinking about for some time.

In order to have effective governance, the stakeholders must have a strong model for collaboration. Effective collaboration relies upon a good understanding where the commonalities and differences lie amongst the stakeholders and an open acknowledgement of those differences.

Governance comes down to a hierarchy of four levels of opinion: Philosophies, Principles, Policies and Practices.

The model is an inverted pyramid because the practices of government need to be based upon the policies set forth by the policy makers, which in-turn are based upon their principles which are based on a set of fundamental philosophies. It is a pyramid because there are a fewer number of philosophies that guide an increasing number of principles and a larger number of policies and practices.

A collaborative decision-making group, whether it is a political party or a school board, must start from a basic set of agreed upon philosophies. These should be broad and general statements for which everyone can easily agree on. If a philosophy is to be stated, then little attention should be paid to the specific wording as it is the idea that is of fundamental importance. A philosophy should describe the general purpose of the group.

Once the group is clear on their collective philosophy, then they need to be open about their individual principles. Principles are those individual beliefs that change little over time that guide one's decision making. In a group, even those with high levels of homogeneity, individuals will have differing principles. An effective collaborative group should have a large number of common principles, yet will still have some differing principles. The ability to collaborate will depend directly on the group's understanding of where their principles differ and a respect for those differences.

The first two levels are preliminary to the decision making process, they relate to the biasses that the group or individuals within the group hold. The next level is the decision making level. Policies are the set of directions that the legislators give to their administrators as to how programs are to be delivered. It is a given that legislators will differ in opinion on individual policies, so it is essential that open, honest and respectful debate occur in the setting of policy. Unfortunately, too often, political trade-offs are used to set policy resulting in inappropriate policy. As a result of the debate there will be, for lack of better words, winners and losers. There must be no problem with this - it is a result of the process and there should be no shame in it.

Finally, there is a subtle but important difference between policy and best practices. The realm of policies should be constrained to those matters for which clear answers do not exist, whereas those matters for which best practices exist should be left to the hired experts. The policy should guide the bureaucracy, but the execution (practice) should be entrusted to those people hired to do it.

With that mind, good luck Rebooters!

In reply to: ETS to YEG?

Great post Steven.

The transit option is an excellent stop-gap measure. Virtually every airport in the western world has some form of public mass transit available. Your ideas on how to make it work are critical.

In the meantime, we need to talk about this ludicrous arrangement that is forcing every single taxi driving to or from the airport to make the return trip empty. Edmonton needs to get over its protectionism of turf and negotiate a solution with Leduc county. Leduc needs to recognize how much a cash cow the entire airport is for them and offer some compromises.

Furthermore, Alberta needs to get on top of the high speed rail link between Edmonton and Calgary. Our geography is in such a perfect alignment to allow for a trip to get people from Downtown Edmonton to YEG to Red Deer to YYC to Downtown Calgary in around two hours.

All of this would save a ton of trips in small vehicle traffic and air travel. Especially when you consider the high number of government and business trips between these cities every day. And people might argue that the train won't get used, but if it takes less time, costs less and has less hassle you can guarantee the business class will jump aboard!

When we demand stimulus from our government, these are the sorts of actions that should be talked about instead of another tax grab for the oil industry.

Kicking them while they're down.

Yesterday, I wrote a short post on updated employment figures that show that it is the youth, impoverished and working class families that are most affected by growing unemployment in this recession.

Two stories that I came across recently confirm who is really being affected by the recession. First, a report from the Community Foundations of Canada is
pointing out that the youth unemployment rate has hit a 30-year high. Youth
unemployment rose to a staggering 16.3 per cent over this past summer. Even
those youth who are able to find work are getting far fewer hours.

In the meantime, Statistics Canada data is showing that "Young people,
low-paid workers and families with children have borne the biggest share of job
losses in this downturn, while those aged 55 and over had modest employment
gains." Talk to anyone in their early 20s and they can tell you stories about
themselves, or their peers who are under or unemployed.

I concluded by criticising pending government cutbacks as a kick-em-while-they're-down strategy, because programs like education, post-secondary education, affordable housing and income supports are being threatened with cutbacks.

I'm sure glad that the Alberta government is gearing up for a kick-em-while-they're-down strategy towards our youth, impoverished and families by planning to cut the social institutions that we have set up to help those people in our society who need it most.

Silly me, I wrote about this before our premier came out and delivered the biggest boot to the head of the unemployed, saying "The A and B Crews are working and the C Crew is at home until they change their attitude."

Well, Ed, it is clear who needs the attitude adjustment. You've earned your monicker of Steady Eddie, because we have a youth unemployment pandemic and you have done NOTHING to improve their situation. Which is par for the course on how you manage to handle pandemics.

The premier's flak Tom Olsen tried to clarify by saying that the premier meant to say these people got used to $80,000 a year jobs with no training and now aren't prepared to go out and get an education.

He's got a bit of a point. This government blessed oil companies with low royalties, low taxes and corporate handouts for the past decade allowing the oil industry to boom unchecked. We were desperate for workers - oil companies chased after our youth with promises of big bucks and big trucks. So, you can't really blame them for somehow getting the idea that life was easy. Many kids were poached from high school without a second thought for their longterm wellbeing and sent off to the rigs and the pits. For some, the work-hard, party-hard lifestyle and easy-come, easy-go cash flow resulted into some pretty nasty drug addictions.

Now, you're blaming them for having no job and no education. You have got to be kidding me! You tell them to go back to school, yet you're cutting finding to education, tuition is rising and student loans are becoming smaller and harder to get. Meanwhile, you're cutting oil royalties and corporate taxes to 'stimulate' the economy?!?! It seems to me the only things being stimulated are the oil executives and shareholders.

Ed, you better hope they don't learn how to vote.

Youth and low paid workers suffer the most.

Two stories that I came across recently confirm who is really being affected by the recession.

First, a report from the Community Foundations of Canada is pointing out that the youth unemployment rate has hit a 30-year high*. Youth unemployment rose to a staggering 16.3 per cent over this past summer. Even those youth who are able to find work are getting far fewer hours.

In the meantime, Statistics Canada data is showing that "Young people, low-paid workers and families with children have borne the biggest share of job losses in this downturn, while those aged 55 and over had modest employment gains." Talk to anyone in their early 20s and they can tell you stories about themselves, or their peers who are under or unemployed.

I'm sure glad that the Alberta government is gearing up for a kick-em-while-their-down strategy towards our youth, impoverished and families by planning to cut the social institutions that we have set up to help those people in our society who need it most.

*fixed from original posting. Thanks hhenshaw.