1) We run out of oil and gas in Alberta before the World stops needing it

or

2) The World stops needing it due to some miraculous alternative energy development

I am betting on the first of these two eventualities, but we can’t ignore that one of them will come true at some point in the future. Beyond that, economic diversification is important for another reason; the world’s economy is changing and knowledge based jobs are becoming the new standard and in my opinion it’s OK to be good at more than one thing! I have blogged on the Knowledge Economy more here.

So, considering the above, I wanted to share with you the Alberta Party MLA Dave Taylor’s member statement on Education, Energy and the Knowledge Economy from yesterday. I must admit, after a year of really hard work, to have an elected member of the Legislature standing up and saying these things about a future Alberta, makes me hopeful for more than just oil and pick-up trucks for my daughters futures.

Support for Education

Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The past two and a half
years have seen the worst global economic slowdown since the
Great Depression. Many parts of the world are still in bad shape
and many Albertans are still un- or underemployed, yet by and
large what was a major upset to most of the world has been comparatively
a hiccup here in Alberta. Indeed, our jobless rate is two
points below the national average, and there’s serious talk about
another labour shortage brewing here. That’s mostly because oil is
$106 a barrel, and we’ve got more proven reserves than just about
anybody.

It is good to be king. Well, Mr. Speaker, the thing about being
king is that if you take more than a minute or two to sit back and
gloat, somebody is going to come along, capture all your possessions,
and leave you there in the dust. It’s only good to be king as
long as you can stay ahead of the conquering hordes.
Since our fossil fuels or the demand for them will not last forever,
and since oil continues to keep us living a lifestyle that
would take 10 planet Earths to support if everybody on this planet
lived the way we do, and since there seems to be broad consensus
that to sustain ourselves, we need to transition from a resource
economy to a knowledge economy, and since this government
makes much of its five-year commitment to sustainable health
funding, my constituents are wondering: why is there no talk of a
similar five-year commitment to education, both K to 12 and
postsecondary, including a much sharper focus on trades training,
and while we’re at it, early childhood as well?
Over time, but not over that long a horizon, nothing will reduce
the strain on health budgets like a better educated population.

Over time nothing will produce innovation and breakthroughs in
science and technology, energy development, and environmental
protection and nothing will produce more art and culture, stronger
communities, a more diversified and more resilient economy, and
a broader tax base like a better educated population. Then, Mr.
Speaker, we wouldn’t have to rely on the roller coaster of resource
revenues, and we could stop balancing our books on the backs of
Alberta’s children.

Thank you.

So today I was forced back into the cockpit, and had a wonderful flight, flying over the sun and snow soaked winter prairies near Morinville and Villeneuve. I passed.

I probably shouldn’t have just completed a story where I explained to my daughter I had watched some UCLA Bruins Softball video clips on my computer today, in advance of our trip this weekend to see them play live in LA. The irony of flying over lunch, then having a job where I can watch college softball videos, was not lost on my family.

My point is this. I have a busy life, perhaps even a stressful one. BUT my stress is ALL good. I dabble (many hours a week) in politics. I do the same (a few more hours) in business. I volunteer, and of course I do my best to father, and of course husband.

But sometimes a headache is just a headache. I am pretty damn lucky, and this kind of stress will likely be the kind that keeps me alive.

Edmonton Champions is basically an umbrella organization which has two key event driven silos:

What I have always found fascinating, is that the organizations above, and the people behind them, have largely been created by a small group of passionate Edmontonians. They do not have third party funding, they do not have staff, and they do not have complicated structures, boards of directors, etc. These are citizen driven initiatives focused on connecting Quality of Life with our Emerging Knowledge Economy Industry.

Simply put, Edmonton Champions is building an Entrepreneur Ecosystem:

Entrepreneur Ecosystem Diagram - Edmonton Champions

The organizers behind Edmonton Champions understands the value of innovative events, and not boring or tedious “meetings”. These organizations deliver two very strong advantages, over traditional “Economic Diversification” organizations:

• They focus on building databases mailing lists of “Next Gen” community members by offering fun and cool events worth attending
• They are actually building a more livable City by holding events that make Edmonton more attractive to “Emerging Economy” professionals.

It’s not that we don’t need traditional economic diversification organizations, we need that type of infrastructure now more than ever. But in Edmonton, where we spend a purported $1 Billion a year on research at our University alone, those organizations like TEC Edmonton, EEDC, the Edmonton research Park and Alberta Innovates are focused on the larger, usually “patentable” innovation in the areas of bio-tech, pharma, nano, alternative energy, etc.

The beauty of Edmonton Champions, and the Flightpath accelerator fund, is the focus on emerging entrepreneurs in areas of software development, design and the arts, where large Venture Capital and Edmonton’s traditional Angel Investors are reticent to fund. Flightpath will actually makes those communities stronger by providing better deal-flow up the investment food chain. Also important to this food-chain is knowing that 10 new companies a year have received the mentor-ship an vetting necessary to qualify them for that next round of funding if necessary.

Edmonton is an exciting place for entrepreneurs, and Edmonton Champions is doing some amazing work to make Edmonton the City of Champions 2.0. Accelerators are not a new model, and best of breed examples like Y Combinator and Techstars are setting the pace. In my opinion there is no reason why Edmonton can’t be as successful in a Canadian context.

• Local
• Modern
• Original
• Something with an Alberta/Edmonton or Canadian story

What I found, after receiving about 50 different suggestions from my friends on Twitter and Facebook, was local Edmonton artist Jason Carter. Carter is a 31-yr old contemporary aboriginal artist, who both paints and sculpts. His art has been featured at Alberta House, in fact the only Alberta Artist, during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Jason’s art will also be featured in the Edmonton International Airport new expansion set to open in 2012.

What I love about his painting style, is a modern, even fun reflection of the animals that play a key role in aboriginal storytelling. In Jason’s words:

“As a Aboriginal man from the Little Red River Cree Nation, I gather much inspiration from the stories passed on by elders within my community, stories that have evolved and changed, some documented, some not, but the essence of these characters are passed on through the years.”

Above all of this, I had a chance to visit with him a bit in his studio, and he himself is as cool and fun as his paintings. He showed me a new collection of full sized paintings which also happen to be illustrations in a children’s book he has written called “Who Is Boo: The Curious Tales of One Trickster Rabbit” (based on the character inspiration of Nanabozho).

Visit Jason’s website here. My new office painting:

"Bison Enter from Right" ~ by Jason Carter

I am not complaining about my chance to be the non-caucus leader of such a great organization. It is very meaningful to me to have this chance to serve. Even if it is a major time pressure on my personal life.

What has bothered me mostly has been my inability to be my regular frank self; as I find that any comment I make is interpreted as an official position of the party, or worse, be an extension of what our 1200 members might stand for. Sadly, we all kind of do this; associating random comments of a single person to the political party that they have associated themselves with on spaces like Twitter and Facebook. I really wish that this wasn’t the case, as I think we are missing the chance to befriend people we would normally associate or even enjoy the company of, because they have publicly “picked sides” in their social media World. “Some of my best friends are Conservatives and Wildrose Alliance members ”

A month ago, I tweeted that I thought the price of oil would sky-rocket if the Egyptian rebellion against it’s leaders failed. I also tweeted in my typical sarcastic way, that buying oil futures might be a good trade. I was lambasted by several Twitter users for profiting on the backs of Egyptians fighting for their freedom. Even though I actually had just tweeted a couple minutes earlier that I thought the Egyptian people should have been commended for the way they had somehow rescued their country from tyranny; peacefully. Worse, I was not attacked personally, but the Alberta Party was attacked, because the President was profiting on the backs of the Egyptian people, who were simply looking for freedom.

I love Twitter, and every conversation it lets us have. But lately it has become a place of hyper-partisanship. It’s that partisanship and frankly ridiculousness that makes me stay away from certain debates. I can’t imagine if I was an elected politician. Regardless of stripe.

I think it’s sad, and wish it wasn’t so. I know that it won’t change however, and I can only think the proper antidote to it is to actually be more prolific, more known and more honest about what you stand for. So when you are attacked by a “troll”, at least people will have some understanding of what you are really all about.

By the way. I lost money on that Oil Futures trade, while being criticized for it. Also, I made a pile of money last week during the uncertainty of the Japanese earthquake/tsunami crisis, shorting the market. Does that make me a bad guy?

The book explains the Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.

To essentially paraphrase a 200-page book, it tells us about the success found in organizations which are less reliant on a top-down hierarchical method of leadership and “control”.  Organizations where every individual acts as leader, in-fact simply leads, will always be more (in my words):

• Meaningful to the individual
• Efficient, as our problem solvers can act/lead nearest the problems
• Resilient to shocks from external forces, and failure of it’s “leaders”
• Flexible in the face of change

I won’t get into a full book review, so if this topic interests you, I simply encourage you to read it. If you do read it, and enjoy it, I then encourage you to pass your copy along to a friend within this movement.  Perhaps even better, share it with a stranger, or someone who simply can’t shake the concept of a top-down style of organization. They might benefit even more.

So why am I sharing this with you? It’s certainly not to waste your valuable time or attention, I assure you. In my own words here is why I wanted to share with you the concept:

The Alberta Party does not have all of the answers to all of the questions, challenges or problems facing you or your Constituency. Don’t wait for someone else to give you the answers. Find a solution, and then SHARE it with others.

We collectively are The Alberta Party. We are a thousand sole proprietors, working on our local problems, but subscribing to a common set of values, and in doing so enriching the “balance sheet” of the Province.

We will stay together as long as we don’t stray from our values; but we should always be ready to stray from anything else. We don’t want to be the most sophisticated party in an old system. For now, we should be ok with being an unsophisticated version of something not yet done in Alberta.

This means that the only reasonable thing the “head” of our new organization can do is to facilitate as much as possible the sharing of ideas; creating environments, tools and rules which inspire values-based action from all parts of the organization.

Yes, if we want to form government, we will have to have structure and organized hierarchy. But if we want that government to be meaningful, resilient and representative of the people of this province, we cannot adopt any more top-down structure than is required at a bare minimum.

Finally, it will be ok when this idea breaks down and another one rises above it. If we do our jobs right, we will have built the eco-system necessary for that, and the smart(er?) people behind us might honour us by keeping the name, The Alberta Party.

Which is why last year’s Super Bowl was noticeably different.

First of all, it’s critical to understand that I have been a New Orleans Saints fan since the early 1990′s. When I started cheering for them, they still had nearly a decade of never winning a playoff game ahead of them. So as my team finally made the Super Bowl, it would seem obvious that last year’s game would be possibly my biggest celebration ever.

Well I did host a Super Bowl Party, with about 15 of my closest friends in my home. But I couldn’t be there! I was in a small church in Sylvan Lake at what was the pivotal moments in the recent history of the Alberta Party. A year ago, on Super Bowl Sunday, the Alberta Party Board of Directors met with the Renew Alberta founders, and brought together two small organizations, with a vision of something special.

At the time of that meeting, our entire party had about 50 members. We agreed to unanimously suspend all of our old policies, and we agreed to invite 8 Renew Alberta members onto our board. Finally, we approved a plan to implement the Big Listen so we could re-engage with Albertans. It was ambituous, if not arguably idealistic. But with no money, no staff, and absolutely no profile in Alberta, it was an early example of how we could do things differently to try and reach out to citizens.

So it was a personal sacrifice, as I missed almost an entire football game that I had been waiting 20 years for. But my sacrifice is obviously trivial, and insignificant to the thousands and thousands of volunteer days that we have put behind us this year as we grew. That was so perfectly highlighted to me yesterday, when we had another Board of Directors meeting, this time with almost as many people IN THE ROOM yesterday as we had total members last year. Yesterdays meeting was made up of Directors and some of the Constituency Association Presidents and their Executive from across the Province.  (photo below).

So, it goes without saying that this year has been one of progress. It has seen us grow to 890 members as of this morning (almost 20-fold growth) , finalizing 40 registered constituency associations, an MLA representing us in the legislature, and a constant media profile (good and bad!) where we are mentioned every day as a party that has at least momentum on our side.

We have been criticized for being too optimistic, naive, and more and more an unnecessary complication to the vote splitting that naturally occurs in our form of democracy. We have made some mistakes, we will make many more, but one thing is certain:

From one Super Bowl to the next, we have at least left the farm-leagues behind us. We will have to wait and see how we perform in the “regular-season” of Alberta Politics, where the game gets harder and the competition stiffer, but today I am going to just put my feet up and enjoy that at least our team is in the big-league.

And at least for today, I won’t even think about the “Big Game”, an election. Now is the time to take a rest and watch the real game, the Super Bowl!

*Full disclosure  -  I am cheering for the Pittsburgh Steelers today. Not because I like them any better than the Green Bay Packers, but because that’s where my money is.

Alberta Party Board of Directors, some CA Execs, Leader Sue Huff, and our MLA Dave Taylor

Dave makes note of something that has been known for some time, which is the ardent resistance of Wildrose Alliance Leader, Danielle Smith to disclose her leadership candidacy donors. She makes a point, that on the surface, is acceptable in this era of a 40 year government that can find many ways to punish those who object to it. From Dave’s post:

Ms. Smith told the Edmonton Journal after her election in 2009 that she would not make public a list of her donors because they “are afraid of repercussions by this government.”

I have to say, this might well define a major difference between The Alberta Party and the not so nascent or fledgling, Wildrose Alliance. When I read this short statement of rebuttal, this is what I hear:

“The fear of repercussions by government, real or imagined, is unfortunate. However, we will accept that as a normal course of doing politics in Alberta, instead of looking for ways to change it.”

Apart from my natural tendency to assume that those who funded Ms. Smith’s campaign are best described as “targeted interests”, I really question her ability to deliver meaningful change to the way Albertans can trust politicians, when she is actually perpetuating the problem with this policy.

To introduce some devil advocacy into this, I must admit that I have heard this about the Alberta Party:

“You are naive to think that you can win at the political game, without using every possible advantage available to you. Play the game the way it’s always been played, and then when you win, change the rules.”

In my opinion, considering that we are focused on changing the way citizens engage with their government and changing the ways MLA’s conduct themselves in and outside of the Legislature; we can only do that by building trust with Albertans first. Especially those 60% who have lost so much trust in politics, that they chose not to vote for any political party or person in the last election. To gain that trust, we must show that our immediate best interest will not take precedent over Alberta’s long-term best interest.

Our way is harder. Have no doubt. Reportedly Ms. Smith raised $250,000 in her leadership race alone. Our Party in the last year raised roughly $55,000. To make that even more difficult, half of it has been raised by an average donation of $100 or so. None of it so far raised from companies, unions or special interest groups. All individuals.

It’s going to get harder though, and we will need to find more ways to raise money. But one thing is for sure, if you donate money to our Party, one of our Leadership Candidates, or one of our Constituency Associations, your name will be published. In my opinion, proudly so, as you are helping set an example with us, of a better way.

Full disclosure: My family has donated $1750 to the Alberta Party in 2010. I intend to continue to donate and I hope that you will do the same. We need your support.

SEE Magazine – Edmonton’s SEE Magazine wrote two articles about the party, and had artist Byron Eggenschwiler of Calgary provide an amazing cover piece and some other images within the magazine. Byron perfectly captured many of the elements of our new political party, and used a fun Lego theme to show cooperation between people of past political stripes and newcomers to provincial politics.

SEE Magazine Cover - January 2011 - Artist Byron Eggenschwiler

Custom Constituency Association Logos – A side effect of having limited “Top-Down” infrastructure and a control culture, is that volunteers, members and enthusiasts will take the time to add their personal perspective on your story. This week saw some Alberta Party Constituency Association members create some custom logo concepts for their Facebook pages, and Twitter Accounts. Who knows what sticks, and frankly that will be decided on by the members, but it’s fun and creative; and let’s be honest, we should make some more room for that in politics.

Calgary Buffalo (Some have suggested this for the Provincial Alberta Party Logo….)

Calgary Buffalo - Artist Rob Taylor

Calgary Elbow

Calgary Elbow - Artist Edwin Mundt

Calgary Killarney

Calgary Killarney - Artist Edwin Mundt

Barrhead – Morinville – Westlock

Barrhead - Morinville - Westlock - Artist Trevor Meister

Keep having fun Alberta Partiers……

My goal was to simply move from my old Blog Platform, Squarespace, and begin using WordPress. Squarespace was incredibly easy to use as an author, but simply didn’t give me the flexibility I wanted. I wanted to use the Disqus comment tool, as well as some other widgets like allowing people to share the post on Twitter and Facebook, plus many of the other tools that WordPress allows.

Jay is developing an interesting “Micro-Agency” and I think he is onto something. He describes his business below:

My target market is practice professionals and small firms who want to use social media to build reputation and trust. I’m not a short-term lead generator – I’m a long-term trust builder. Practice professionals include: consultants, financial advisors, insurance advisors, doctors, lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, etc.

The services I offer are designed around providing support for active social media engagement, including:

- strategic counsel
- coaching and personalized training (tactics, etiquette, sharing strategies, etc.)
- content production (writing, editing, research, etc.)
- identifying niche influencers
- website/blog development (WordPress-based)
- integration of Web 2.0 tools (social CRM, event registration, etc.)

Basically, I’m positioning myself as a “micro-agency” for individuals (or small groups of them) seeking to enhance their social media capacity.  My sense is that there is a large “micro-market” out there of these types of individual-based businesses who need a wide range of communications support but don’t typically want to spend what traditional agencies charge. I don’t want to build a traditional agency – I’m looking for a new model.

It makes sense really. There are so many people like me, who want a blog or web-based presence, have something they want to say, but don’t have the time or patience to learn something new. His business background gives him the unique ability to help a professional develop their online portfolio, and he understands that they don’t always have a budget like a company might.

I strongly recommend that if you want a website, blog, or some help understanding social media, that Jay is a guy you want to take for lunch.