If You Want to Go Far, Go With a Group...

There is an African proverb that says; “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go with a group.  The Alberta Party has to do both – because the real test of our party and our next leader will be in the next election, and that may be as early as November 2011, surely not much later than March 2012.  We in the Alberta Party have to go fast and far if we are to become a viable political alternative.

In this blog I am going to outline how I have attempted to do both, as a leadership contestant for the Alberta Party.

It began in late January of 2010.  I recognized within myself a strong desire to run as an MLA candidate for the Alberta Party in my home constituency of West Yellowhead in the next provincial election. At the same time I also began to recognize I wanted to offer my leadership skills and contribute more to the goals of democratic reform and political change through this new citizen’s movement known as the Alberta Party.

 These ideas were growing stronger within me so I talked to my wife Donna.  She is the common sense balance that I need as I learn, lead and live in the world of politics.  Donna and I explored if this was a wise thing to do.  Once she agreed that I should look further into doing this I spent some time reflecting on what this change would mean in our lives.    

Taking time to talk things through and to reflect on what running for MLA and party leader would mean was invaluable in coming to grips with the challenges as well as the opportunities.  Winning the Alberta Party leadership without winning a seat in the Legislature would not be good enough.

In order to do both, I recognized that I actually needed to build two different teams.    One team would build the Alberta Party West Yellowhead Constituency Association (CA).  The other team would  focus on the Leadership  campaign and be involved  all over Alberta.  Both teams shared the common goal of selling memberships and raising awareness of both me and the Alberta Party. I have been blessed with two incredible, but separate groups of volunteers committed to different by complementary goals.

BUILDING WEST YELLOWHEAD

In West Yellowhead we have a team that includes the former candidates who ran for both the NDP and the Liberal Party in each of the last federal and provincial elections.  They bought Alberta Party memberships and brought their political campaign organizers and volunteers with them.  . The Alberta Party in West Yellowhead also has participation from three municipal councils in our region, three Chambers of Commerce and two aboriginal organizations.   Every Hinton town councillor I serve with is now an Alberta Party member and the Deputy Mayor is our CA President. 

Over thirty people showed up to our founding meeting and today we have the largest membership of any constituency in the Alberta Party. These people are committed to building a viable political option for West Yellowhead and are well on their way to getting it done.

My most memorable moment while starting the conversations with the folks at my local level was when one of the organizers from another party said to me, “Glenn, here’s the thing. We all wanted you to be our Party’s candidate in the next election.  Instead of that, you’re going off to build a whole new Party. Well, if we can’t have you with us, then I guess we’re going to be with you...”

The folks in my riding of West Yellowhead have been working hard they have been building our party, selling memberships, promoting this Alberta Party idea of doing politics differently.  And they’ve been doing all this, while I’ve been travelling the Province campaigning to be the leader.

RUNNING FOR LEADER

For my leadership campaign I had to have conversations with a wide array of people all over Alberta.    On this journey I have come to know more about the province and the people who make it such a great place to live. I asked them what they thought of this idea of the Alberta Party, Furthermore, I had to ask them if they would be willing to risk connecting themselves to what I and the Alberta Party is trying to do.

In January and early February I talked with people that I knew, and many others that I was introduced to for the first time. I asked them if they could find reason to believe in supporting me for leader of the Alberta Party.  I asked if they would work with me on a campaign that had very little money, very little structure and a lot of hope. I was surprised and humbled by the many positive responses I received.

From all across Alberta people offered to help. Well connected people, active volunteers and builders in their own right. Today I have a leadership campaign team that represents a broad cross section of Albertans, demographically and geographically.   They come from the creative community and ranks of the unemployed to the leaders of multi-million dollar companies, from the boards of not-for-profit organizations to activists in the labour movement.  People who want change have stepped forward to help make that change happen by donating time, talent and funds to our leadership campaign

 We have three teams set up, one that is focussed on and in Calgary, another for Edmonton, and one for the rest of Alberta. These teams are made up of some of the most committed, quiet, social activists in Alberta.  Many of our volunteers are involved in politics for the very first time as they recognize their need to work to change government in Alberta.

On our provincial campaign teams we have people that represent some of the most steadfast volunteer and not for profit boards in our fine province.  From the PDD board to SOFA, from funders to fundraisers, we have people that have chosen to step up and regain their democratic right to join the political party of their choice and look past the fear of repercussions from our current government.

Our organizing model has been based on the best tenants of community organizing. People invited their friends and neighbours, their family and co-workers into their homes where they hosted an opportunity to meet me, learn about the Alberta Party and sell memberships to those that found a connection to what we are trying to do.

As a result of what our volunteer provincial team has done over these past few months I know that we have increased the Alberta Party membership by the hundreds, and for that I am grateful.

No matter what happens on May 28^th when the Alberta Party selects their next leader, I will have some small satisfaction in knowing that we have built a new awareness and helped many people regain their citizenship through political action.

While we might be able to get there faster by going it alone, I know that we will go further having worked as a group. On May 29^th the next phase of building will begin.

 We have to be viable, vibrant and competitive in the next election. 

On May 28 the Alberta Party will choose a leader, in doing so we will be telling the rest of Alberta who we think the person to be Premier should be, the person that we think is capable, caring and courageous enough to take Alberta forward, to realize our full potential.

 We have grown in numbers, in confidence and in capacity to become a preferred choice for change in Alberta...but we are a long way from being that preferred choice.   The next job is to become that first choice for change.

How To Build a Better MLA

Recently an Alberta Party member contacted me by e-mail to ask me what I would do, as leader, to help our Party get MLA’s elected, because that “is my biggest concern and that is how we will get REAL change accomplished in this province,” he wrote. “As leader, you would have a major role and effect in/on this effort. This is a pragmatic question and I am looking for a frank and pragmatic response.” - Jeremy

I responded to him last week, but now have decided to share my answer with all of you through my blog post this week. So here it is…

Hi Jeremy,

Their are many, many good people already working as volunteer board members, elected local government representatives, school board reps and community association presidents, etc. These are people that are already working on behalf of their friends and neighbors, already have a trust factor established and have governance experience. These are the folks that I think we should ask to consider offering themselves as candidates on behalf of the Alberta Party. Ideally we could set up a matrix that could guide our CA's as they move to candidate identification and selection.

Immediately following the election of our leader on the 28th my intention would be to start by connecting with community league/association presidents and local elected officials from across Alberta - many whom I know through my experience with the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, and setting up discussions with them as to who they think are the respected, connected, experienced volunteers and community activists in their regions.

Then we work to connect our Constituency Associations (CA’s) with the folks that we've identified. If we can connect with these people, they will already bring the organization and network from having already been elected in some capacity for some kind of community service. This would also give us a huge leap forward in organizing on the ground.

I believe that many community volunteers and locally elected officials have waited years for an opportunity that our Party is presenting, they are not going to put themselves forward for the PC's (you have to wait your turn for that) and they don't identify with the Alliance, therefor a progressive party like ours, with a clear framework could be very attractive to them.

It has been my experience that there is a whole host of people across Alberta that have been biding their time, waiting for a political party that represents their values so that they can offer themselves as candidates. They have been serving their communities in elected positions and are ready to take on a new role, with the right Party. The opportunity is here, and we need to go find them.

That is one aspect of my outlook on your question.

I also think that we need to continue the home hosted meet and greets. During my leadership campaign I have been in dozens of homes as the guest of the owner, it is amazing how people respond when they have been invited into someone’s home to meet a person that represents something that they believe in and are willing to risk their personal credibility on.

As a result of these home hosted events we have signed up many, many new Party members. I think that our team has surpassed two hundred new members so far, and just brought 41 more on board this past weekend.

During the home hosted events we start to build the organizing team for the local CA while supporting the potential candidates as the leader. We literally build the Party by going into peoples homes and doing the work of community organizing, one neighborhood, and one community at a time.

Finally, we focus on information exchange with all of our candidates, both from our central office and from the office of the leader. I envision a regular tele-conference or video conference with all of the candidates and the leader during which we examine and discuss hot topics, emerging trends and such, while sharing best practices and learning with one another.

My background is one of community organizing and advocacy, I would work with the Party to bring that experience to bear to help find, select and support our team of MLA's and the CA's that select them, to be successful.

I see my role as leader being a phased approach to helping build our party. Initially we continue the path that I've been on of criss-crossing Alberta, meeting people where they are and building the Party on the ground. Then we move to election readiness planning, CA and candidate support, training and education. Then finally we move to the campaign, where we have good support regarding messaging, local support and communications.

Finally, I would suggest that part of our candidate support process would be based on my experience of having worked with a group of people across Alberta to introduce an Elected Officials Education Program. I would like to see us introduce an intense training program so that our candidates are fully informed as to the job duties of an MLA, understand the primary issues of the day, including Bills in front of the ledge recently and of course, the Alberta Party policy and perspectives. We need to present a viable option that we will be ready to govern if we are asked to serve Albertans.

By engaging on the ground in helping our CA’s find, recruit and educate potential candidates, ideally those that have governance experience and then working with them to understand the role, educating them on the issues and supporting them while they continue to meet and greet people, where the people are, I believe that we should be able to have a very credible, very strong team of candidates to offer Alberta.

It’s All in The How . . .

As I have been travelling across Alberta these past few months I've been involved in a lot of conversations about how the Alberta Party might do politics differently. In this blog post I'm going to capture a little of where my mind is at when it comes to this question...

Most often when we think about Doing Governance Differently, we automatically turn to public policy as a descriptor or guide to what “differently” means.  While some nuance of differently MAY show up in policy . . . meaningful “difference” will most often happen in the means through which the policy is carried out.

It seems quite likely that most of Alberta’s current political parties will continue to outline their story for the future of our province in their policy and it is also likely that this policy will all look quite similar; “strong and vibrant economy”, “diversified energy platform”, “best educated citizenry in the world” – you get my drift  . . . However, as I have often said, it’s in questions about how we will achieve these ends that Albertans will begin to understand what governing differently really means. 

Will we continue to restructure health care every two years, will Ministries work collaboratively, will decisions be made as close to the issues as possible, how will government connect to and hear the voice of those who have put their faith in them . . . the list of how’s is endless and through the how we will begin to understand what governing differently really means.

The how I want to discuss is Meaningful Citizen Engagement.   Our Leadership Team, the team that is working to help elect me as Leader for the Alberta Party, has been thinking about what meaningful citizen engagement really looks like.  I submit that meaningful engagement means a process that will foster collaborative dialogue intended to share mutual knowledge, and discover NEW opportunities for action. It will welcome all voices that want to be heard, will ensure anonymity when requested and will treat participants as equals. 

Let me unpack this process stuff just a bit.

Dialogue is NOT simple conversation, or debate, or one individual answering the questions of another.  The etymology of Dialogue is Greek with dia meaning flowing or passing through and logos meaning, umm, well, meaning, I guess.  So . . .  meaning flowing through.  I like that descriptor.

If we have authentic dialogue that allows for the sharing of knowledge the discovery of new opportunities will often take those who participate not only to a new understanding, but more importantly, to the discovery of new answers. The meaning will flow through to the actions needed.

I envision a process where we suspend any supposed rank so that we all participate as equal citizens in a method lightly facilitated that allows the conversations to go where they need to.  We don’t need to invent something new either, there are well researched, designed and tested processes that can lead participants to EUREKA moments that are well supported by the systems to develop new answers and new beginnings.

We just have to be bold enough to try a new way in governance.

Isn’t that what we are looking for – New Answers – not the same old answers wrapped in different wrapping paper and given every election as the new way – but truly new answers! New beginnings that we can develop together.

After all, if we are going to do politics differently then we have to ensure that we actually do it differently. Entrenched governments tend to use force - economic, influence, fear and funding - to gain their ends; our job is often to resist that force. If we end up using the same means to gain our outcomes, will we end up being any better than them? Will we be different? I don’t think so.

It’s not enough to win. We have to win without becoming that which we are struggling against.