Reboot Alberta

For effective long-lasting leadership, a person has to be Known, Liked, and Trusted.

The more we've gotten to know Jason Kenney, the less we like him and for sure the less we trust him.

I look at the Four Levels of Declining Trust and apply them to Albertans' experience with Jason Kenney.

There is a lot to uncover and unfold and drag out from under the proverbial political rug when it comes to Kenney's handling of the Covid Pandemic.

So far only political theatre ideas have been floated around, by the NDP or the UCP, on how to find the truth about COVID policy and processes in Alberta. 

We need to know what really went on in the Kenney government around Covid planning, processes, and policy decisions. No All-Party Committee or a few hours dedicated to political debate is going to get the facts, based on real evidence.  We need an independent Public Inquiry to get trustworthy truths.

I'm talking about a real Public Inquiry, not the politically motivated abuse of the Public Inquiry process.  

We don't need another farce like the  Anti-Albertan foreign funding scam done under the pretense of a Public Inquiry. 

There has been a dramatic shift in the political culture of many cities in Alberta, Especially Edmonton and Calgary.

Urban Moderate and Progressive voters showed up and made a big difference.  They elected a significant majority of progressive candidates to local government councils.

Diversity and Inclusion seem to have risen to the top of the political values agenda.  We have Mayors of colour and from minorities in both Edmonton and Calgary.  And a huge success for those who organized with a goal of gender quality, especially in Edmonton.

The other side of the results was the overwhelming rejection of the authoritarian and far-right candidates, many with UCP connection and alignment.

There are numerous and enormous challenges facing local government in Alberta.  There is a provincial government that is already hostile to municipalities.  That hostility can only get worse now that their side was routed and ruined at the ballot box.  

So what's next for Rebooters and other Moderates?  The basking has to turn into continuing political engagement. We must support those winning Moderate and Progressive candidates as Council members. Otherwise, nothing will change enough to be embedded and gains will not be achieved. 

So you need to Citizens Up even more now.  Voting was just the start of the journey to making things better.

Albertans are vexed and the Kenney cash-for-a-jab scheme to bribe bad faith anti-vaxxers to get vaccinated.

They are not going to change their vehement and vile attitude against vaccination for a mere hundred bucks.  They will believe that Kenney is desperate and that they are winning the Conservative Culture War when It comes to COVID.  And they are!

the Unvaccinated are clogging up our hospitals, ICUs, overwhelming our caregivers, and preventing responsible citizens from health care.  They are costing taxpayers unnecessary additional health operating costs and undermining our economic recovery.

Coddling with carrots must be over.  Their bad-faith fabricated farce about "Freedom" is not being taken away.  They can still refuse to get vaccinated but now with consequences. A comprehensive and forcefully applied Vaccination Passport will respect their choices but not allow them to add to the COVID risk to the rest of us.  The rest of us have Rights too, and ours are in the Charter.

It is time for Kenney to put away his Libertarian Ideology and do the right thing for a change.  Consider what is best for all Albertans, not just policies that pander to the radicals in his Political Base.

The What and Why of Reboot Alberta. A place for Effective Informed Citizenship to help Build a Better Alberta.

It's election time.  If you what things to change, and who doesn't, it's not nearly good enough, as the old cliche goes, to merely think "outside the box."  Election time is when citizens must "think inside the box...the BALLOT BOX.

The ultimate focus of the power of citizenship is at election time.  The people who run our political systems are never more attentive to citizens than at election time. The political power shifts from the partisans to the citizens. Your personal agency of citizenship, and your vote is the applied expression of that power.  

You have to think about what message you are sending when you mark your ballot and put it INSIDE THE BALLOT BOX.  The Federal election is the next best opportunity to express and suggest where you want to Press for Change. Use it wisely, but use it.

What is going to drive your vote?  What is your Ballot Box question, issue, or concern? Will it be conveyed clearly when you vote? How do you get your intended message across in the election to the candidate, leader, and party of your choice?

This podcast covers ways to think about that as well as what you are voting for and why. Don't make the mistake of thinking only about whom you will be voting for. Don't be gullible, duped, or manipulated. 

Make them prove they are worthy of your support and can be trusted with your consent to govern.  It's a very short campaign so best get at figuring out how to apply the power of your vote.

Citizenship.  We all have it and we mostly take it for granted.  We don't understand the breadth of our Rights nor the depths of our Responsibilities as Citizens.  Nor do we appreciate the power of citizenship to purposefully press for change.  Too many citizens avoid participation in civic life because they equate it with partisan politics.  Everyone knows that is full of vile, malevolent, and abusive people who are self-centered and self-serving..  Who in their right mind would want to engage and encourage such behavior.

This is especially true of those comfortable, content, complacent, and too often compliant people in the Centre of the political spectrum.  There are strong ideological drivers of identity politics that define and motivate those on the Left and the Right.   There are tribal instincts that give a sense of self and place and even purpose.  Labels like Socialist and Capitalist define the adversarial power struggle mostly directed toward defeating  the "Other."  

Our political culture is broken.  The old ideologically binary hobbles of Left versus Right political options is oversimplistic. It is proven to be inadequate in the face of the complexity, magnitude, pace of change, and enormity of the consequences of poor political judgment on the challenges Albertans face.   

Citizenship, not partisanship, is the energy source available to bring forth positive, inclusive, just, and pragmatic political change.   Continued insolence, arrogance, and indifference by Moderates to the responsibilities of citizenship and the duty for political engagement is not an option

The admonition for the majority of Albertans, who are in the Moderate Pragmatic Center, is attributed to Edmund Burke who allegedly said "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

The time has come for the majority of Albertans in the Moderate Center to become radical if we are going to repair and rebalance our political culture.  We need to wake up, show up, clean up and, yes,  grow up as we take up the challenge of complexity and causes.    

If you are ready, willing, and able to take up the challenge, Reboot Alberta is a place for you.