CTV Interview on The Gun Sculpture Censorship

I did an interview on the CTV national network news last night on the UN censorship of The Gun Sculpture.  Here is the link to it.

What is a Progressive?

New blog post on my other site links to an interesting piece by Ricardo Acuna of the Parkland Institute on the state of progressive values in Alberta’s political parties.

Worth a read and please follow the links for more context.  Most progressive thinking people in Alberta are not partisan and that is an important distinction.

The Reboot “Weavers” Are Getting Together

Coming out of Reboot 1.0 was a group of thought leaders, facilitators and process design specialists who want to help advance the Reboot Alberta citizen’s movement.  We are getting together today to talk about the purpose and process of Reboot 3.0

We have seen a hiatus of Reboot Alberta events since Reboot 2.0 in February but it now it is time to revive the gathering together process of the Reboot movement.  This is because David Swann, the leader of the Alberta Liberal Party reached out to the other progressive parties with a suggestion that they talk about elevating the progressive voice in Alberta politics.

That inter-party approach will not work but Reboot Alberta is a way to get all kinds of progressive thinkers, including partisans, into a room and to look at the practical approaches for using political power to change the Alberta political culture.

Here is a link to a blog post I did on the subject for more context.

Here is a further update link on the ideas and events that are lading up to Reboot 3.0

Martin Luther King once commented on power and love in a speech entitled “Where Do We Go From Here.”  In it he said “Power without love is reckless and abusive.  Love without power is sentimental and anemic.”  It is time to merge both concepts together into a new kind of political culture for Alberta.  One that is inclusive, diverse, dynamic, socially progressive, economically prosperous, environmentally engaged and democratically vibrant.

If that appeals to you join the citizen’s movement called Reboot Alberta and start to get your progressive voice heard and start to make a difference.  You will be kept up to date on developments and ideas and all the details so you cam come to Reboot 3.0

So You Think You Want to be a School Trustee

Here is an other link to a blog post on campaign school workshop for serious candidates who are thinking of running for school trustee in the Fall 2010 elections in Alberta.

I help present these events for the Alberta School Boards Association.  If you are keen to learn how to campaign and be a school trustee -or know someone who is keen – come out in mid-September and get some political campaigning education.

The last one we did was very successful.  Some of the materials in on the ASBA site – that you can access from the link above.

BTW – congrats to those in the Reboot Alberta community who are already running for municipal and school board elections.  Thanks for showing up and standing up.

Can Alberta Progressives Get Our Political Act Together?

Here is a link to my other blog and commentary on the recent effort by Alberta Liberal leader, David Swann, to start a partisan based conversation on getting the Alberta progressive voice clear and conveyed and understood

Please visit the Ken Chapman blog and comment on the effort and ideas.

Why the Chaos in Alberta’s Public Education System?

Don Braid has a great take on the topsy turvy policy of the province of Alberta in meeting its contractual funding obligations to Alberta’s teachers. It seems to me this deferral of funding for teacher contracts the province agreed to for 5 years of labour peace.

This political manipulation seems to me to be also about restricting flexibility in local school boards by forcing them to spend some of their cash reserves.   That may be a good thing but it ought to be for their own purposes – not a dictated by the province.

The obvious conclusion here is Treasury Board and Cabinet were playing political games with the teacher contract and using the school boards as shills to get it done.  Not the kind of integrity we should expect from our government.  But now it looks like Minister Hancock has helped his colleagues see the error of their ways and  the province is finally prepared to meet its contractual obligations and stop playing politics with their legal responsibilities.

This is so far off the mark of honest and accountable governance.  It shows in one more way that the political culture of Alberta is sick and the system is broken.  Citizens must take control of this situation and insist our governors behave in ways that are ethical and that reflect the core values of Alberta…like integrity, honesty, accountability and transparency.

Rebooters and Progressives Engaged in Elections

Part of the Reboot Alberta citizen’s movement has to be showing movement.  This fall all Alberta municipalities and school boards will be holding elections.  Many involved in the Reboot Alberta movement are involved in campaigns as candidates, workers and supporters of progressive candidates.  Other Rebooters are running websites to collect and aggregate campaign information in Edmonton and Calgary.

I will try to use this Reboot Blog as a place to bring ideas and public policy issues forward that are of interest to the progressive thinking community in Alberta.

In Edmonton word has it that school board candidates are hearing lots of concern about how school closings are being handled.  At my firm Cambridge Strategies, we did a conjoint survey for the Edmonton Public School Board on what values Edmontonians thought should be front and centre when a school was being considered for closure.

Here is a link to the Cambridge Strategies website and a summary of the survey findings….bottom line the quality of the education a school can provide is a higher concern than cost of the school when enrollment is low.

This is particularly interesting in the context of the Alberta government recent consultations and reporting around the Inspiring Education process and the Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta symposium and public dialog meetings held in Edmonton and Calgary.  As a matter of interest these events focused on how Alberta can become a learning society drew our over 700 people – about the same number who attended the recent AGM of the Wildrose party

Alberta Municipal Elections Are Heating Up

I will deal with school board elections at a later date but now I want to direct your attention to the municipal elections in Edmonton and Calgary.  There is going to be some very good Bloggers covering both cities.

If my opinion counts, you will be informed by some of the best and brightest political bloggers in Alberta if you visit the new sites set up for the Edmonton and Calgary municipal election coverage.  I know almost every one of them and am at least familiar with their work.  In fact most of them are active members of the Reboot Alberta citizens movement for more democratic engagement in Alberta.

You need to bookmark and stay in touch with www.EdmontonPolitics.com and www.CalgaryPolitics.com to get great commentary and analysis of each big city election.  I am aware of this information thanks to Chris LaBossiere (www.ChrisLabossiere.com)

In the Edmonton site you will be able to read Dave Cournoyer of www.Daveberta.com, Jeff Samsonow and Sandy Poulson both of www.theedmontonian.com and Adam Rozenhart of www.theunknownstudio.com and yes Chris LaBossiere too.

The Calgary site will link you to Shane Bycuik of www.CalgaryRants.com, DJKelly of www.djkelly.com, Grant Neufeld of www.GrantNewfeld.ca and Joet Oberhoffner of www.TheEnlightened Savage.blogspot.com and Jeremy Z of www.politicalcalgary.blogspot.com

Be sure to comment and join the conversation on these sites.  I strongly suggest you visit the websites of the various candidates too.  It all adds to the quality of the citizenship decision you will have to make when you vote.  Informed and engaged citizens make democracy work.  You can’t have responsible government without responsible citizenship.

Reviving the RebootAlberta Blog

It has been a long time since there was activity on this blog but that is about to change.  This blog will become focused on citizen engagement and reviving democracy in Alberta.  It will mostly be written by me Ken Chapman and it will compliment my regular political blog at www.ken-chapman.blogspot.com.

This blog will link to other sites, news and welcome guest blogs on the theme of citizen engagement as well.  With the municipal and school board elections happening all over Alberta on October 18, 2010, we will use this platform to highlight policy and political issues at those orders of government.

The RebootAlberta citizen’s movement has had two major gatherings, the last one at the end of February in Kananskis.  At that time we gave a report on the results of a conjoint survey on the values Alberta progressives in the Reboot Movement thought were important to guide and drive public policy decisions made on their behalf.

The results were very interesting and instructive about what progressive thinking Albertans see as the top values they want their politicians to use when making decisions that impact their lives. The top 5 values for progressives were Integrity, Honesty, Accountability, Transparency and Environmental Stewardship.

I asked the participants at Reboot2.0 in K-country if these values were top of mind because they are normative, meaning the usual answer or was it because they are vital and not being used as the value drivers on behalf of Albertans.  It was unanimously the latter case, which accounts for a lot of th frustrations being felt by progressives in Alberta these days.  For a glimpse of the survey results check out this link

I will be doing blog posts at www.ken-chapman.blogspot.com of examples of where our federal and provincial governments are showing a lack of these values in the decisions they make.   You will get links to them from here from time to time but this blog is more of a positive approach to encourage and applaud examples of citizen re-engagement in the political culture of our province and country.

So - RebootAlberta is back and will be active, informative, engaging and yes even entertaining as it facilitates the revival of democratic control to citizens, creates alternative institutions and approaches to citizenship and recommends the elimination and deletion of outmoded mindsets, rules and models of  making a difference.

Please visit this site often and share it with others who you believe it is time to take back control of our democracy and political culture in this province.  This RebootAlberta effort is about not letting the fundamentalist right-wing political ideology of the Wildrose Alliance Party or the social-conservative branch of the Stelmach PC Party dominate the decisions about the direction and destination of this province.  At least not without a positive challenging and progressive alternative being offered.

Join the RebootAlberta movement too but merely signing up at www.rebootalberta.org You will be glad you did.  If you are curious about what a progressive is – there are lots of opnions and ideas from fellow Rebooters that answer that question.  If you agree or align with the ideas and values of progressives, you will have found your tribe in the quest for a better Alberta.

Ruben Nelson’s Thoughts on What is a Progressive in Alberta

As I reflect on the paper, it occurs to me that we need a more robust intellectual structure (framework) for the work.  The reason is that as citizens there is no shared way of using language or of even identifying, let alone ordering, the various elements we need to think through.  What follows is meant to help you determine what it is you require in this regard. 

I have found that the 4 core questions set out in the attached visuals (Qs #1 – 4 below.)  are very helpful.  Visuals of the Logic of the 4 core questions  I have added two questions in the text below for a total of six.

The firing-order for thinking them through is crucial whether one works from one end or the other.  Note that the firing order for public presentation will essentially be Q #4 (What big initiatives we are committed to.), Qs #3, #2 and #1  (Why we are committed to the society-shaping projects outlined.), and then Qs #5 and #6 (How we will go about it.)

 Q1.     External Conditions:  What is the full range of external conditions within which Alberta may well find itself over the next thirty to fifty years?  (It is useful to indentify the conditions that past/present actions and planning assume and expect; and the range of conditions should be assumed, expected and planned for going forward?  This move clarifies our understanding and intentions and distinguishes progressives from the others.)

          For example:  A much warmer world with severe constraints on carbon and other emissions.  A world that is hungry for the kind of trustworthy leadership that can make sense of the present and find reliable paths to the future.  A world…

Q2.     Strategic Implications and Issues:  What strategic implications for Alberta lie hidden in the possible emerging conditions?  What truly strategic (trajectory-altering) issues, both positive and negative, may well face Alberta as a result of the above external conditions, and when might they “go critical”?  (It is useful to identify the strategic issues we now see and are preparing for and the additional issues we do not yet see and are not yet preparing for.  This move clarifies our understanding and intentions and distinguishes progressives from the others.)

          For example:  The world needs role models of how to see, face, understand and respond to these times.  The biggest opportunity is to re-position Alberta as the world’s  leading, living, learning laboratory for how to consciously evolve a successful modern economy/society into a truly satisfying and sustainable civilization.  The biggest threat is that our economy is overwhelmingly carbon-dependent and the world is about to (within 10 years) reject this path as it near panics about the future of humankind.

Q3.     Internal Conditions/Character:  What conditions and character will be required in order for Albertans us to see, face, understand and meet the strategic issues that arise from the external conditions?  What must we in Alberta become, be, aspire to and intend NOW in order to lead and thrive; to enjoy a high quality of living and ensure that Alberta remains the most deeply satisfying place in the world to live, work, visit and invest in the 21^st Century?  (It is useful to identify the conditions and character we now see and are developing and the additional conditions and character  we do not yet see and are not yet developing. This move clarifies our understanding and intentions and distinguishes progressives from the others.  This material will include the discussion now taking place under such headings as “vision of the future” and “principles,” “values” and “strategic directions”.  In our view, the question as posed above is more useful.)

          Foe example:  Moral, responsible, post-egoistic and transparent conduct must become the norm for persons and groups.  We need to create and engage robust and trustworthy communities of citizens in all that we do.  We need to renew our intellectual leadership.

Q4.     Strategic To Do List:  What few and truly strategic initiatives might be undertaken in the next few years in order to create the conditions Albertans require for us to see, face, understand and meet the strategic issues that arise from the external conditions?  (It is useful to identify the few major society-shaping projects that are now before us and to identify those that would we would commit to NOW if we understood Qs #1, #2 and #3.  This move clarifies our understanding and intentions and distinguishes progressives from the others.  These are the initiatives one sets before Albertans and challenges us to understand, commit to and undertake.  Qs #1, #2, and #3 provide answers to, “Why would we do this?”  Qs #5 and #6 below provided answers to, “How would we go about it?”)

          For example:  We will re-invent public service and the structures/processes of governing.  We will create a new corporate form for “societally-committed” organizations.  

Q5.     Essential Design Considerations and Decision Rules:  What design considerations and decision rules will we always take into account as we move to undertake strategic and other initiatives?  (It is useful to identify the design considerations and decision rules now seen and in use in Alberta and the design considerations and decision rules we would commit to.  This move clarifies our understanding and intentions and distinguishes progressives from the others.)

          For example:  We face and explore the truly wicked issues we face and engage, not merely consult, citizens as we do so.  We will facilitate a wide diversity of responses and protect those who fail on our behalf.

Q6.     Steps Towards an Alberta Fit for the 21^st Century:  What immediate steps (programs, projects) must we undertake to get us moving in the right directions.  (This provides a filter through which all programs can be assessed and altered.  The point is to align more and more of what we do with the long-term work of Alberta becoming fit for the 21^st Century and the mid-term work of successfully undertaking the critical society-shaping projects.)

          For example:  The following specific steps will be taken to deepen and broaden democratic relationships within Alberta….  The following specific steps will be taken to position Alberta as a leader in the new game of consciously co-creating the next form of civilization…

Ruben Nelson

TO LEARN ABOUT THE REBOOT ALBERTA MOVEMENT GO TO www.rebootalberta.org