A Pop Quiz

Posted on August 20, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

Ms Soapbox is shocked.

She just returned from the Alberta Teachers’ Association Summer Summit on Public Education and discovered that she knows far less about education and teaching in Alberta than she thought she did.

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What education looks like today

So pop quiz!  (Stop grumbling, many politicians are pontificating about the state of education in Alberta with far less information than you have).

Question 1:  The Alberta Teacher’s Association is:

  1. A partisan group pushing the NDP’s social engineering agenda
  2. A bunch of teachers flogging the latest fads in education
  3. Nothing more than a teachers’ union
  4. A nonpartisan group that encourages its members as individuals to be politically engaged

Answer: 4.  The ATA was created by the Teaching Profession Act after William (Bible Bill) Aberhart came to power with the Social Credit party.  Every public and Catholic school teacher belongs to the ATA.  Its mandate is to advance education, improve the profession and increase public interest.  It has performed this duty under the SoCreds, the PCs and now the NDP.  Its power to bargain on behalf of teachers comes from the Public Education Bargaining Act.   

Question 2:  The ATA allocates what percentage of its budget to union activities?

  1. 90%
  2. 50%
  3. 30%
  4. 10%

Answer: Surprise!  The ATA allocates 10% of its budget to union activities.  Ninety percent of the budget is used to advance the profession, improve recruitment into education, improve teachers’ competence, advise and discipline teachers, assess competence, increase public awareness, and work with national and international organizations with similar objectives.     

Question 3:  Who is the teacher’s boss?

  1. The principal
  2. The School Board (Trustees)
  3. The School Superintendent
  4. The ATA
  5. None of the above

Answer: This is a trick question.  Teachers work in a collegial setting, they don’t have ONE boss.  It’s the principal’s job to ensure a teacher is meeting professional standards, but complaints brought by parents or others about a teacher’s competence go to the Superintendent and may result in a Competence Review; complaints about a teacher’s conduct go to the ATA and may result in a Conduct Review before a discipline committee. 

Question 4: The ATA always provides representation to teachers undergoing a competence or conduct review:  

  1. True
  2. False

Answer:  False.  The ATA provides representation for teachers in a Competence Review (eg the teacher consistently fails to show up for class, doesn’t teach to the curriculum) but never provides representation for teachers in a Conduct Review (eg the teacher has an inappropriate relationship with a student, gets caught drunk driving or pole dancing at the local pub).  The ATA’s advice in a Conduct Review is: tell the truth and consider getting a good lawyer.   

Question 5: The biggest challenge facing students in Alberta is: 

  1. Social media (distraction, anxiety, depression, digital addiction)
  2. Overcrowded classrooms
  3. Lack of preparation for the jobs of the future
  4. Crabby teachers
  5. Helicopter parents

Answer:  The ATA has identified 1, 2, and 3 as some of the many challenges that must be addressed if Alberta’s students are to succeed in the 21st century. Crabby teachers and helicopter parents are irritating but not as serious as the first three.

Bonus question:  The Curriculum Redesign is a secret activity that will:

  1. Undermine parental authority
  2. Be riddled with politically correct themes like colonialism, oppression, and climate change
  3. Prevent schools from teaching military history including Canada’s participation in two world wars
  4. None of the above

Answer:  4.  The government typically undergoes a curriculum review once every seven years, however past conservative governments slowed down the review cycle to avoid costs.  Programs such as fine arts have not been updated for 30 years.   

The review process creates a conceptual outline that becomes more concrete through the efforts of a working group made up of teachers, specialists including university profs and others.  The process includes public consultation and the final result should not be a surprise to anyone. 

The politicization of the process by (let’s be blunt) opportunistic politicians creates distrust in the very people who are in the best position to educate our children.  Hardly an appropriate outcome for someone professing to have the best interests of the students at heart.    

How did you do?

This isn’t about getting 75% of the questions right and earning a gold star.  It’s about deepening your understanding of education and educators in Alberta.

Talk to a teacher, call a member of the ATA.  You’ll find it far more enlightening than the rants of a politician who hasn’t set foot in a classroom since the collapse of the USSR.

****

My thanks to Jonathan Teghtmeyer and the ATA for inviting a group of MLAs, school trustees, and others including Ms Soapbox to the Summer Summit.  We learned a lot!

NOTE:  The reference to social studies as an outdated program has been corrected.  Thank you to the readers who caught the error.  

Posted in Education, Politics and Government, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

What a Week

Posted on August 13, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

The week started out strange and got a whole lot stranger.

Derek Fildebrandt’s Bev Oda moment

This week we learned that Derek Fildebrandt Airbnb-ed his taxpayer subsidized apartment, pocketed the cash and claimed the full rental expense in his housing allowance.

Most people would call it double dipping but Mr Fildebrandt said it was a Gen X thing (who wouldn’t Airbnb their apartment when they weren’t using it?).  A few days later he reluctantly apologized and took a leave of absence from the UCP leadership race.  Given that he has not yet endorsed a candidate we’re left to speculate who told Mr Fildebrandt to sit this one out.

We’ll miss Mr Fildebrandt.  He would have spiced up Jason Kenney’s no-policies leadership campaign by lobbing in some libertarian ideas.

Take Mr Fildebrandt’s Nanny State Policy as an example.  It calls for the repeal of laws protecting self-sufficient adults from themselves.  If self-sufficient adults want to drink alcohol in public places, smoke flavoured cigarettes and tear around the countryside on ATVs without helmets, let them.

What Mr Fildebrandt failed to explain was who decides whether an adult is “self-sufficient”.  Non-self-sufficient adults often think they’re self-sufficient (eg seniors who refuse to accept they can no longer drive).

If non-self-sufficient adults can’t be trusted to self identify would the government make the call?  Would it force people to take IQ tests and emotional quotient tests to measure self-sufficiency?  What happens when a self-sufficient person  injures himself?  Should the government deny him healthcare because he should have known better? We’ll never know because Mr Fildebrandt’s libertarian policies have been grounded along with Mr Fildebrandt.

Jason Kenney thinks he’s Rachel Notley 

Jason Kenney was quick off the mark to thank Brad Wall when Wall announced he was retiring from political life.

Kenney tweeted:  “On behalf of Albertans, thank-you @PremierBradWall for fighting for us when we’ve been abandoned by our own provincial government.”

What arrogance!

Our government has not “abandoned” its people and the only person who can speak for Albertans is the premier, Rachel Notley.  Jason Kenney is an unelected politician who speaks for no one but himself.

If Mr Kenney wants to share his admiration for Mr Wall he can start by explaining why it’s okay for Mr Wall to increase the provincial sales tax to 6%, rack up public debt to the tune of $22.6 billion and tax Saskatchewaniens anywhere from 10.75% to 14.75% which is higher than Alberta’s lowest tax rate and only .25% less than Alberta’s top rate.

While he’s at it, Mr Kenney can also explain how Mr Wall was “fighting for Albertans” when he offered incentives to Alberta corporations to entice them to relocate to Saskatchewan.

Donald Trump’s Dr Strangelove moment

It’s funny how we forget the Earth is round and the shortest route for a nuclear-tipped missile launched by North Korea at the US is through Canadian air space.

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Dr Strangelove

This has been the case since the Cold War.  In 1957 Canada and the US created NORAD to protect themselves from the Soviet Union.  Since then successive Canadian governments worked with or pulled back from American efforts to beef up American missile defence systems.

Donald Trump’s “fire and fury” rhetoric reminds us that Canada can’t pick up its borders and move to Australia.  We need to pay attention to events unfolding in the US or face the prospect of “incineration without representation”, a phrase coined by Canadian politicians to garner support for the principle of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).

What should we do?  Who knows, but relying on MAD when Donald Trump and Kim Jung-Un are threatening to lob nukes at each other won’t get us very far.

****

There’s a lesson in all this madness.  Weed out your loonie politicians before they gain power and mess it up for everyone else.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Disasters, Politics and Government | Tagged , , , , , | 36 Comments

Jason Kenney: Servant Leader…what?

Posted on August 6, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

Now isn’t this a conundrum…

The impetus to unite the Wildrose and the Progressive Conservative parties was the assumption that only a united conservative party could beat the NDP in the next election.

The two parties united and now the polls are showing that any one of the UCP leadership candidates, Jason Kenney, Brian Jean, Doug Schweitzer or the I’m-still-thinking-about-it candidate Derek Fildebrandt, could lead the UCP to victory.

So how will the UCP members decide which one to pick.  They can’t compare the candidates’ policies because one of the candidates, Jason Kenney, refuses to provide specific policy commitments and budget numbers (he says to do so now “lacks credibility”).

He intends to differentiate himself from the others by his leadership style.  He calls it “servant leadership, a leadership characterized more by humility than arrogance.”  He is careful to point out that servant leadership isn’t just “a foil to avoid talking and expressing my own views.”

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Jason Kenney, Servant Leader Candidate

Okey dokey, let’s see how Mr Kenney stacks up as a servant leader.

Servant leadership

Robert Greenleaf coined the term “servant leadership” in 1970.

Greenleaf developed the concept after reading Herman Hesse’s book Journey to the East in which a group of travellers fail to reach their destination when their servant, Leo, disappears.  Years later they discover Leo wasn’t a servant but a servant leader without whom the group could not function.

Greenleaf’s concept is based on the theory of “contemporary prophesy”.  He believes “prophetic voices of great clarity…and insight are speaking cogently all of the time” pointing the way to a better life.  “Seekers” respond to such prophets and make them their leaders because they are proven and trusted as servants.

Greenleaf gives examples of a good servant leader:

  • A servant leader is not preoccupied with criticism; Greenleaf says it’s sterile and harmful to the servant leadership movement. Kenney doesn’t miss an opportunity to criticize Notley’s policies arguing she’s destroyed the Alberta Advantage by raising taxes and creating policies that align with Trudeau’s climate change policies.    
  • When faced with a problem, a servant leader doesn’t pin the blame on someone else, he listens carefully to find a solution. Oil commodity prices are hovering at $50 a barrel.  Oil majors like Shell anticipate “lower forever” oil prices.  Kenney blames Notley for making Alberta’s economy worse but never explains how he will make it better in a “lower forever” world. 
  • A servant leader always accepts and empathizes, he never rejects. Four words:  gay straight alliances and niqab. 
  • A servant leader must sense the unknowable, foresee the unforeseeable, and bridge the information gap with intuition and foresight. It’s an ethical failure if he fails to take steps today to address problems that are foreseeable in the future.  Kenney says climate change has been happening since the dawn of time.  He promises to dismantle everything the NDP has done to mitigate climate change and offers nothing as an alternative.               
  • A servant leader is self aware and composed in times of stress. Kenney called a university professor a communist because the professor asked a question Kenney didn’t want to answer at a town hall meeting.           
  • Servant leaders provide conceptual leadership. Kenney has shown no Big Picture thinking and attacks anyone who suggests it’s time to shift from a resource based economy to value-added and diversified economy. 

Greenleaf says there’s no accurate way to distinguish a true servant leader from a false one, and suggests we look to examples from literature—Mac Murphy and the nurse in One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest—to help us identify leaders who build people up and make them stronger versus leaders who are “strong, able, dedicated, dominating, authority-ridden, manipulative, exploitative” who ultimately diminish and destroy others.

Hmmm.

Does Jason Kenney really believe this stuff or is it a smoke screen to avoid divulging his own views?

Kenney quotes William F Buckley in support of his refusal to set out policies.  Buckley said he’d rather be governed by the first 4000 people listed in the phone book than by the faculty of Harvard.  This is a comment about government by common folk not experts (and a tad ironic coming from Kenney, an “expert” politician).

The more relevant quote comes from Ronald Reagan:  “Trust, but verify”.

One can only hope that UCP members follow Reagan’s advice.

They may “trust” Kenney will be a good servant leader, but they should “verify” that his views reflect their own before they elect him the leader of the UCP.

Posted in Politics and Government, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

UCP Merger…a message from the this-could-get-ugly department

Posted on July 23, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

Jason Kenney is busy ticking off the boxes in his quest to be the next premier of Alberta:

  • Become the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party—check.
  • Maneuver Brian Jean (WR) into accepting a merger proposal—check.
  • Merge the PC and WR parties into the United Conservative Party—check.
  • Become the leader of the UCP—ongoing.
  • Lead the UCP to victory in 2019—eureka!

The last two boxes might get a little messy.

The détente between Jason Kenney and Brian Jean shattered the minute the PCs and WR agreed to merge into the UCP.  From here on it’s every man for himself.

We can expect Kenney and Jean to roar out of the starting gate like King Kong and Godzilla, beating their chests trying to convince conservative Albertans that the other guy doesn’t have what it takes to beat Rachel Notley (Fay Wray?) in the next election.

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Godzilla versus King Kong

They’re both fiscal and social conservatives; neither of them is brimming with charisma so how do they intend to differentiate themselves from the competition?

Fiscal conservatism

The most obvious point of differentiation for a fiscal conservative isn’t his promise to cut public services (everyone says they’re going to “cut waste”) but whether he’s honest about how deep he’s going to cut in order to eliminate the deficit.

Both Jean and Kenney say they’ll balance the budget without cutting the front line (Kenney goes so far as to urge nurses and union workers to join his party).  This is nonsense.  The only way to balance the budget without cutting the front line is to raise taxes.  That’s never going to happen.

Both candidates know it and are being equally dishonest with the electorate by refusing to admit they’ll cut health, education, and social services as much as it takes to eliminate the deficit.

Social conservatism

There are many points of differentiation among conservatives on social issues.

Some social conservatives blast their views from the roof tops.  Brian Trost is well known for his discomfort with “the gay thing” and Lisa Raitt says her personal views on abortion won’t impact the status quo.  Others hide their beliefs by pretending social issues are irrelevant—governing is all about the economy, right?

Brian Jean and Jason Kenney fall into the latter category;  for example, they’re consistently “otherwise engaged” when Pride parades are scheduled, however Jean has shown a willingness to be a bit more “progressive” when it comes to “the gay thing” and children.  Jean made it clear he doesn’t support Kenney’s position that schools should “out” students to their parents if they join gay-straight alliances.

Jean appears to trust the electorate enough to reveal the extent of his social conservatism, Kenney on the other hand, continues to duck social issues, content to let his minions speak for him.

And that’s why the King Kong vs Godzilla leadership battle is going to get messy.

The existential battle for Alberta  

Kenney and Jean pitched the merger as the first step in an epic battle to wrestle Alberta away from the socialists and give it back to hard working ordinary folk who’ve been victimized and ignored, over-taxed at home and under-represented in Ottawa.  They positioned the UCP merger plan as the only way to reclaim the Alberta Advantage and reinstall Alberta to its rightful place in the firmament…and yet 45 to 50% of card carrying conservatives didn’t bother to vote in the referendum.  They stayed home.

If the survival-of-the-province-depends-on-you message wasn’t strong enough to mobilize almost half of the card carrying conservatives to vote for the merger, what’s it going to take for the UCP to get the vote out in 2019?

Jean and Kenney are keenly aware that Albertans strongly supported the federal Conservatives in the last election.  They’re also aware that conservative politicians like Kellie Leitch (Canadian values test) and Brian Trost (that gay thing) built up significant support using wedge politics.

We already know how far Jason Kenney (niqab ban) will go in search of votes.  If Brian Jean follows Kenney down this squalid path we expect the UCP leadership race and the runup to the next election to be two long years of dog whistle politics.

So, here’s the plan, while King Kong and Godzilla are busy duking it out over there, let’s get behind our favourite progressive politician and prepare to take on whoever crawls out from the rubble to battle for Alberta in 2019.

(Hello Fay Wray!)

Posted in Politics and Government, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 28 Comments

The Communists are Coming!

Posted on July 16, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

Jason Kenney says he has not heard a “single voice of opposition” to the unification of the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties except for “a communist professor from the University of Lethbridge”.

Wait, what? 

Public political discourse

The philosopher Jason Stanley says the most important political ideals in a liberal democracy are liberty, freedom and the norms governing political speech.

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Mr Kenney

Political speech is flying around all over the place; in town hall meeting, in the speeches, platforms and statements made by candidates and their campaigns, in the Legislature where our representatives express their views on policy and proposed legislation, and in the media, both mainstream and social media.

Political speech should be reasonable and rational.

The last thing anybody needs, according to James Maddison, is political speech which divides mankind into parties, inflames them with mutual animosity and causes them to oppress each other rather than co-operate for their common good.

Sage advice.

Sadly, we live in a flawed democracy; often political speech is biased…but red-baiting is beyond the pale.

Kenney sees a Commie

In an interview about the upswing in Wildrose memberships and what this means for the unification of the PC and Wildrose parties, Jason Kenney said that in more than 20 townhall meetings, “I have not heard a single voice of opposition to the agreement, save a communist professor at the University of Lethbridge.”

Dr Jay Gamble, a University of Lethbridge professor, has been identified as the “communist professor” Kenney was referring to.

Mr Kenney’s comment is odious for many reasons including the following:

  • The implication that most Alberta conservatives support unification is questionable. A sitting PC MLA, Richard Starke, has expressed his concerns about unification and at least three Wildrose constituency associations are discussing breaking from the United Conservative Party if the merger goes ahead.
  • Dr Gamble did not speak up at the townhall to oppose unification, he asked a three-part question about
    • policy—why does Kenney believe schools should out LBGTQ students
    • strategy—where will Kenney run for a seat (in other words which PC or WR MLA does he expect to step aside)
    • integrity—where is the evidence to support the contention that conservative voices in Alberta’s post secondary education system have been silenced
  • Dr Gamble is not in fact a Communist. (He has however changed his Twitter handle to Jay Guevara @DrJayDrNo and his Twitter icon now sports a dashing Che beret).

The Red Scare

Dr Gamble asked a legitimate question which would not have raised an eyebrow under ordinary circumstances, but Mr Kenney reacted as if he just met a card-carrying Commie.

Dr Gamble took Mr Kenney’s attack on his character and reputation in stride, however Albertans should not let Mr Kenney get away with this kind of anti-democratic behaviour.

Mr Kenney is an experienced politician.  He has held many key federal portfolios including Immigration and National Defence.  He’s represented Canada around the world.   He knows what Communism looks like.

In 2010, he commemorated Ukraine’s historic election by quoting Stephen Harper’s comment that Canada stands with Ukraine and other “captive nations of Central and Eastern Europe” which were not “free people, living in free nations” and which were “grateful to the strong western leaders who stood firm against the Communists and their apologists.”

In 2010, Mr Kenney, a federal minister, described Canadians as free people led by strong leaders who stood against Communists.

In 2017, Mr Kenney, a candidate for the premier’s office, violated the norms of political speech by calling a university professor a communist because he didn’t like the questions the professor had asked him in a public political meeting.

It took less than seven years for Canadians who question conservative politicians to go from being “snowflakes” to “communists”.

Joseph McCarthy would be proud.

Source: How Propaganda Works by Jason Stanley pp 80, 94

Posted in Politics and Government | Tagged , , , , | 45 Comments

Hallelujah

Posted on July 9, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

This was going to be a Ms-Soapbox-is-stampeding-see-you-next-week-blog…then she remembered something.

Ms Soapbox’s sister and brother-in-law popped into town just in time for the Calgary Stampede.  We did the fair grounds, the Dog Bowl, the Clydesdales and the llamas, we ate raindrop cake and teriyaki perogies and ducked into the casino to escape the heat.

The highlight of our day was the Stampede Grandstand Show; a tribute to Canada’s 150th birthday combined with a simple message, our future is better together.

As Ms Soapbox watched the hoop dancers, the Inuit throat singers, and the acrobats, singers and dancers she wondered whether Canadians would be able to carry the spirit of unity unfolding on stage into their everyday lives.

Then the stage darkened.

A strong voice sang the first few words of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. 

“Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord…”    

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen was a thoughtful, inquisitive, and unassuming artist.  Hallelujah is a complex, confusing and hauntingly beautiful song.

No one really knows what it means but Alan Light provides this thoughtful interpretation:

“Like our forefathers, and the Bible heroes who formed the foundation of Western ethics and principles, we will be hurt, tested, and challenged. Love will break our hearts, music will offer solace that we may or may not hear, we will be faced with joy and with pain. But Cohen is telling us, without resorting to sentimentality, not to surrender to despair or nihilism.  Critics may have fixated on the gloom and doom of his lyrics, but this is his offering of hope and perseverance in the face of a cruel world. Holy or broken, there is still hallelujah”.*

Can Canadians achieve a future that is better together?

If we see beyond despair, if we offer hope and persevere, we will get there.

Hallelujah.

*excerpt from The Holy or the Broken http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-book-excerpt-leonard-cohen-writes-hallelujah-in-the-holy-or-the-broken-20121203

Posted in Culture, Politics and Government, Vacation | Tagged , | 33 Comments

Trudeau forgets Alberta; Alberta flips out

Posted on July 2, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

Canada is a special place; but Alberta is a little prickly.

The Soapbox family celebrated Canada Day at Olympic Plaza trying to dislodge a Big Red Ball wedged between some girders, admiring children’s art work (our favourite was a mask made by a second grader who said it represented her love of dogs and money), and clapping wildly when a street performer performed the Walk of Death (twirling machetes, a volunteer from the audience, safety glasses, very exciting).

It wasn’t until we returned home that we learned the Prime Minister forgot to mention Alberta in his Canada Day speech.  He quickly apologized but his “Sorry Alberta, I love you.” wasn’t good enough for the Wildrose party.

Brian Jean tweeted “Our country is stronger because of Alberta, and unlike our Prime Minister, I won’t ever forget that.”

Derek Fildebrandt tweeted a map of Trudeau’s Canada.  Alberta is labelled “Not Canada”, Saskatchewan is “Sort of Canada” and the other provinces and territories are “Canada”.

fildebrandt20canada20map_zps8rfb0hsn

 

Propaganda

While the rest of Canada celebrated Canada’s successes and acknowledge the need to do better to address its shortcomings, the Wildrose threw a hissy fit.  Why?

Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor at Yale, would say it’s propaganda.

Stanley says we usually think of propaganda in the context of totalitarian regimes but it is equally dangerous to democracies.

His definition of propaganda and how it works sheds some light on the Wildrose’s reaction to Trudeau’s mistake.

Propaganda doesn’t always start with a lie: 

Trudeau did forget to name Alberta when he listed the provinces and territories in his speech but Brian Jean’s assertion that Trudeau also “forgot” Alberta’s contribution to Confederation is false.  Derek Fildebrandt’s insinuation that Trudeau doesn’t acknowledge or respect Alberta because it’s not a part of Trudeau’s Canada is equally false.  And yet their supporters gobbled it up.

Propaganda attempts to redefine reality in order to switch voters’ values to the leader’s values:

It is true that Peter Lougheed battled Ottawa to protect Alberta’s right to control its own resources.  It is also true that Pierre Elliot Trudeau exacerbated the economic downturn in Alberta by introducing the National Energy Program, however, all that is ancient history.

Last November Justin Trudeau approved two oilsands pipelines.  This May he reaffirmed his support for the Trans Mountain pipeline notwithstanding the impending change in the BC government.  Rather than give Trudeau credit for these actions, the WR prefer to rehash policies made by his father over 30 years ago.

Propaganda prevents people from seeing what’s in their own best interest by appealing to their emotions, creating an insider/outsider dynamic, and eroding standards of reasonableness that depend on mutual respect and accountability:

It is in Alberta’s best interests to support Rachel Notley’s Climate Leadership Plan because it was instrumental in getting Justin Trudeau to approve two oilsands pipelines but the Wildrose oppose the CLP because it regulates emissions and introduced a carbon tax, both of which are anathema.

It is also in Alberta’s best interests to support Justin Trudeau so he will use federal  power to bring BC’s new government into line if it tries to block the Trans Mountain pipeline.  And yet, the Wildrose rail against Trudeau’s government without offering an alternative plan to bring BC on board.

Attempts at civil discourse go up in smoke and the Prime Minister’s honest mistake is transformed into a heinous slur.

Propaganda is used by tyrants who sow fear among the people, then present themselves as the people’s protector with the intention of exploiting them: 

The Wildrose have rolled Trudeau’s mistake into a broader propaganda campaign that can be summarized as follows:

  • Ottawa hates Alberta because Alberta is rich in resources. Us against them.  
  • Conservative leaders like Peter Lougheed defended Alberta against Ottawa. We need a protector.
  • NDP leader Rachel Notley does not engage in vitriolic attacks on Justin Trudeau. Notley won’t protect us.       
  • Brian Jean, Jason Kenney and Derek Fildebrandt attack Justin Trudeau on everything from his socks to his slip up on Canada Day. They will protect us. 
  • Unless Notley is unseated in 2019, the abuse of Alberta by Ottawa will continue. Vote UCP.
  • Brian Jean, Derek Fildebrandt, Jason Kenney (pick one) is the only person who can unseat Notley, protect Alberta and make Alberta great again. Vote for [fill in the blank].

Sadly, this propaganda has taken hold in some parts of Alberta.

Either that or Albertans are a bunch of big babies who are easily offended.

Sources: How Propaganda Works by Jason Stanley

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/books/how-propaganda-works-is-a-timely-reminder-for-a-post-truth-age.html

Posted in Economy, Energy & Natural Resources, Environment, Politics and Government, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 40 Comments

The Emotional Mr Kenney

Posted on June 25, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

“When it comes to politics, all I can offer is emotion.”  — David Sedaris, author of numerous books including “Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls”

If we didn’t know any better we’d think David Sedaris was talking about Jason Kenney.

Mr Kenney is campaigning hard to become Alberta’s next premier.  His stump speeches hit all the right buttons (in every sense of the word).

Take for example his Grande Prairie speech.

“Accidental government” 

Mr Kenney tells his supporters that the NDP is an “accidental government” which tripped into power by mistake, rather like the time Ms Soapbox boarded a plane to Sarnia and ended up in Sudbury (long story).

Mr Kenney says the NDP’s accidental victory was the result of two things:  Albertans didn’t bother to show up at the last election and those who did split the vote between the Wildrose and the PCs.

He’s wrong on both counts.

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Mr Kenney

Voter turnout in the 2015 election was 57%, the highest in 22 years.  The NDP won 54 seats, the Wildrose took 21 and the PCs took nine.  Even combined, the WR/PC total seat count would have left the conservatives 14 seats short of a majority.

The fact is there was nothing accidental about Albertans giving the NDP a majority in 2015;  and if Mr Kenney continues with his nasty polarizing campaign Albertans may be inclined to re-elect the NDP for a second term.

The NDP is repeating the PC government’s mistakes

Mr Kenney castigates the NDP for raising taxes like Don Getty instead of reducing services like Ralph Klein.

Implicit in this statement is the promise that Mr Kenney will bring back Klein’s 10% flat tax and slash the public sector to ribbons if he wins in 2019.

This promise obscures the fact that while a 10% flat tax sounds enticing, only 7% of Albertans will get a tax cut.  The remaining 93% will continue to pay the same taxes they pay now.

Mr Kenney is spinning the same hocus pocus we heard from Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher—cut taxes for the rich and jobs will magically create themselves.  It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.  Cutting taxes for the rich simply dumps the pain of service cuts onto middle and lower income earners.

Alberta’s damaged economy  

Mr Kenney trots out the gloom and doom statistics—200,000 Albertans out of work, Albertans losing their homes and businesses, and god help us, we’re in a recession!—but he never puts them into context.

The impact of this recession on labour markets is milder than in past recessions (Alberta’s unemployment rate was 10% until almost 1990) and Alberta’s GDP per capita will be much higher than that of any other province ($77,000 versus $53,000).

Finally, the NDP government did not create the oil crisis, but they’re working very hard to keep the wheels on because past conservative governments failed to create an economic/fiscal structure that would carry the province through the downturns.

Alberta families are under siege

Mr Kenney implies the NDP are targeting hearth and home.  He characterizes the NDP’s education policies, particularly its support for gay-straight alliances, as undermining parental authority, and hints that the NDP will make “fundamental changes to who we are and what we value” if they’re re-elected.

Oh oh.

After raising the spectre of a socialist Big Brother he doesn’t pursue the point because, well, what more could he say without sounding like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist?

The Alberta Dream

Mr Kenney says “Alberta is an idea.”  An idea?   Yes, if you work hard in the spirit of economic freedom, you will prosper.

You won’t need a socialist safety net to catch up you if you fall on hard times because your family, your faith community and volunteer organizations will lift you up.  Presumably if you have no family, faith community or volunteer organizations near by,  you’re toast.

Mr Kenney says “we want our province back” leaving Ms Soapbox to wonder what he intends to do if Team Orange refuses to give it back in 2019.  Will he whip up his supporters, urging them to storm the ramparts?

Of course not.

Instead of engaging in polarizing rhetoric Mr Kenney should dial back the emotion and outline exactly how he intends to eliminate the debt and bring budgets into balance while at the same time ensuring that all Albertans, not just the top 7%, are living the Alberta dream.

Sources:  http://www.elections.ab.ca/news-reports/reports/statistics/overall-summary-of-ballots-cast-and-voter-turnout/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_general_election,_2015

http://www.finance.alberta.ca/business/tax_rebates/personal-income-tax/personal-income-tax-questions-and-answers.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/td-economics-report-alberta-recession-gdp-forecast-1.3684056

Posted in Politics and Government, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

Unsolicited Advice from A Conservative Pundit

Posted on June 18, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

This week Preston Manning, former leader of the Reform Party, offered some advice to the yet to be formed United Conservative Party (or whatever it’s going to call itself after the Wildrose and the Progressive Conservatives merge).

A vision of sorts  

Since neither Brian Jean nor Jason Kenney have offered a vision for the UCP Mr Manning created one for them.   (For the record, “Beat the NDP” is not a vision it’s a mission statement like Pepsi’s “Beat Coke” and Nike’s “Crush Reebok”, catchy but not enough to bet the farm for anyone but their base).

preston-manning

Preston Manning

Mr Manning says the old paradigm of left-centre-right political parties is outdated and should be replaced by a vision of a Sustainable Alberta.  This vision is founded on four sustainability “dimensions” (stop me if you’ve heard this one before).

  1. Financial and economic – cut costs, improve productivity, implement measures to ease budget balancing and develop an economic strategy to constrain spending in good times in order to save for the bad times. Ah yes, Ralph Klein with a dash of Peter Lougheed thrown in at the end.
  2. Environmental – create a market-based approach to environmental sustainability by identifying the negative environmental impacts of economic activity and devising measures to avoid or ameliorate them. Incorporate the costs of these measures into the price of the goods and services produced.  Economists say putting a price on carbon is the most effective market mechanism to reduce negative environmental impacts but given Mr Kenney’s views on climate change and Mr Kenney and Mr Jean’s promise to repeal the carbon levy, a market-based approach to environmental protection (in the true economic sense) is a non-starter.     
  3. Social services – the government’s rate of spending is growing faster than the economy. Implement measures to make social services financially sustainable.  This is a fancy way of saying increase the privatization of public services.  Mr Kenney and Mr Jean will love it.   
  4. Employment – create a job sustainability plan using job-focused education, training for future jobs, job sharing and improve labour force mobility. Good idea, that’s why the NDP is doing it;  Mr Jean and Mr Kenney just don’t like to admit it.

Sadly for Mr Jean and Mr Kenney, Mr Manning’s Sustainable Alberta vision is hardly a bold new vision that will drive voters (other than their base) into the arms of the UCP.

But wait, there’s more.

A new political paradigm?

Mr Manning says the “right wing’, “centrist”, “left wing” political paradigm is passé and a new political party that hopes to present a principled and competent alternative to the NDP could attract voters by helping them identify where they fall on eight political “axes” (the plural of “axis” but they read like nasty hatchet things).

None of these axes are new, they ask the voter to position himself/herself on a spectrum with individual choice and the free market at one end and big government at the other.  However, the language used to describe the axes dealing with social issues is deeply disturbing.

Abortion, same-sex marriage and euthanasia are lumped into a “lifestyle choice” axis.  The voter can position himself along a spectrum that ranges from “unrestricted freedom of choice at one end and freedom of choice limited by traditions, religious principles and cultural norms at the other”.

Access to the social safety net is buried in an axis called “responsibility for personal choices”.  This axis concerns people “whose lifestyle choices prove to be personally destructive” (presumably addicts, alcoholics, the homeless, and others on the fringes of society).  The voter is asked who should be responsible for these people, themselves and their families or the government and taxpayers.

Characterizing social issues as “choices” indicates a profound lack of understanding and empathy.  Suggesting that these axes are preferable to the admittedly broad brush but fairly accurate right-centre-left political paradigm perpetuates misconceptions and is not worthy of any political party let alone one that addresses social issues by ignoring them.

Over to you UCP

This week Mr Jean told Wildrose party members the party would not tolerate homophobia.

Next week Mr Jean and Mr Kenney should take a moment to distance themselves from everything Mr Manning has said about the merged Wildrose/Progressive Conservative party and its place in the political spectrum.

Failure to do will confirm what many Albertans fear–that Mr Manning got it right and Mr Jean and Kenney are simply saying what they need to say to broaden their base and get elected in 2019.

Over to you Brian and Jason…

Sources: http://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/a-platform-for-creating-a-sustainable-alberta  and http://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/a-platform-for-creating-a-sustainable-alberta

 

Posted in General Health Care, Energy & Natural Resources, Politics and Government, Economy, Employment | Tagged , , , , , | 30 Comments

The Wildfire Reports: A political firestorm

Posted on June 11, 2017 by susanonthesoapbox

Wildrose leader Brian Jean is furious with the NDP government’s response to two reports on the Fort McMurray wildfire.

He says the government is attempting to whitewash the reports’ findings and delayed releasing them in a shocking display of arrogance which is “totally unacceptable in any democracy.”  He wants a judge-led independent public inquiry into the matter.

Right.  Let’s give Brian a moment to catch his breath while we consider the points he’s raised.  

Delay   

Governments and businesses are as different as chalk and cheese however when they conduct an audit they apply the same audit processes.

o-fort-mcmurray-wildfire-facebook

Fort McMurray Wildfire

After a serious incident both will retain an independent third-party auditor to determine what went right, what went wrong, and what can be done to improve performance in the future.

In this case the NDP government hired KPMG and MNP, two highly reputable chartered accounting and audit firms, to review the government’s response to the Fort McMurray wildfire and provide recommendations for improvement.

The government received the final versions of the audit reports in May 2017.  The government intended to release both reports on June 13, 2017 but they were leaked by the media on June 9, four days before the government’s release date.

The leak gave Mr Jean a chance to grab the spot light and accuse the government of disgracefully attempting to mislead the public by whitewashing the reports and delaying their release.

Had Mr Jean worked for a publicly traded corporation in the private sector at any point in his career he would have understood that the KPMG and MNP reports are part of an audit process.  The audit process is comprised of four parts: (1) the auditor gathers the facts, (2) he analyses them, (3) he makes a number of recommendations and (4) the client (government or corporation) develops an implementation plan that responds to each recommendation.

It is irresponsible for a client (government or corporation) to release an auditor’s report to the public that is not in its final form and without an implementation plan.

It takes time to develop a robust implementation plan to address a complex situation.

In this case the government engaged with federal, extra-provincial, and local governments, NGOs and First Nations as well as key government departments including emergency management, public health, environment, agriculture and forestry, and OH&S.

The government started this work well before it received the audit reports, but couldn’t finish until it received the final draft of the second audit report on May 20, 2017.

A three-week delay from the day the government received the final versions of the auditors’ reports and its release of the reports plus its implementation plans is not a shocking display of arrogance or a blow to democracy;  it’s a prompt professional response by a government that wants to get the job done right (and a much faster turnaround than anything Ms Soapbox has witnessed in the private sector).

“Lives at risk”

Mr Jean says the government failed to respond to the wildfire in a timely manner and thousands of lives were at risk.

Mr Jean may believe this to be true but the audit reports do not confirm his allegation.

wildrose-leader-brian-jean

Wildrose leader Brian Jean

The KPMG report said the government successfully handled a disaster of “extraordinary scale” by integrating the lessons learned from past disasters.  It notes the Emergency Management Agency and government departments performed well then goes on to provide 21 recommendations to improve how the government interfaces with local authorities, non-governmental agencies, the federal government, industry, aboriginal groups and communities.

The MNP report focused on the department of Agriculture and Forestry.  It said the department recognized the wildfire hazard to be high and was prepared earlier than usual.  It provides 10 recommendations including advancing the start of fire season, improving wildfire-related forecasting and improving and expanding strategic and operational capacity.

The most compelling assessment of the government’s response comes from a fire fighter who battled the blaze which became known as The Beast.

Fire chief Jody Butz said “Obviously, in reflection, we can all agree [the response] wasn’t soon enough…but in understanding the size and the scale of how this wildfire had blown up, for all intents and purposes, I think the work done from that point forward was incredible.”

The Beast raged for five weeks.  It consumed 589,000 hectares.  It leapt over the Athabasca River where it was one kilometer wide.  It’s the worst disaster in Canadian history; 88,000 people were safely evacuated, two unfortunate souls lost their lives traveling on the highway.

A political response

Mr Jean may choose to cherry pick and inflate the findings of the audit reports but he should heed the warning contained in the MNP report:  while the first 36 hours of a wildfire are critical “it is not possible to determine whether any alternative decisions or actions … would have resulted in a different outcome.”

A businessman will accept the results of a professional audit.  A politician will second-guess decisions made and actions taken from the safety of his arm chair hoping to set off a political firestorm.

Posted in Disasters, Economy, Environment, Politics and Government | Tagged , , , | 33 Comments