Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

In 2011 I was on the convention floor in Calgary, Alberta, advocating for the same change that is in front of the federal Liberals today (see constitution document here [PDF]). I spoke of openness, inclusion, the need for a new force in politics, and the empowerment that an open primary can deliver to the Alberta Liberals (the provincial Liberals in Alberta, a totally separate party from the federal Liberals).

First, a bit of history.

Earlier in 2011 the Alberta Liberal Party embarked on a grand experiment. Weighting each constituency with 500 vote max, with each vote adding to its particular tally until it hit the max to then be weighted amongst the 500 points of that constituency (say, 1000 people voted, each would have a 0.5 points in the ultimate counting of the points across Alberta). This is what is the current system with the federal Liberals right now, and would be roughly the system if a leadership race was happening before the upcoming convention.

But the Alberta Liberals did something different, above and beyond the weighting of votes. On the ALP convention floor in May 2011 I voiced my thoughts on having the most open and inclusive party in Alberta. along with many others in the party who sought that change: and we pushed through the vote on having the process to the tune of 95% in favour. The party, with its young executive and able group of delegates, sought a new direction of inclusiveness and openness to pull in every interested Albertan into the Liberal fold. We added a tier of membership that could vote for the leadership and for nominations of candidates (while not policy or other party-related elections): encouraging 27,000 Albertans to say that, yes, they wanted to vote for a candidate for the leadership of the Alberta Liberal Party. The ALP doubled its turnout from its last leadership race. It also increased regular memberships, as people saw the party in a new light and brought them to the table as candidates, constituency presidents, and, for some, as candidates. It forced several reporters to rewrite their pre-written articles on the convention.

Why I’m In Favor of Alberta-Style Primaries for the Liberal Party of Canada

It is an amazing thing to be able to say to a Canadian–any Canadian–that we want them to help us choose the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. This inclusion, this openness, and this call to action is an act that (a) builds up the connection between the Liberal party and individual Canadians, in addition to (b) creates a new frame of mind for how Canadians perceive the Liberals. It fundamentally changes the discourse on the Liberals and by the Liberals.

On the first point, to be asked to look at our leadership candidates and pick the one they want, or a ranking of what they want, gives them an emotional connection to said leader and to the process, along with the party, giving them that power. This connection, going up to and including the next election, can be utilized to bring in volunteers, donations, and even candidates.

On the second point, Canadians have been given over the last ten years a particular view of the Liberal Party. Through Adscam, every parliamentary sitting of the dual Conservative and NDP anti-Liberal spin, and through a happily negative media landscape that engorges itself on conflict, the Liberals have been shown to the Canadian public as a party that does not serve them. Ignatieff was the worst hit by this: by constant, years-long efforts by both the NDP and the Conservatives he was written off by Canadians as someone not genuine: either because he “didn’t show up for work” as one NDP attack ad had it, or because he was a nefarious man just in it for himself. An open primary process breaks from this longstanding, almost decade long, smearing of the Liberals. It shows the party as it truly it: an inclusive home for Canadians to put their trust and faith in.

If we are more open than any other party in North America, more welcoming than any party in Canada, and more willing to offer benefit to saying that “Yeah, I’m a Liberal” increasing our seat count and soon re-entering government is well within reach. An open primary is part of this, along with changing the very nature of our party.

It isn’t only inclusion, however, that would be built by an open primary.

If done correctly, the open primary would push leadership candidates to run a large scale campaign, almost like a regular, national one during a federal election, that would require data entry, information gathering, a Get Out the Vote machine, volunteers across the nation, and a direct appeal to Canadians. This would build up the machinery where before there were little, or none, to better the Liberal party machinery in Canada in preparation for the election in 2015.

Additionally, there is the bonus of gathering data, emails, phone numbers, and voter ID. These pieces of data sometimes run into the thousands of dollars to pay for. Through an electoral process as outlined above, it would come cheaply–or free, in most instances–building up the database on Liberalist. Hillary and Obama, in the primary races in 2008, shared the same voter system in fact and Obama, after wining the nomination, was able to put to full use the information gathered on a microtargeted level to reach out and build an electoral team that swept into the White House. If we do that with Liberalist, with adding many new people, we can create a deeper and more powerful database that would strengthen the Liberal party going into 2015.

A New Liberal Party

Finally, it creates a new generation of Liberals. This is something that strikes to the core of the matter of party politics, especially with the LPC, for myself. I began as a politico in 2008–after the errors of Martin and Chretien, and after the errors of the provincial party. When I walked into the role of President of the Calgary East Federal Liberal Association my research brought me to the conclusion that political haberdashery, of the worst kind, turned off the Liberals of the constituency in the mad grab for power by certain people in the party. Now in my role as President of the Calgary-Klein Liberals I found myself relieved that I did not have to enter the bitter strife that had gone on previously between differing groups.

I could walk into my role as president, call up people, and build fresh: free of the bitterness, free of the anger, and free of the debilitating unwillingness of certain folks to work together. Also, I was free of a certain awkwardness of competing personalities that had been solidified over years of interacting partisans. It was a fresh start for a New Liberal party, and has brought to the fore a new movement in Calgary-Klein.

I want the same for Canada, with the federal Liberals. That is why I feel the need for an open primary process, tied to a weighted one-member one-vote concept, to better the politics of Canada and build the Liberal Party of Canada.

This Calgary Liberal is proud to endorse National Membership Secretary candidate Kyle Harrietha. When I was president of Calgary East, rebuilding it from nothing to 100 members and rekindling its existence, he provided me with the support to succeed in my role through advice and mentorship. This same advice and mentorship is continuing to help me build another association and election team for the 2012 provincial election here in Alberta.

I have seen him take leadership, providing both the LPCA and federal Liberals with a plethora of advice, expertise, and energy. I want a builder and someone who includes people. Kyle has showcased this is spades. In Ft. McMurray he has built an association, a community of Liberalism, from the ground up. Hundreds are members paying Liberals, where before there were few. He builds associations, he builds people, and, without a doubt, will build this party.

He knows that technology matters, that the grassroots matter, and that an inclusive, empowering party will make a difference in the lives of Canadians and change our politics.  It is with pride and joy that I endorse Kyle Harrietha for the position of National Membership Secretary for the 2012 Liberal Party of Canada Biennial Convention.

Signed,

Vincent St. Pierre

• President of the Calgary-Klein Provincial Liberal Association
• CalgaryLiberal.com Blogger
• Vice-President University of Calgary Liberal Association

Last night I was sent a link to an article in the Winipeg Free Press about Bob Rae calling out Liberal cliques, Liberal navel gazing, and turf wars. The Globe and Mail pipes in as well. I couldn’t agree more.

Mr. Rae has signaled that he wants Canadians–all Canadians–to be invited into the leadership race for the Liberal Party of Canada. I suspect this point of view has come out from the Albertan experiment last summer with the Alberta Liberals who engineered a supporter system that drew in 28,000 individuals to vote for our leader across the entire province. It allowed regular people to vote in the leadership race without needing to pay for a membership. The system also allows people to walk off the street and vote for their favorite in their local nomination races. It was reasonably effective, was takeover proof, and was great to find a base to build from for new riding associations.

Also, it undermined long standing factions in the party in Edmonton and Calgary, and opened up the field demonstrably for others to partake in the race as candidates, supporters, and organizers. It wasn’t an insider’s game of who had what lists or where you could get more membership forms from–you could walk around with your own sheets, pull in the information of hundreds, and build up a campaign from there. It washed over the previous battled and infused both a new energy and blood into a party. As the new president of Calgary-Klein I hugely appreciate being able to simply circumvent the unhappy cliques of four, five years ago, skip over candidate squabbles that have existed for some four to eight years, and get right into building the association in preparation of a 2012 election.

I feel this type of infusion of new blood is needed in the federal Liberals. In my own case there is not one day in the last three years (since I began being active in the Liberals) that I haven’t noted my blessing that I skipped the Martin-Chretien spat of 2000 to 2005. We had Martinites coming into AGMs, electing their preferred president, and, well, then doing nothing afterward. After “winning” and beating out the other guy the associations were left to rot with no leadership and no people. And I had to work under the shadow of this conflict.

When I was in Calgary-East as its president it had been four years since a downtown clique came in, imposed a lawyer as president, and everything went to pot. And year after year after that it fell apart: first with Paul Martin being defeated, then with that downtown clique retreating to provincial politics, the year prior to my presidency they had a young Turk who was tied to a leadership race who then disappeared after his guy lost, and ultimately collapsed in 2010 to 7 members, no money, no board, was unregistered by Elections Canada, and no leadership.

This then turned around when I entered into that one Liberal graveyard, re-registered the riding association, increased its membership to 110 from 7, had our wonderful candidate take a strong leadership role, had the association (and not myself!–I left it to the grassroots that were being built in the riding after being encouraged by myself!) run a $20,000 fundraiser in early 2011, and then I ultimately pulled away, quietly, to let the association–full with local people–take over and run a fabulous campaign in 2011 that brought a large amount of attention to Liberals in Calgary. While all of this was being done I was being sniped at in the background, that old clique calling for my resignation not once but twice, and I was a consistent target of sabotage. During all of this our current candidate, Josipa Petrunic, was trying to be our candidate, show leadership, and create a Liberal bastion… that one clique lost her nomination papers twice, lead her around in circles, and, only when the LPCA  stepped in and an election was upon us, moved to have her as our candidate. We could have had her be our candidate just after the end of the 2008 campaign ended and a riding association up two years before I was needed to be called in.

When I tried to figure what was the cause of this rather mighty bit of enmity toward me I found out it was rather simple: I was “the enemy” and a “pawn” of an opposing clique that no longer existed. Let me re-emphasize this: I was “the enemy”–a young Liberal of 19 years who never had once went to a leadership convention (aside Ignatieff’s in 2009 which may not count, arguably) and never conceived of past leadership spats and barely even knew the faction–and was being targeted as “the enemy.” People hated me that I never met. To this day it still shocks me. The presidency of Calgary-East left me bitter–a bitterness I’ve tried to hide–and I am so glad Bob Rae is taking such a stand against these past turf wars and cliques. I have never been a part of these turf wars–but I have always been in the shadows of them. And I know that other volunteers, other possible leaders of the grassroots, and many young liberals have been in the shadows of these internal squabbles and pushed out from it.

And it’s not just from one camp that did this. Other small factions and groups tried to do stuff as well, much of it revealed to me from minutes, listening to Liberals of decades gone by, and bitter, angry ex-presidents. And don’t forget the fights in eastern Canada: the amount of idiocy that has gone on in Alberta is probably much, much less than what has gone on in Ontario and Quebec where Liberals have been more powerful and quite a bit more organized, which makes me think it has been so much, much worse there than it has been here.

If you want to know a surefire way to kill an association or irrevocably harm an association organize a coup against the local liberals during their AGM. Or foist a non-resident, ‘star candidate’ on them at the last minute. Or walk in, without any notice or communication, and introduce a person that that association has never met and never heard of that will be their candidate in an election when several candidates were already raring to go. The constituency of Wildrose dealt with this last one almost three years ago and made several young Liberal bitter about the party, and is a wonderful talking point amongst the provincial Wildrose Alliance partisans talking about “undemocratic Liberals.”

This is ongoing stuff and it creates a very long shadow into the future and sabotages the very people that Liberal Party of Canada needs to build itself up now more than ever. It has hurt myself, rural Alberta, Calgary, and so many other places for the Liberals.

These type of actions hurt us, hurts volunteers, and hurts the Liberal movement. I am a strange, strange politico: I get bothered by bitterness and annoyed by intrigue, but it doesn’t push me away. I’ve dealt with worse and will struggle through it. But I’m not the average person. The average person, who wants to get involved and be a part of something, will not tolerate that type of abuse by others. And these regular people are the ones that build parties and make things happen. I’m a stalwart, and I know I’ll outlive the cliques that have targeted me, but that doesn’t mean that these regular folks will stay with the Liberals after they are on the receiving end of their abuse.

I am so blessed that the Liberal Party of Canada in Alberta governing council stuck by me in 2010, that people weren’t intimidated, and that Josipa was given a chance. I don’t want different factions beating on each other, I don’t want those old battles hurting more people ten years on, and the struggle I had to go through be felt by others.

I want an open party, that includes as many people as possible, and that seeks to bring in new people by every day. An open primary process removes these hardcore cliques and factions: they’re worth having to be the engines of the party but the ultimate power and strength of the party should be found not from them but from the roots of Canadian society. An open process, with membership not so much controlled by presidents or PTAs or national headquarters or any faction, but in individuals who say that they want to be a part of the process, who have or haven’t been involved before, can do so easily and contribute their ideas and energy.

I want that.

I want Rae to take a leadership role in redefining the Liberal way of doing things, reform us, and leapfrog past the other parties in the way and method we do things. I’m sick of the bitterness that I had no influence in causing and I’m tired of volunteering in the shadow of conflicts that persist to this day. I want to move above and beyond what has gone on before and build a brighter, stronger Liberal Party of Canada and a strong tomorrow for Canada.

So, Rae, lead the way: I’m 100% behind you. Let us build a brighter, more open, and more inclusive Liberalism.

Nothing has changed with Alison Redford. There has been no change: just more the same tired Tories.

Raj Sherman has been proved right by an independent report by the Health Quality Council of Alberta. Doctor intimidation, threats against careers, and being tossed outside of the province from blacklisting doctors–the Tory government’s management of our health care system is terrible and will continue to be so. With lengths of time spent in the ER lobby going up, doctors being told not to advocate for their patients by an uncaring system, and constant corruption on a scale that’s unimaginable anywhere else (like people with political connections getting preferential care/treatment), we have more proof than ever that this is the case.

It’s undeniable. It’s there. And it’s the Conservative’s fault.

Media Wrap-up:

• The Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) Report
• Rick Bell: Health care critics vindicated
• CBC: Doctors report being ‘ostracized’ for patient advocacy
• Edmonton Journal: Alberta Tories’ health care fixes called a failure
• Edmonton Journal: Health panel hears ‘disturbing’ tales
• Edmonton CTV: Independent committee calls health quality results ‘disturbing’

Ed Stelmach put in a review and change policies to fix these issues: and nothing was changed. Doctors were still abused, wait times are getting longer, and top-down bureacratic thuggery is ongoing.

And what about that judicial inquiry that Stephen Carter, Premier Redford’s campaign manager turn chief of staff, has said that’ll be continuing on course? He uses weasel words to downplay and escape any negative things happening to his and his premier’s political reputation even though she was at Ed Stelmach’s table when this catastrophe went on. When the legislation is put forward for a review it will be minimized and shepherded to not aim fault at Redford, not at the Progressive Conservatives, and will try to avoid issues entirely. Also, the plan will likely be for the Tories is to wait for the HQCA final report to come out, schedule the inquiry for after that, and then wait for said inquiry to end… after an election. It’s simply the Progressive Conservative way with their style of government. It’s unaccountable.

There is no accountability with this government. It was proved with Don Getty, proved again with Ralph Klein, against reinforced by Ed Stelmach, and, now once more, with Allison Redford. Allison Redford has backtracked on fixed election dates, backtracked on a judicial inquiry not once but twice, has acted against democracy and accountability by at first shutting down the legislature and then having it only run for 2 days, proving her amateurish actions with the Royal Alberta Museum (see Ms. Blakeman’s comments here in this article), and her and her cabinet poo-pooing of the insider maleficence of Tory insiders giving oil field executives insider information on upcoming subsidies coming their way, not going through with the needed lobbyist register changes, and so much, so much more.

It isn’t only unaccountability of program but of clarity of government: this government is running blind from no leadership. Shutting down the legislature for some two days in October and repeated amateur communication issues (like the Morton-Redford mixup over shutting down power line projects) are just some of these issues. This government is running blind with no leadership from the PCs or Alison Redford. As Raj Sherman put it best: “The only thing that is certain is that this government is uncertain.” And without certainty there is no accountability. Alison Redford has in a month flipflopped, changed her mind, openly been in conflict with her cabinet ministers, and reversed course on numerous of her political promises.

A year ago I was asked why I wasn’t a Progressive Conservative. I will write now what I wrote then: It’s about standing by principle. It’s easy for a politically active, intelligent young person to see and take part in a party rife with internal feuds, bloody inparty fighting, dirty tactics against honest folks, being honest, and rabid corrupt games– but there’s a choice to do those things and these Tories have chosen not to. It’s about principle and I want to uphold them. And this government, these Tories, have none. This government needs to be destroyed, their 40 year reign of destruction undone, and a different party put in power who will follow through with principled, accountable, and honest government (here’s their website).

Nothing has changed with Alison Redford. It is the same, if not worse, than with Ed Stelmach. There has been no change: just more the same tired Tories.