I shouldn't be up this late and not looking at the sky
I used that line as a tweet, but it’s too significant to just leave at that.
I’m awake at 2:30 in the morning to watch a leadership election from a party I do not support and have no interest in. I don’t entirely know why.
Interested in the race, yes. I want to know who our next Premier is going to be, yes. I have huge doubts that we’re going to see significant change in provincial governance. We have changed the leader of government many times over the past 20 or so years, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, usually a little of both mixed together.
We talk about 40 years of Progressive Conservative rule in Alberta, but we don’t talk much about how the internal tides of that party twist and shift the party itself. Peter Lougheed was very different from Don Getty who was very different from Ralph Klein who was very different from Ed Stelmach. Now we have a new different leader with Alison Redford. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. Right?
Granted, much of my cynicism comes from a personal non-relationship with Ms. Redford. She held power over my life directly and vacated actually listening to me.
She says a lot of the right words, she puts them in the right order, but my past history with her certainly does not correlate with the words she is speaking today. My history says that I will be brushed aside, ignored and be re-fed the official policy without examination of my circumstance.
In the swell of optimism of friends and foes alike, I feel troubled. Change means public debate and discussion, not decision making within caucus behind closed doors. Change means true input and listening to all citizens, not exclusive booths at party events. Change means open public meetings with open minds and willingness to hear discord and dissension, not private security and spying on citizens. Change means acknowledging good ideas can come from anywhere, discarding the “Not Invented Here” mentality.
I honestly hope I’m proven wrong. If I’m not, I have to work just as hard tomorrow as I did yesterday to accomplish the change I want to see. Should Ms. Redford succeed, we’ll end up meeting somewhere in the middle.
Best of luck, Ms. Redford. May we agree more than we disagree.