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There’s sure been a lot of talk about Reboot Alberta lately. But ever since the first meeting in Red Deer last November, much of Alberta’s political chattering class seems completely puzzled over just what Reboot Alberta actually is.

Is it a “standard unite the left” movement? Or maybe it’s a right wing plot?

Is it a bunch of out-of-touch “elitists” as Hugh MacDonald would have us believe? Or is it a nearly irrelevant “debate society” ?

Could it simply be a vehicle for a new political party? Or maybe it’s a support group for those fed up with partisan politics and yet somehow, simultaneously, group therapy for committed partisans?

Is it a group of people focused on democratic reforms that will re-engage Albertans in the political process, or just another division of Alberta’s rapidly shrinking pie of voters?

Alberta's pundits examining the Reboot Alberta elephant

There’s an ancient parable from India about seven blind monks touching different parts of an elephant and jumping to conclusions about what an elephant must be:

“Hey, the elephant is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg.

“Oh, no! it is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail.

“Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.

“It is like a big hand fan” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.

… and so on.

The moral of the story is that each monk was partly right, but none could describe the true essence of the elephant.

Reboot Alberta is our elephant.

It began as an experiment without predetermined outcomes or set expectations starting from this simple premise: put a bunch of politically engaged Albertans in the same room for a weekend and encourage thoughtful, respectful discussions about politics and Alberta’s future.

What emerged was a buzz of new ideas, new discussions and new relationships among the politically engaged.

In hindsight, the first Reboot conference was about creating a space for these important conversations to take place. The beauty of this idea was its simplicity. Tapping into a deep desire for renewed engagement, a decentralized community formed around Alberta’s political blogs and the #rebootab tag on twitter.

But who were these people? What bound them together?

Having actively engaged in this online community and participated in both conferences, here are the four things that I believe characterize the Reboot Alberta elephant, as refined by the discussion at my table on the bright Sunday morning of February 28th at Reboot 2.0.

Rebooters are already actively involved in their communities and share a desire to:

1. create a better Alberta -  a place where we all can “live and flourish.”
2. course correct with meaningful democratic reforms to address broken aspects of our system and encourage more Albertans to “dust off their citizenship.”
3. connect with other people who want to foster democracy and establish a new vision for Alberta’s future.
4. link together our existing organizations, communities and political vehicles to work towards these goals, both together and independently.

Some participants’ high expectations for the second conference were not met. And there are some genuine and very legitimate concerns about how to make these in-person meetings more accessible to those Albertans without a few hundred extra dollars to spend on a luxury hotel for a weekend. Yet I remain optimistic about these simple, action-oriented goals for Reboot Alberta.

So if you have something important to contribute to this ongoing discussion, I encourage you to take ten minutes and start a blog, sign up for twitter and start sharing your thoughts on how best to advance these goals.

I’ll be listening.

Are Albertans getting a fair royalty rate for the resources we own?

It’s a reasonable question and one that has dogged Ed Stelmach since 2007 when he “initiated a public review of the province’s royalty and tax regime to ensure Albertans are receiving a fair share from energy development through royalties, taxes and fees.”

An important reason why Ed seems to be hated by much of Calgary’s oil and gas sector is the conventional wisdom (a.k.a. convenient myth, for some opportunists) that this royalty review drove away investment from the province and is primarily responsible for our continued economic woes.  The real blow to Alberta’s “one sector economy” occurred not long after the review when the global market for oil became extremely volatile and the price fell from $142 to $34 abarrel as the global finance industry melted down in the fall of 2008. The price eventually stabilized around $65-75 after the stock market began to recover last March.

It was unlucky political timing for a new Premier having difficulty articulating a vision for Alberta’s future, but even worse for the thousands of Albertans that lost their jobs as a result.

Brent barrel petroleum spot prices, May 1987 – March 2009

Last year’s tough economic times affected Alberta’s entire economy and this year’s $4.7 billion deficit is strong evidence that these circumstances endure. But even with the price volatility ushered in by the greatest financial collapse in 70 years, the question of whether Albertans are getting their fair share for the resources we own remains a reasonable, albeit limiting, one. I would prefer to see us asking how our government can act as more responsible and effective steward of our natural resources, our climate and Alberta’s environment. We also need to look at how to reduce the province’s ridiculous over-reliance on variable resource revenues and make large strategic investments to our post-secondary education system to help diversify our economy, (the exact opposite approach of the 2.7 per cent cut we saw in budget 2010).

Bearing all this in mind, yesterday the Edmonton Journal reported that:

Alberta least competitive in oil and gas: U of C report

EDMONTON — Alberta is dead last in terms of competitiveness for oil and gas development and should drop its current royalty regime, says a University of Calgary professor.

Jack Mintz, director of the School for Public Policy, ranked five provinces plus Texas for the ability of their tax and royalty structures to attract investment, and found Alberta’s current royalty regime “creates a burden on investment that is twice as high on oil and gas” compared with other sectors in the economy.

Interesting findings. Here’s the PDF.

Although the comment is now removed from edmontonjournal.com website, the following was pasted from a Forbes.com database of board of directors’ compensation disclosed by publicly traded companies:

Director Imperial Oil

57 Years Old

Jack M. Mintz, Palmer Chair in Public Policy for the University of Calgary. President and chief executive officer, The C.D. Howe Institute (public policy institute) and professor, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Director Compensation (Imperial Oil) for 2008

Fees earned or paid in cash	$69,000.00
Stock awards	$138,200.00
Option awards (in $)	$0.00
Non-equity incentive plan compensation	$0.00
Change in pension value and nondisqualified compensation earnings	$0.00
All other compensation	$0.00
Total Compensation	$207,200.00

Serving on Imperial Oil’s board of directors, Mr. Mintz has a direct financial stake in the success of a subsidiary of the largest oil company in the world that just happens to have billions invested in projects in Alberta.

The introduction to Jack Mintz’s research states that:

it is crucial to know just how much government tax and royalty policies affect the investment decisions the oil and gas industry makes relative to those of other sectors of the economy.”

If the conflict of interest couldn’t be more glaringly obvious, look no further than imperialoil.ca where you find them crowing: Imperial Oil Foundation gives $1 million to the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.

Ridicule is the only appropriate response to this mockery of “public policy research. ”

For the record, I agree it is important to ask how much do “government tax and royalty policies affect the investment decisions the oil and gas industry?”

Without independently funded studies, free of direct financial conflicts of interest on the part of the researcher and the university department undertaking the study, I have little faith in our ability to get a straight answer to this important question… which is another compelling reason for the government to properly fund our post-secondary researchers.

The Journal took some flack on this in the comments for churning out a preliminary story on this naked and seemingly effective, attempt to grab headlines. There are 70 (AHHH!!!) related articles and it looks like most are  churnalism.

Ok. Deep breath.

Can we please all work together and put in a little more effort to ensure that we aren’t being spoon fed bullshit?

K thx.

Alberta’s new Chief Electoral Officer,  Olaf Brian Fjeldheim, was sworn in today according to the news release I received in my inbox from the government, which is strangely missing from the alberta.ca newsroom. Having already served as the Chief Electoral Officer and the head of Elections Alberta from 1998 until 2005, one would think Mr. Fjeldheim would understand the organization and be ready to hit the ground running.

Not so fast.

Today the Calgary Herald’s Jason Fekete tweeted Mr. Fjeldheim’s comment when addressing the role of the Chief Electoral Officer in encouraging people to vote: “I’m not sure that’s the role of the chief electoral officer.”

Let’s quickly review the vision and mission statements for Elections Alberta:

Our Vision

To inspire and engage participation in the democratic process

Our Mission

“To provide leadership and support to democracy through the conduct of open, free and fair elections, by creating awareness and promoting participation in the election process, and by ensuring compliance with Alberta’s election laws.”

So my question is this: when will Alberta get a Chief Electoral Officer that will work to fufill the mission of the organization he or she leads?

UPDATE: Brian Fjeldheim’s first order of business as the new chief electoral officer was to change these mission and vision statement to a much more wishy-washy stance on encouraging Albertans to vote:

Our Vision

Albertans have confidence in an easily accessible electoral process.

Our Mission

Deliver effective non-partisan services that meet the electoral needs of Albertans.

@BreakenNews has the goods on these changes here.

Adaptability, understanding, and interconnectivity.

That’s a definition of what it means to be a “progressive” that several people settled on at the Reboot Alberta conference several weeks ago.

While it is a reasonable attempt at defining a notoriously vague concept and political label, I’m more than a little skeptical about how these multi-syllable words will resonate with the 1.3 million Albertans that didn’t vote in the last election. Is a vision steeped in words like “interconnectivity” really going to inspire people to shrug off their cynicism, get involved in public and political life and start voting in elections?

I’m not holding my breath.

In the comments on Dave Cournoyer’s thoughtful post speculating on the coming 21st century political tidal wave, Matt Grant makes an excellent point – and quotes from one of my favorite political essays – noting how the wrong choice of words has the potential to lead progressives astray.

“Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration.“

So how would *I* define what it means to be “progressive” in Alberta using simple and direct language?

Being progressive is about looking to the future.

It is not an outright rejection of the status quo, but a recognition that our politics will fail to address many of our present and future problems if left “as is.”  It is a hopeful but realistic vision that embraces empathy, inclusiveness and respect for others’ views. It is about starting the “reboot” of our thinking necessary to build a better Alberta.

I believe much of the pent up frustration, cynicism and apathy with politics in Alberta is a reflection of the fact that nearly all of our leaders are silent on two of the most important questions for any leadership position:

“Where are we going?” and “How are we going to get there?”

I have some ideas about how to answer part of these questions, but I’m still considering the best way to present my thoughts clearly.

If you have an idea about how we should be answering these questions I encourage you to participate the #rebootab conversation and join us on rebootalberta.org

Political hacks, wonks, communicators, bloggers and regular citizens took a leap of faith to come together and discuss a shared vision for a better Alberta this weekend.  Reboot Alberta is the third citizen driven “meeting of the minds” I’ve attended in the last two months, (the other two being Edmonton’s ChangeCamp and Calgary’s CivicCamp) and there is a progression to something tangible forming.

I’ve been impressed by the quality and respectful tone of the discussions at all of these meetings. But at Reboot Alberta there was a remarkable undertone – something compelling the group towards action.

Maybe it was the well articulated collective sense of frustration over the complacency of a 38 year regime that most feel stopped listening a long time ago?

Maybe it was the wine?

In retrospect, it seems like the solution to our collective woes was relatively simple.  Throw a disparate group of slightly nerdish strangers (who feel passionately about the need for change in our province) in room together, have them select and vote on topics / issues and let them loose to have open discussions about what changes are necessary and how to make them happen.

Microwave for 2 minutes on high, et voilà! The birth of a new progressive political movement, a proto-think tank, a newly minted social media community and even a new political party. And to think how easy it would have been for me to spend my Saturday on my couch watching the DVDs of some lame TV show.

I’m very intrigued by the Renew Alberta party – especially with its proposed vision, philosophy and the smart people leading the push for its creation – but I think it’s a bit premature to throw my hat in for any party right now. I like my non-partisan status and the flexibility it affords me. Frankly, I’m not surprised that others are publicly recognizing the same thing. But with that said, I welcome the creation of this party and I welcome anything that brings more people into political life and contributes to a healthy democracy. I will continue to make my opinions known to it and any other political entity that will listen. Oh and in case you somehow weren’t already aware, I’m coming out: I’m a progressive.

We need to start having more of these sorts of important conversations about Alberta’s future – with or without the facilitation of the existing political structures. This is particularly relevant in a time where the some of our political institutions directly benefit from (and even exacerbate) the typical cynicism and political apathy in this province. I think the moment where the public woke up was the night that  Bill 44 was passed earlier this year (or should I say rammed through?) This conversation, facilitated by social media, was the rock that fell on the head of our typically sleepy provincial political scene to wake up some of the 60% of eligible voters that didn’t bother showing up at the ballot box in March of 2008.  The chorus of these newly “awakened” Albertans has only grown since. Which is good because I want these important conversations to grow to the point where they cannot be ignored. Eventually political structures will be forced to recognize the value of bringing regular people that care about their province into the fold and will modify their governance structures to co-opt these important open conversations into their information, communication and decision models. We’re already seeing some small attempts.

In discussions about the Renew Alberta party, Rebooters even recognized that a party built around actually listening to people is radical enough to be a “game changer.” (It’s pretty easy to see why people are frustrated.)

For now, I’ll remain focused on the big picture, our vision for moving forward, and how the “social movement” (those not inside the new party structure) will influence the system and continue to grow the conversation.  And don’t worry, I have a lot more to say about the specifics of what was discussed, but for now I”ll leave you with two comments I heard this morning:

#rebootab was a delightful opportunity to speak with sane people.

We must accept responsibility for what is. You can change it. Lets be proud of being Albertans and accept responsibility for change we want.

You can join the conversation at www.rebootalberta.org

I laughed out loud while reading Chris Labossiere’s post, “The Fiscal Four Fraud.” He addresses the political opportunism of four Tory MLAs who began to publicly express doubts about the Government of Alberta’s financial management last week.

I made this comment on the post and decided to share it here (with a couple links added):

The real question for these alleged “Fiscal Four” is this: “name the specific areas of the budget you would cut (with the exact numbers, including layoffs) to balance the budget and why?”

Fiscal conservatism is a great claim to make. But judging by recent actions, I’m not certain these four – or much of the rest of the government – are prepared to answer this question.

Where is the honest conversation with Albertans about our provincial finances and where our true priorities lie? If anything, I hope the Fiscal Four’s political opportunism inadvertently leads us to having this conversation.

But before we get that far, let’s first not forget that Alberta’s finances are in better shape than most other jurisdictions in the world. We have no debt and billions in the bank, but we also have a projected $7 billion deficit this year because of short-term thinking.

It’s clear we need to make some changes, but it’s also clear that we have much more leeway than just about everywhere else in the world to address this budgetary problem with a long-term sustainable solution.

Here’s the rub: I don’t think regular Albertans are going to stand for big cuts to health care, education or any of the other big ticket portfolios. And given Ed’s recent promises about taxes, this leaves our government in an impossible place: stuck between those demanding no tax increases & massive cuts and the awakening public, who doesn’t think highly of our government and politicians in general, and who will not tolerate cuts resulting in poor quality health care services or in a sub-par education for their children.

I hope we see some real leadership on these important issues soon. Frankly, I’m surprised more politicians don’t see the real opportunity in this situation.

Apparently they think our biggest problem is how the media reports on our government.  I don’t think Albertans would agree.

This “He who dies with the most toys wins” attitude of the modernist Albertan is a politically approved Ponzi scheme that destroys the social and natural capital of Albertans, while producing the added benefit of beggaring any duty to future generations.

Ken Chapman on Alberta’s political culture, discussing Reboot Alberta