By Dave King, one of the founders and organizers of Reboot Alberta!
For the past 15 years or more, provincial politics have been a frustration for me and, from what I hear, a frustration for others as well. I have wanted a government with a different spirit, a different value set, and different goals for my community, a different way of doing politics. Yet, I am a democrat and a romantic. So, there is no “us and them”. When the people of Alberta have voted, the government of Alberta is my government. Together, we are jointly responsible for our circumstances, and we can do better.
What is the way forward?
Politically, we are living on exhausted and toxic political soil. We cannot bring it to life by working it harder, or by adding more artificial nutrients or technology. Our political soil will not become more fruitful if we demand more of it on the same terms as our previous demands.
We need to reject the politics of fear, confrontation, and intimidation. We cannot overthrow such politics with more fear, confrontation, and intimidation.
We are tired of the politics of problems and liabilities. We cannot overthrow such politics by claiming to present larger and more serious problems that have, we say, a more urgent claim to attention.
We are not well served by the politics of selfishness, exclusivity, immediate gratification, and harsh judgment. We cannot overthrow such politics by endorsing alternate forms of selfishness, exclusivity, quick fixes, and more – different — judgments about more people.
We belittle democracy and the enduring public when we adopt its counterfeit – majoritarian rule and the temporary plurality. We cannot overthrow such politics by seeking to create our own majority in the hope that we will be able to maintain compliance.
We weaken our community when we adopt as the purpose of inclusion the goal of making everyone like everyone else. We cannot overthrow such politics by seeking to market an ideal that we hope everyone will choose to adopt.
Instead of contending with the current political structures and culture, we need to leave what we are accustomed to. What is required is a new relationship with our political ground, our practices, and with each other.
We can adopt the politics of hope, cooperation, and respect. We can adopt the politics of possibilities and assets. We can adopt the politics of community and the public, inclusion and diversity, the long term, and affirmation.
These “words” have power, because ideas and stories have power. We need to unleash the power of new ideas and stories.
It is also true that ideas and stories lose their power, when they no longer provide adequate explanation of what is happening and where we are going.
The current political stories are quickly losing their power. The labels that dominated for so long are losing their power. The structures and practices that work in the old stories are falling apart. They are not tenable for our present, let alone our future.
The time has come for concerned Albertans to come together, choose new ways of being democratic citizens, and tell new stories about why we are as we are, what we want for ourselves and our grandchildren, and how we are going to work together to achieve our goals.
However we do it, a new democracy does not mean “more of the same, only better”. It doesn’t mean simply that we replace one old-fashioned political party with another old-fashioned political party (perhaps of recent vintage). A new democracy doesn’t mean that we abandon the dream of self-government and live as much as we can without regard for our government.
A new way of being democratic will require a much richer sense of what it means to be self-governing. A new way of being democratic will require more participation, by all of us, in different ways and in a greater variety of different situations.
Most of all, a new way of being democratic will require us to be civil with each other when we agree, and even more civil to each other when we are uncertain, and most civil when we disagree.
A few of us are choosing to walk away from the historic political process, but we are not abandoning politics, or democracy, or our responsibilities as citizens. We are looking for a new place to stand, a new way of practicing good stewardship.
We won’t all settle in the same place. We won’t all choose the same way to make a contribution. We won’t all want the same personal outcomes.
But, when all is said and done
• we are democrats – we respect and value individuals and the public
• we will undertake our work in a spirit of civility and community
• we will undertake our work with a commitment to diversity and sustainability
• we live in hope
• we focus on possibilities and assets.
We are committed to our fellow citizens, and we will do the work that we imagine needs to be done.
Filed under: Citizenship, Economy, Environment, Modernists, Political Parties, Politics, Progressives, Social, Traditionalists, Uncategorized | Tagged: Alberta politics, change, Citizenship, community, cooperation, culture, democracy, diversity, hope, inclusion, new relationships, respect, stewardship
What is the next step? What are the actions that follow from your excellent evaluation? Do you think the Democratic Renewal Party has a role to play? We need to offer Albertans a real alternative that respects the conservative nature of the Province.
My other thought is many of the objectives that you mentioned were part of the Reform Party’s policies for Ottawa. It did not take them long to learn that they had to play the game in order to function and be heard. Very sad but unfortunately true.
Excellent post. Thank you. There is an article on Bloomberg from Harvard Business. Org, “Why Great Innovators Spend Less than Good Ones” by Kathleen Carr that made me think of your question.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/harvardbusiness?sid=H11250c06d00146c40db58e3029ac77de
Although she is talking about business, a lot of what she says could easily apply to what you are speaking to and what Reboot plans to encourage. A couple of observations that Ms Carr makes is that “most growth comes from creating what doesn’t exist, not getting a piece of what already does”; and that “the true path to transformation almost always comes from developing a distinct business model”. So it just may be Reboot will not just be good, it will be great..
Most eloquent – and accurate. We are seeing, at the Provincial level, more and more of the politics of “us v. them”.
Yet ironically, at the municipal level (certainly in Calgary and Edmonton in any event) we are seeing leadership of inclusiveness – “all of us together”. The Homelessness Initiatives of both Calgary and Edmonton for example; the Mayor’s Task Force on Safe Communities in Edmonton as another example; the Calgary initiative with respect to youth (I forget the official working title). Visionary leadership leading to initiatives that are based on recognising the issues and diversity in our communities, and embracing that diversity. And with significant public and corporate support.
I don’t want to appear “metrocentric” (Is that actually a word, or did I just make it up?), but when close to 70% of the population of the province is supporting evidence-based long term solutions to some of the most vexing issues we face as a community (in the broadest sense), as opposed to the ideological (i.e.: not evidence-based) short term “quick fixes” (that don’t work – and have never worked), that tells me that current political regime is completely out of touch with with where the citizenry is actually at.
If there is a dichotomy here, it’s 20th Century (us v. them) thinking v. 21st Century (all of us together) thinking. It’s ideology v. evidence. It’s short term v. long term. It’s fantasy v. reality.
I firmly believe that the Members of the Legislative Assembly want to do what’s right for Alberta. But even the visionary ones (and there are visionary Members on both sides oi the Assembly) are caught up in “the election cycle”; caught up in a paradigm that is no longer relevant to what actually needs to be done.
Mr. King was a Minister in the Lougheed government. At the time, I certainly had issues with seemed to me to be a benign despotcy (did I just make up another word?). But in hindsight (and with notable individual exceptions), what we’ve seen since then in the Alberta government has come nowhere close to the overall level of “culture, learning, and vision” (as was put to me by one of the most prominent Albertans alive today) as the Lougheed government embodied.
What we need now is people who are prepared (and funded) to stand up before the citizens of Alberta and speak the truth. The truth about economic development; the truth about environmental concerns; the truth about health care; the truth about education; and the truth about safer communities – to name but a few of the myriad issues facing us today.
To speak about what we need to do in the short term to achieve what we want for our children in the long term.
And to put it to the electorate.
Mr. King has just done that.
I sincerely hope that coming out of Reboot Alberta will be others who are prepared to do the same.
Where do the ReBooters stand in terms of allowing/encouraging/actively promoting (either directly or indirectly by just turning a blind eye and allowing it to happen), the incremental move toward forcing AB into an Officially Bilingual province. It is happening and I doubt that a majority of Albertans are o.k. with this. The incremental moves are simply not being covered by the MSM and a large proportion of the electorate simply is unaware that it is/has been happening.
What direction do the Re-Booters want to see the Judicial/Quasi Judicial justice systems take. For far to many years, the PC government has simply followed along in line with the federal government in terms of justice policy – which has basically become a hug-a-thug philosophy under primarily federal Liberal Leadership. Do you want to see this philosophy prevail/intensify as has been/still is happening under Liberal Lite/Red Tory leadership within AB? Or, are you prepared to come out publicly that this has to change.
In terms of the two major Quasi-Judicial bodies that are having a huge negative impact on this province – The Human Rights Commissions (provincial & federal) and the Immigration Refugee Board (Federal) but with huge impact provincially, where do you stand? The Federal government has steadfastly refused to address what seem to be huge holes in the federal CHRC/RT and AB has followed right along on this one. AB bill C-44 showed some promise but was allowed to morph into something that, in my opinion, simply made things worse, not better. Where do you stand on Section 13 (Federal) and the equivalent Section(s) in the AB Human Rights Act? There are really only three positions – Repeal these sections, tweak these sections, or do nothing and simply allow things to go on as they have. In my view the latter is intolerable and tweaking would no solution.
Where do you stand as regards Federal – AB Goverrment Relations and where do you want to go? The Notwithstanding Clause was put into the Charter for a reason – and that is to override very serious decisions made by federal government that significantly & adversely affect a province. The only province that has had the courage to use it is Quebec – and it has been very effective for them, particularly as regards to protecting their Law 101 – the infamous language law.
Immigration Refugee Board decisions are having a negative impact on law and order in this province. The adjudicators are politically appointed lay people (not judges), yet are given the power to make very significant legal decisions that are negatively affecting law and order in AB. Since this is a federal body, the only way that any change is going to occur here is to invoke the Notwithstanding clause. The same is true when it comes to changing anything as regards Citizenship & Immigration, the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, incremental moves in the direction of Official Bilingualism, or anything dealing with Official Multiculturalism. The question of Federal Provincial Relations remains huge.
Where do the re-booters want to see this go – moving on the same track or to see the AB take much more ownership of what goes down within the province in the above areas and backing it up as/when necessary by invoking the Notwithstanding Clause?
Right now the Court of Queens bench is sitting on a decision as to whether or not all the laws in AB are to be translated into French and an appeal is to be heard in the Supreme Court regarding a $90K assessment of costs to hear an AB court case in French. Forwarding thinking is great but the reality is that we have come to the point of where these two issues (and many others) have already happened. Not to deal with them now basically seals the future.
It is time for a public discussion on reasonable versus unreasonable accommodations. Do the Re-Booters want to get into this discussion?
Whoa Keith
You have us in the race before we have the saddle on the horse. I can only speak for myself, but I think addressing any specific issues are a ways away yet. Thank you for sharing your concerns though.
[...] Dave King’s November 4 blog on Reboot Alberta and Ken Chapman’s response on the same day reminded me of the words of a speaker I heard many years ago. The audience was a group of health care leaders from the United States and Canada and we were struggling with the same issues that the health care system continues to struggle with today. We tended to want to attribute blame to one party or another for the “mess” we found ourselves in. The speaker did not let us shirk our responsibility when we said; [...]