7-Sep-2010 Posted by Chris on 7-Sep-2010 | View Comments

Bill 44 Speech

I was asked to speak at the protest held last Wednesday at the Alberta Legislature by the Queer Allied Network. Sadly I missed my chance to attend my first ever protest, due to work conflicts, but luckily for me my speech was read by one of the organizers. I am not much of a protester, but hopefully my words made a small difference. The text of my speech is below:

“I am not much of a protest guy, and as much as I was looking forward to making this my first one, I was pressed into an important business conference, which I could not avoid. That said, I want to pass along my thoughts, as to why this discussion is so important to Albertans.

I believe the Bill 44 issue was one that proved as some kind of tipping point for many Albertans. Where regular people like me, a married father of two teens, a business owner, and yes if you can imagine a 20 year supporter of the Alberta Conservative Party, suddenly felt so compelled to get involved in this debate. Many people have asked me “Why this debate, why this issue?” as they question how outspoken I have been on Bill 44. Well here are some thoughts:

First, it was a simple truth shared with me by my 16 year-old daughter, a typical high school student in 2010. When I asked her what she and her fellow students thought about our government introducing further and more onerous restrictions on her teachers, and perhaps even the debate she and her fellow students could have in the classroom, she said the following:

“I can’t believe that this discussion would even be happening in this day and age. Dad, she said, it’s 2010 and what your politicians might think is important to keep us from talking about, is something that us kids have moved past, a long time ago. ”

I could do nothing but agree with her. She has the worldly view (and I might suggest a uniquely tolerant Canadian view), that we should celebrate our differences, discuss them, embrace them, and at the absolute bear minimum respect each person individually.

But it wasn’t just my ideological difference of opinion with those who thought we needed Bill 44.

NO, I was appalled by the POLITICS of this. I was so disappointed that our Government, elected to represent the whole of society, by protecting the rights of the individual, had seen an opportunity to win the title of “Most Conservative”, a label they seem to be fighting so hardly for, even if it meant establishing a culture of intolerance. Some have said a culture of the 1960’s.

Beyond just trying to win the acceptance of the social conservative MLA’s and constituents who were behind Bill 44, they did something that concerned me even greater; our Premier and our Conservative MLA’s shuttered transparency, mocked free debate, and belittled the constituents who wanted to have this discussion with them.

Not understanding the scope of outrage from thousands and thousands of teachers, students and regular citizens, the Premier capitulated and announced that there would be a free vote on the issue. In fact why shouldn’t there have been? It was certainly no vote of confidence, and I know that MY MLA, a progressive and compassionate cabinet minister, would have been the first to stand up and object to this law, and vote against it.

Of course we now know that this didn’t happen. Political games were deployed, and NOT ONE PC MLA voted against Bill 44. So at that moment I uncovered what probably every other Alberta already knew, what served the people of Alberta (an open and adult debate), did not serve the PC Party at that time.

Either Premier Ed Stelmach was lying to Albertans and there was indeed no free vote allowed on the issue; or even worse, there was and not one MLA had the guts to speak his own personal belief on the matter, or those of his/her constituents.

It was at this moment when I realized that the PC party was more broken than just this one bill and vote might suggest. That the entire debate, and so I must assume nearly all others we are paying them to have for US, are done with only one thing in mind.

“What POLITICAL solution can be applied to allow us to maintain power?”

I am smart enough to know that we will all find ourselves on one end of a debate or another depending on many factors, including personal experience, and position in life.

But perhaps we need to find a political solution that not only allows for great difference of opinion, but also actually embraces it. Imagine using transparency in decision making to convince Albertans that although decisions are going to be hard to make, they are made to reflect the will of the people and from a fact-based perspective.

I don’t believe that we have that today, and I feel that we have a responsibility to try and implement this thinking into government. I’ll personally do that by working to build a new type of political party that changes the rues. Lowers the barriers for normal Albertans to engage their government, and allows our politicians to speak their mind as much as possible.

If we do that, we will suddenly see the power of diversity, of difference of opinion, and proper representation.

Not what we have today, which is party first, people second.”

 

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