CalgaryLiberal

Archive for the ‘Provincial Politics’ Category

There are challenges to the Alberta Liberal Party forming government in Alberta. In this series of posts I’ll write about some of the challenges that Liberals face in this province and some solutions to them.

(3) The Challenge: The Media Hates Us.

The Problem: The media hates us. The media hates us. The media hates us. Shall I repeat it again? The mediahates Liberals.

The Story: We will never get a positive story out of them, will never get support from them, and we will never catch a break from them. For journos on the right the Liberals are their whipping boy to show their ideological bona fides, for journos on the left the Liberals are their whipping boy to show their ideological bona fides, and for those few independent journalists that have somehow survived corporate downsizing and ever increasing demands on their time… the Liberals are their whipping boys for when they want to be seen as independent thinkers and independent journalists. The Liberals are convenient to target by the media and they do so.

Case in point? Thirty years on, the only time I hear about the NEP is from angry Liberals and journalists. And the Progressive Conservatives and Wildrose, but only because they can’t think of a better reason than the Liberals. And the PCs and WRP are expected to rely on that troupe. The journalists in Alberta, though, keep the idea of the NEP hurting the Alberta Liberals going strong. They include it in every article about whether or not they’ll succeed, even though it has long since been irrelevant to voters. And in this intellectual laziness the media can rest, being able to churn out easy to write and convenient pieces for their presses.

Additionally, the ecosystem of journalism in Calgary (and Canada) is in trouble. In Calgary, many view journalism not as a career path but a two year period where they learn communications skills to work in media relations and public relations with a large corporate firm, normally in oil or gas. There is an unwillingness to build up a beat (area of knowledge and contacts), in depth knowledge, and long term sustainable journalism based on trust and truth. This is gone. Looking to the health of the Canadian Association of Journalists barely exists in Calgary–it’s bare bones and halfway dead! The long term sustainability for Calgary journalism is very, very much in harms way and nothing seems to be done about it and it’s hurting both the public discourse and us. It benefits a polarized, simplified discourse where things are rapid and instant, with little time to think about things, but reducing the irreducible is going to hurt both the party and Alberta in the long term.

The Solution: The media reports stories. Give them those stories. Feed into their need for constant, easily digestible content that allows them to do their work as quickly and as easily as possible, with sound bites, small words, and short yet informative press releases.

The current media environment doesn’t allow for in-depth reporting any more and human resources (past knowledge, institutional memory, in depth knowledge of issues) have been humongously cut back–creating a need for partisans to step back and start recognizing traditional things reporters use to do are no longer being done. And so things fall into the cracks, are ignored, and things are twisted out of time constraints. If we don’t step in to assist journalists in make their jobs easier they will stick with myths, easy ways outs, and simplistic, group think messaging of the ideological right or the left.

Another way to deal with an unresponsive and antagonistic media is to create channels of communication outside of the traditional media: (i) posting press releases on twitter or through tumblr, (ii) building up social media presences, (iii) engaging with the blogger community, and (iv) communicating directly to stakeholders on issues before an issues come to the media limelight, are just some of the ways to avoid, adjust, and accommodate an ever-unforgiving media. Journalism as a profession is dying, if not already dead. We have to work with the environment we’re in and, sadly, with corporate cut backs and the infusion of ideologues as reporters have harmed the profession greatly. Remember, the media is not your friend.

There are challenges to the Alberta Liberal Party forming government in Alberta. In this series of posts I’ll write about some of the challenges that Liberals face in this province and some solutions to them.

(2) The Challenge: To be seen as having a plan.

The Problem: We have a communication problem about communication.

The Story: The Alberta Liberal Party has a plan. They actually have twenty. And they’re the best plans: We are the party of open government–calling for fixed election dates, an independent compensation committee, and so many other unique, open ideas–to make government in Alberta better. We have the best environmental policy, best natural resources policies, and best policies in other areas. We have the plan, it has more depth than everyone else, and if elected the party would make Alberta more fair, more wealthier, and stronger as a province.

There is a problem, though: nobody knows about these awesome ideas. The 12 Steps for Open Government? Nobody is told about it. Heck, I can’t even google it anymore and find a copy of it. And our awesome natural resources policy? Poof, hidden. That’s just in case someone was wishing to search for it. Imagine the state of actually getting out and talking to people about these ideas, these plans, and these changes that could improve the lives of all Albertans. These are just ideas, though–there’s a greater problem. It’s not so much that theses ideas aren’t being communicated it’s the problem that there’s a communication that they’re not being communicated.

Liberals aren’t seen to have a large strategic vision for winning elections. Note the words in the last paragraph, of particular note the word “seen.”

The Wildrose have this down to a science: they’re targeting Southern Alberta, hitting on issues publicly for the airport in downtown Edmonton, and were hitting the high notes in the media in the last year and a half–they’re showcasing a strategy to those who are listening intently to what they’re doing. This isn’t about talking to average Albertans, here: this is sending messages to the political class of our society, the candidates, and the leaders of communities of a way to win in Alberta. Having Dr. Thomas Flanagan say in forums the way that the Wildrose conceive of how they’ll win the next election, and having political wonks in the federal Conservative spread Wildrose messaging… is key, here. It’s the method of communication, the communicators, and the communicated techniques of persuasion that are key here in this story. There needs to be a publicly consumed plan of action for how the Alberta Liberals are going to win.

And the Liberals had a spark of it in the last session. In the spring session the Healthcare Party–the Liberals–hit again, and again, and again, with Dr. Sherman and Dr. Swann laying the smack down on the Progressive Conservatives. And the Liberals came off as a plan and hit a fissure point in the public psyche that helped them in terms of support and viewpoint of having support. The communicators were right, the methods were decent, and it fed into an attraction of those who were interested in healthcare policy, those interested in joining a political party, and those interested in fighting the mismanagement from Edmonton.  Now the Liberals just need to repeat the spring session in the fall, and keep fighting the issues they’ll win on and show that they’ll win on.

The Solution: The solution to the woe of our communication about our communication are threefold– (a) showcase leaders targeting specific issues that (i) build up the party, (ii) attract folks to the party, and (iii) showcases the Liberals as an active party articulating a better way, again and again, until they’re blue in the face while not actually looking like they’re blue in the face, (b) keep pushing the slogan “a better way,” and (c) showcase those outside the party supporting the arguments from the party proper.

There are challenges to the Alberta Liberal Party forming government in Alberta. In this series of posts I’ll write about some of the challenges that Liberals face in this province and some solutions to them.

(1) The Challenge: Liberals are everywhere in Alberta–just not all with us

The Problem: Forget about uniting the left or the right or other parties for a moment. There are Liberals in this province who aren’t on board with the party and who aren’t engaged. We need to unite them.

The Story: When Raj Sherman, current contender for the Alberta Liberal leadership, wanted to run provincially he wanted to be with the Alberta Liberals. Long active federally as a Liberal he wanted to continue with the Liberals in Alberta. Problem being was that the Alberta Liberals at the time did not want to do anything with the federal Liberals, and he was pushed out of running . So he ran for the PCs. I can proudly say this attitude has fundamentally changed, but it didn’t change soon enough to avoid pushing people into other camps.

So where are these camps?

• The modern Progressive conservatives wouldn’t exist without liberals. I know that some of the leadership contenders for the Premiership have had a membership in the federal Liberals at one time. The same for many of their candidates, fundraisers, and Daryl Fridhandlers (who is helping Gary Mar’s bid for PC leader and was the Elections Readiness Co-Chair for Southern Alberta for the Liberal Party of Canada). I’m currently counting four past federal Liberal presidents who have endorsed Progressive Conservative leadership campaigns. Workers on their campaigns, their candidates, and the money behind them: Liberals, Liberals, and more Liberals.
• The Alberta Party– in the 2011 federal campaign I was the social media chair for Stephen Randall’s campaign to become Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre-North. I would say about a fifth of our volunteers were active or leaning provincially in the Alberta Party and we had almost the entirety of Calgary’s Alberta Party twitter community onside with us tweeting about Liberal candidates and liberal issues. They’re with us, just need to be brought onside again.
• The Wildrose Funders– This may surprise some people but there is a cohort of lawyers in the oil patch in Calgary who are gargantuan big-L Liberals who were absolutely furious with Stelmach because of the royal regime fiasco, his first cabinet excluding Calgary, and have been dumping thousands upon thousands into efforts outside the parties to push their wish for change in Edmonton. And then they started pushing some of those cheques toward the Wildrose to protest Edmonton. They’ve stopped now that the Wildrose have lost their traction–and are either sitting on their hands or placing those dollars into either Gary Mar’s or Redford’s leadership bids for the Progressive Conservatives. These guys need to be brought on board again.
• The Wildrose Staffers — I know two staffers in the Wildrose office who were (are?) Liberals. One was a riding president for a federal Liberal riding association until he had he driven over by party politics by other Liberals. The media savvy that Ms. Smith has isn’t only from herself: she’s getting a lot of help from, you guessed it, Liberals.

In turn, Alberta’s official opposition Liberals tossed open the doors to a failing party, hoping to re-invigorate it at a time of both challenge and opportunity – a run for their money down the centre of the spectrum from the upstart Alberta Party (a party long on potential but short on cash or organizational infrastructure), amid a rare vote-split on the right, where the venerable Progressive Conservatives are facing their own challenge from the Wildrose party.

“The goal is opening the doors,” Mr. Ambtman said in an interview Monday, on the eve of the first debate in a leadership race that will have to add further fuel to the fire of the party’s renaissance if it is to make electoral gains. “You lower the barrier to entry. We know a lot of people vote for us… But political parties across the country struggle to get people involved as members. People don’t sign up for political parties because it’s seen as too much of an investment. We’re lowering the investment.”

In effect, Mr. Ambtman cashed in the political capital of his honeymoon period as the new president to push through overhauls to party procedure, some of which the membership had voted down only a year earlier.