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

Alberta Party and Reboot Alberta 3.0

Yesterday was another interesting instance of Reboot Alberta. They each have had a different texture, but this one continued the tradition of being a valuable time spent with like-minded Albertans.

The highlight for me, and the portion of the agenda which saw considerable passion and discussion, were the speeches given by three political party representatives, and the Democratic Renewal Project. Speaking were:

1. Troy Wason – Social Media Consultant, and PC Member of 26 years
2. Phil Elder – President of the Democratic Renewal Project
3. Myself - President of the Alberta Party
4. Dr. David Swann – Leader, Alberta Liberal Party

I enjoy speaking in front of crowds, and usually look forward to it. This time it was different, and I was very anxious. I diagnosed why, and it was obvious that this speech would be different than any other I have ever given, for the following reasons:

• For the first time, I was not speaking for myself or for my business. I was speaking for our Party, our members, and even in a way for the close to 1500 people who participated in our Big Listen policy development process. So I had a prepared speech, which I would normally resist, to ensure that I honoured the many things our party has achieved in the last 9 months, what is next, and our values.
• Making me more anxious was knowing in advance the Alberta Liberals and the Democratic Renewal Project would be speaking on “pre-election cooperation” with the Alberta Party, mostly under the impression that this would help the Liberals win the election in 2012, and then both parties could go there separate ways in 2016.

Interestingly, as Mr. Elder spoke, my nerves began to subside, and my simple distaste for the concept of his movement helped me get focused. The thoughts below, on cooperating with other parties pre-election, are my personal beliefs. But I believe they are reinforced by the 1000′s of comments we heard as we went through the Big Listen process. In those comments we did not once hear that this type of cooperation was important to Albertans. That said, our Party has released an official position on this previously, and it’s maybe worth a revisit by Dr. Swann and Mr. Elder.

There are simply too many arguments against pre-election cooperation in my opinion. As the room stood up to debate, discuss and describe their feelings on the matter, I was pleased to feel acceptance of our position on the matter. I wish I had a recording of some comments by fellow Alberta Party directors, especially our Board Secretary Connie Jensen, who gave a rousing, passionate and touching appeal to the room. My favourite of her lines; her ending statement:

We are not here WITH an agenda, but here to FIND an agenda

As a speaker, I didn’t get up and address the content of my own delivery, nor the ones of the others. It was not a place for partisan debate, and certainly it was a time for me to be listening and not talking. But I want to add my own thoughts on this to the discussion; and so I share just a few simple points on why I think we are headed down the correct path. Again, and as always, these are my personal words:

The fundamental notion of pre-electoral cooperation is that we the “opposition” parties could get together, tally up who voted in the last elections, and agree to add the totals together to defeat the Conservatives in an election. This is flawed on several fronts.

Firstly, it is flawed in values. The Alberta Party has been built on a set of values that are forward looking. We want to change the way Albertans trust, talk with, and involve themselves with governance. We want to build a COALITION of ALBERTANS, who share those values, and frankly the existing PARTIES have not demonstrated the same values as ours. As one of our supporters said in the crowd yesterday, winning the next election is not to be the goal, if it’s at the peril of stopping innovation, change and progress towards a better Alberta.

Secondly, it is flawed in audience. I spoke yesterday about how we have to resist the typical labels from an old political spectrum. Even the word Progressive causes me great discomfort. Although it is the best of the bunch, as it’s root is Progress, it is too often placed on the old-spectrum as “Left-leaning”.

If that was the case, then I, like others who said yesterday, would have to reject being considered a “Progressive”. I have described time and again that I would consider myself (Using old-labels) Conservative in many ways, and Liberal in many others.

It ignores many Albertans who also would consider themselves Conservative, but are unhappy with their existing choices. Also, there are many who think that 40 years for ANY political party to be in power is too long, but want a moderate choice.

Thirdly, it is something that I think would add to the cynicism and mistrust Albertans already have with political parties. Meeting in backrooms, tactically selecting constituencies to “cooperate-in” would force the Alberta Party to “stand-down” where it was to the political advantage of another Party. In my mind we would be “stealing” from the citizens the choice and chance to endorse our Party’s values over another, and of course vice-versa

Finally, it is in my opinion unwise from a strategic perspective. Let me clarify that strategy is not a principle reason for why I don’t like it, but I feel like I have to share my thoughts here. Because we are going to “run to win” where ever possible.

Urban constituencies are the only place a strategy of pre-election cooperation might work. But it is in these area of the province we are seeing a groundswell of revitalized interest in doing politics a new way (Naheed Nenshi is your obvious and overused example). So although the past-election numbers might make us think it’s a worthy discussion, it would actually (IMHO), upset the new participants in the process who are inspired by politics a new way.

Rural constituencies are even more glaringly wrong for this “tactic”. Mayor Glenn Taylor of Hinton yesterday made a very interesting observation yesterday about a trend he identified in analysing the “numbers” behind last month’s municipal election. Using the number of incumbents replaced, and a trend to more Progressive values in voting, he thought that rural Alberta is also looking for change.

The challenge is that MUCH of this Province would never associate themselves with anything labelled or thinly-veiled as Liberal. It’s a sad reality, and misplaced in one-way since most “Rural” Albertans would would share some values withe the Liberals. So it simply makes no sense to waste an opportunity where the Alberta Party does not have that political baggage (right or wrongly applied). We can be the only option the many rural constituents have had in decades to a PC government.

So, as you can tell, I feel strongly on the matter. Of course as a Party, we are always open to discussion, and if the mindset and wishes of our membership changes over time, I guess we will have to adapt in that direction.

Until then, I will spend my time working towards a NEW and MODERATE political alternative to the existing list of parties you can choose from. 

YOU MADE IT THIS FAR, NOW A REWARD.

As a side note, and reward for sticking around through this monumentally long post, I wanted to share an image I saw on Twitter this morning that in my opinion is an inspiration for everything I just shared with you. Local photographer Darren Kirby captured this magnificent image of a CFR inspired cattle drive through an increasingly Progressive Edmonton landscape.

A splended image of rural meeting urban, industry meeting art, and our history meeting our future.

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