Citizen Servant Leadership

I have decided to write this blog for a number of reasons, some of which I hope might appeal to you the reader, some of which might appeal only to me the writer, and I’m sure, some of which might only appeal to my mom – if she was interested in reading this.

This blog will be used primarily to discuss governance (rather than politics) and the lessons that I have learned during my years of service in local government and at a provincial level with the various boards, committees and organizations that I have served on and continue to serve. I will tell a few stories, offer opinions and maybe once in awhile a little insight.

Most of what I will write about will be concerning my experiences in leadership at a local, community level and how I think that the many lessons learned could – and should - be applied at a provincial and sometimes, federal level. You see, I worry that our leaders have lost their way in the twisted corridors of Party Politics in our great country; certainly they seem to have here in Alberta.

Through this blog I hope to encourage more civility in politics in Alberta and perhaps real citizen engagement and consultation. I would like to show how we do things at a local level and how they can and should be replicated at the Provincial level. After all, we serve the same citizens – why do we serve them so differently in style, attitude and transparency?

I am going to use this first blog post, which I hope will be the inaugural post (I don’t think I can call it the first in a series, until I actually write a second, third and so on...) to introduce myself to the many who don’t know me, and perhaps reintroduce myself to the many that do. I will tell you a little about me, what I do – and maybe why I do it, who I am and ideally what I hope to do. I will also tell you about my community, as this is where most of the lessons that I have learned have been developed, honed and applied.

For many years now, indeed most of my adult life, I have been thinking about governance and leadership, about Alberta, about my town, about my friends and neighbours and about our role in a free and democratic society.

Quite a bit of my thinking (and my work) has been about engaging our usually quiet populace in helping to shape the future of my town through my role as Mayor for Hinton and how we can take the lessons learned at a local level and apply them on a broader scale, on a provincial level, and perhaps a federal as well.

You see I take a certain measure of pride in our community; we are not what we seem to the many that don’t know us. We are more than smoke stacks, coal mines and forestry. We are more than loggers, miners and wildcatters. We are more than people think we are.  We are, I believe, one of the most progressive communities in Alberta. We are artists and writers, actors and musicians. We are healthcare workers, teachers, insurance agents and store clerks.  We are environmental activists, government employees, retired workers, single moms, the under-employed, and the over-employed. We are Albertans, and usually darn proud of it.

The citizens that I represent and take my measure of pride in earn their living from the land. This land that belongs to all Albertans. Most earn their living directly from the land by harvesting and processing our abundant natural resources, many earn their living and support themselves, their families and our community by providing services to these industries and the people that work in them.

We hike, we fish, we camp. We dance, we sing, we celebrate, we debate. We care strongly about Alberta and our place in it. We are striving to be responsible citizens, good parents and good providers. Yes, we have our challenges and our petty arguments, we have our disagreements and out bias’. But really, we just want to live our life, have a little fun along the way, grow a family, grow old together and just get along.

I tell you all this, because my job as the Mayor is one of servant leader. And you can’t lead if you don’t know who you are serving. Most of my stories will make more sense when you understand the lens through which I am filtering my experiences. The lens of serving our citizens, often in spite of their protests but always, I believe, in the best interest of our community as a whole.

I also think that my vision and perception of the folks that live in my town is probably similar to that of the populace and citizenry of every town, village, hamlet or city in Alberta. Our experiences and challenges, our triumphs and failures are not that different than that of all the citizens of Alberta.

Therefore I would like to think that my leadership and governance style, my perspective and experiences are such that they will resonate with the few that bother to read this blog as we explore this future of Alberta together.

So, who am I, and what experience might I have that would qualify me to write a blog like this you might ask? I am a citizen servant leader.

While I currently serve as the Mayor for Hinton (recently re-elected to my third term) I am also representing the towns of Alberta as their Vice-President on the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) where I chair the Municipal Governance Policy Committee. I am Chairman for Rural Alberta’s Development Fund (RADF) and also serve on the Alberta Utilities Consumers Advocate Advisory Board, the Alberta Municipal Health & Safety Association Board (AMHSA), the Grande Alberta Economic Region (GAER) and The Evergreens Foundation, a senior citizen and affordable housing group.

I fear that I have exhausted the word count for an introductory blog, so will sign off for now. Next time I will be writing about our experience in Citizen Engagement. I have followed with interest The Big Listen exercise that the reborn Alberta Party has been conducting and marvel at how similar it is to what we have been doing at the Municipal level for about two years now, so will write about the similarities next time.

Thank you for making it through this rather long introduction – I look forward to building a relationship and a dialogue with you as we explore how we can all be part of building a better Alberta together.