ignatieff to harper: quit treating westerners like they're stupid.

“Frankly,” he said, “I think it's condescending to westerners that being a so-called intellectual is some big liability. People out here are as devoted to the life of the mind, and the life of culture, as anybody else in the country. So I don't think that's going to fly. It's just stupid.

Federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff on western Canadians and Conservative attacks.

Ignatieff is in Edmonton for the next two days and will be speaking at a Town Hall meeting at the Santa Maria Goretti Community Centre tonight at 6:50pm. I'm planning on checking out what the serene professor has to say, so post your questions below and I may try and ask one if I get the chance.

the majority disapproves.

A new poll released by Leger Marketing shows that none of Alberta's three main political party leaders have been able to achieve majority approval ratings:

Conservative Premier Ed Stelmach's performance: - Disapprove: 40 per cent - Approve: 41 per cent - Don't know: 19 per cent

Opinion of Stelmach since last year - Worsened: 43 per cent - Stayed the same: 40 per cent - Improved: Five per cent

Liberal Leader David Swann's performance: - Disapprove: 29 per cent - Approve: 22 per cent - Don't know: 49 per cent

NDP Leader Brian Mason's performance: - Disapprove: 34 per cent - Approve: 22 per cent - Don't know: 44 per cent

The poll places Stelmach in a commanding lead of both David Swann and Brian Mason, but his high disapproval ratings shouldn't give PC supporters any reason to brag. While it appears that the Liberal or NDP leader haven't been able to gain traction in public support (which isn't a shock), I was most surprised at Stelmach's regional ratings. The poll showed approval for the Premier at 34% in Calgary, at 41% in smaller communities (down from 52% in 2008), and remaining lukewarm at 48% in Edmonton.

UPDATE: Here is the PDF with a regional breakdown and fancy charts.

edmonton businessmen recorded strategizing about city centre airport.

Discussion about how to get Councillors "on [their] side" broadcast live over the Internet.

During the afternoon recess of Thursday's hearings on the future of the Edmonton City Centre Airport (ECCA), an interesting and revealing conversation occurred between a group of businessmen wanting to keep the ECCA open.

A longtime reader was listening to the public hearings online when a microphone, left on during the break, picked up what was believed to be a conversation between two prominent Edmonton businessmen whom had just spoke in favor of keeping the airport open. Likely without knowing that they were being broadcast over the Internet, the men began engaging in a strategy discussion (there may have also been a third person involved in the conversation).

During their broadcasted conversation, the businessmen hypothesized that there were five City Councillors who would vote to keep the ECCA open, and identified Councillors Karen Leibovici, Amarjeet Sohi, and Bryan Anderson as the most likely targets to "get on [their] side."

The conversation topic quickly turned to Councillor Leibovici, who was suggested to be coming around on account of her rumored mayoral ambitions in 2010. The businessmen didn't seem to know much about Councillor Sohi, but one of them either suggested or volunteered to "give [Anderson] a call."

While the content of this strategy session shouldn't come as a surprise to many Edmontonians, it does shine a spotlight on the backroom influence that some of our city's wealthy businessmen are trying to exert in the debate about the future of the Edmonton City Centre Airport.

we're number 92!*

*The Fraser Institute has released a survey showing that many petroleum industry executives see Manitoba as a better place to invest than Alberta (the horror!). The survey ranks Alberta as 92nd, placing the landlocked western Canadian province of 3 million people "behind China, the Philippines, and Brazil as an attractive place to invest in upstream oil and gas development."

The results of the survey are a bit misleading as they list investment jurisdictions in North America by individual province and state, while all other jurisdictions are listed by country. While the survey results are likely reflective of the oil industry's well-known dislike of Premier Ed Stelmach's changes to Alberta's resource royalty framework, the report may have shown different results had it also included actual financial investment numbers.

The survey has given Wild Rose Alliance leadership contender Danielle Smith a lot of 140-character content to work with this week.

(h/t Brian Dell)

books, magazines, and twitter.

I’ve spent the past couple of days having a enjoyable time teaching the basics of social media to members of the book and magazine publishing communities in Edmonton and Calgary. I was impressed at how eager the members of this creative sector are to learn more about social media and online engagement. Most of the participants were already familiar with blogs and social networks like Facebook and YouTube, but many were less familiar with Twitter (even though most had heard about it).

While the publishers and writers naturally maintained a healthy dose of skepticism at the 140-character hyper-blogging network, the participants in the workshops were open minded and curious about Twitter, especially in light of the Iranian election, Doug Elniski, and Bill 44.

My time spent with these community members also allowed me to learn some of the more fascinating details about the saga of the Google Book Settlement.

When I returned to Edmonton yesterday, I was surprised to read blog posts by both Walter Schwabe (@fusedlogic) and Mack Male (@mastermaq) in response to 630CHED host Lesley Primeau’s negative comments about Twitter. I was a little confused by Primeau’s reaction, as I would have thought that her role as a radio host for a station that largely depends on listener interaction (aka callers) would be naturally interested in learning more about social media.

On the political front, DJ Kelly has written a solid blog post about the potential Elniski Effect on elected officials who use Twitter and social media. DJ raises some good questions, including whether the incident will cause political parties to discourage or increase their controls on how elected members interact with citizens online. As Alberta’s governing partisans haven’t reacted well to online social media in the past, I hope that Elniski’s tasteless comment leads to an increased mature and commonsensical approach to social media, rather than a retreat from the medium (until the party spin masters need to launch their new websites in preparation for the next election in three years).

Related link: Alberta Politics Online.

calgary-glenmore candidate update.

Avalon Roberts was chosen as the Liberal candidate at a nomination meeting in Calgary-Glenmore this week. Over 150 Liberals are reported to have shown up to participate in the meeting, where Roberts faced off against Corey Hogan. (Matthew Naylor live-blogged the evening)

Paul Hinman has been officially nominated as the Wild Rose Alliance candidate.

A by-election to replace former MLA Ron Stevens is expected to take place in Fall 2009.

edmontonians pack city hall on food security.

I'm standing in Council Chamber at Edmonton City Hall and I don't think I've ever seen it this packed. Over 700 Edmontonians (many whom are supporters of the Greater Edmonton Alliance) have shown up to talk food security at City Council's Municipal Development Plan public hearings. This is citizenship in action.

Here are the four key amendments being discussed at the public hearing:

- Integrate local food system impact into all decisions about converting farmland.
- Ensure access to local food through a secure land supply and city-wide approaches
- Develop an agricultural areas plan, including inventory of all farmland
- Champion a food security plan by the Capital Region Board.

I'll have photos up soon.

Watch the public hearing live online.

i'm pretty sure that even don draper would find this offensive.

I really didn't want to write on this topic. It pains me that in the year 2009, I am actually writing about this.

Edmonton-Calder MLA Doug Elniski (@elniskimla) gained some unflattering notoriety today after Edmonton-Strathcona MLA Rachel Notley made public a speech that the PC backbencher posted on his now defunct blog. In the speech, which was apparently delivered to a Junior High graduating class, Elniski sounded like an MLA from a previous era as gave some pretty tasteless advice to the young women in the audience:

'Ladies, always smile when you walk into a room, there is nothing a man wants less than a woman scowling because he thinks he is going to get shit for something and has no idea what. Men are attracted to smiles, so smile don't give me that "treated equal" stuff, if you want equal it comes in little packages at Starbucks.'

I am not going to write any more on this, as I think Elniski's comment speaks for itself.

As I wrote in a previous post on the topic of social media and politicians in Alberta, it becomes mistakes like these that make it increasing difficult when trying to convince traditional old-school political thinkers of the important role that these online tools and social networks play in the 21st century. Our elected officials need to exercise some common sense and maturity if they are serious about employing online social networks in an atmosphere of positive engagement with citizens.

*The title credit goes to the Chief of Staff to the President of Daveberta, a frequenter of this blog's comment section.

a spot-on description of twitter.

“The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what make it so powerful.”

Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain, New York Times, June 15, 2009

just visiting (from ottawa) & royal glenora club gets economic stimulus.

Ottawa political staffer Ryan Hastman defeated Linda Blade and Cathay Wagantall to claim the Conservative candidacy in Edmonton-Strathcona. Hastman will face NDP MP Linda Duncan in the next federal election.

Also visiting Edmonton-Strathcona from Ottawa will be federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who will spend the morning of Canada Day in the 20th annual Silly Summer Parade down Whyte Avenue. Last week, Vancouver-Centre Liberal MP Hedy Fry joined federal Liberal activists in Edmonton's Pride Parade.

Across the river in Edmonton-Centre, Lewis Cardinal will announce his announce his intentions to seek the NDP nomination this week (h/t @alexabboud). Cardinal was narrowly defeated (by 184 votes) in a tight race that saw Ward 4 Councillors Jane Batty and Ben Henderson elected in the 2007 Municipal Election. In the 2008 Federal Election, Edmonton-Centre NDP candidate Donna Martyn placed third with 15% of the total vote behind Conservative MP Laurie Hawn and Liberal Jim Wachowich.

How's this for an economic stimulus package? The members-only private Royal Glenora Club will be receiving $1,000,000 in taxpayers dollars from the federal government. Annual membership fees range from $ 2,236.00 for singles aged 30-64 to $4,065 for families. While MP Laurie Hawn defended the announcement, claiming that it "will ensure that this 50-year-old facility can continue to thrive...." it is not known whether he and his wife are active members of the Club (which would cost $2,403.00 annually for couples aged 64 and over).

iclei 2009 world congress edmonton: thoughts on sustainability.

Over the past week, I have had the privileged of attending and observing many of the sessions and keynote speeches at the ICLEI 2009 World Congress in Edmonton. The conference has left me hopeful and encouraged about the opportunities for sustainability in our cities. In Canada, as in many other countries, it has become clear that municipalities are light years ahead of national, state, and provincial governments in generating innovative initiatives and strategies to improve the sustainability of our communities.

Watching, meeting, and conversing with many of the over 620 delegates has left me feel optimistic. Originating from cities across North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa, the conversations and debates I observed at this Congress didn't touch on political partisanship or ideology, but on actual ideas and direction (an increasing rarity among the national and provincial debates in Canada).

During his speech to delegates on June 17, Australian scientist Peter Newman made some interesting points having to do with the current economic downturn. Newman suggested that the downturn in the world economy provides states the opportunity to create "the global green new deal." It may seem far fetched that an overly natural resource dependent jurisdiction such as Alberta would embrace new great change, but if "the future is to be smart and sustainable," as Newman suggested, Albertans should be pressuring their elected representatives not to be left behind.

While no one I spoke to at the conference suggested that the need for fossil fuels is going to disappear anytime soon, other oil producing jurisdictions are having serious debates about the ethics of their precious resources. In a conversation with a delegate from the City of Oslo in Norway, he explained some of the serious ethical debates that are taking place on a national level in his country. As Norway is also largely dependent on natural resource revenues, it seems like it and the Province of Alberta should be facing a number of the same ethical challenges.

The Norwegian pointed out that while Statoil (Norway's national oil company) had recently purchased a large amount of shares in the North American Oil Sands Corporation (a deal that is reported to be worth $2.2CND billion), the investments in Alberta's oil sands has spurned a national debate around the ethics of financial dependence on an unsustainable and environmentally damaging method of extracting oil.

During our conversation, the Norwegian made an observation that as an older society, the debate around oil and dependence on non-renewable resources in his country appeared to be more mature than the relatively young debate in Alberta. Although he was quick to clarify that he wasn't making a judgment, I'm not sure he was far off the mark. While Norwegians have serious national debates about whether or not to simply leave the oil underneath the ground and live off the interest of their geographical resources, Albertans seem to get easily caught up in the staccato boom and bust cycles, all the while forgetting that we are the owners of the resource. As the owners of the resource, it is our responsibility to drive the debate.

Attending the ICLEI 2009 World Congress has taught me that while we do many things well in Edmonton, that there are many areas where we can improve. If "sustainable technologies work best at the local level of government," as Newman suggests, where do our local government's start? Referencing a recent article in the Telegraph, speaker Richard Littlemore suggested that "rebuilding our infrastructure in an intelligent way is the only chance we have."

Collaboration and information sharing is a key to rethinking and rebuilding our cities. A partnership between the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, the International Energy Agency and ICLEI has produced the Slim City initiative that provides a framework example of how this kind of collaboration can take place.

TOD, POD, and GOD (transit oriented development, pedestrian oriented development and green oriented development) are some of the urban development strategies proposed by Newman in his speech and his book Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change. While some North American cities already provide positive examples of TOD (which can save 50% in car use and 20% of income) and POD development, the ominous sounding GOD initiatives may be less familiar.

The German cities of Vauban and Frieburg are considered to be successful examples of how green-oriented development can produce sustainability. A car-free village powered by solar energy, mobilized by light rail transit and bicycles, and filled with space to grow food locally sounds Utopian, and it directly challenges the comfortable culture of over consumption.

Change is never easy, but the over 620 ICLEI delegates who traveled to Edmonton from around the world this past week have made me hopeful that there is at least one level of government that is prepared to rise to the challenge.

that's a pretty big tangent...

Following a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto, Alberta Finance Minister Iris Evans suggested to the audience that two-income parents place less importance on raising children than families that keep a parent home. Evans' then drifted even further from the topic of the economy and 'suggested a link between a lack of education and mental illness or criminal behaviour.'

"The huge failure of Canadians is not to educate the children properly and then why should we be surprised when they have mental illnesses or commit dreadful crimes?"

Alberta's Finance Minister then targeted her criticism on an even more unexpected area as she criticized funding for new police officers:

"The great tragedy in this year's budget in Alberta ... is that we put 200 more policemen, police officers, for the next two years and more Crown prosecutors, more law enforcement people," she said.

"If we had put 200 more positions in place to help parents be better parents I would have been much happier."

Only hours later, Evans apologized for her bizarre comments.

UPDATE: Is there a chance that this is simply a genius political distraction by Evans' in order to distract Albertans from the announcement that Alberta may need to borrow up to $5 billion in the coming years?

iclei world congress 2009 edmonton: transit chart.

A chart used by Peter Newman in his presentation at the ICLEI 2009 World Congress in Edmonton this afternoon.

iclei world congress 2009 edmonton: day three in words.

The Concrete Cycle

Urban Strategy Expert and founder of ICLEI Jeb Brugmann talked about the concrete supply chain in China, which includes the recycling of concrete from Hong Kong to build new cities in Mainland China, rather than mining new concrete. The City of Edmonton has operated a Sustainable Aggregate Recycling Program for concrete since 1978, which saves the city around $10.4 million per year.

Pecha Kucha Edmonton 4

Mastermaq has a recap of last night's Pecha Kucha Edmonton 4. While the large audience of over 600 made the event much less intimate than previous Pecha Kucha events in Edmonton, there were some good presentations including Myron Belej and Trevor Anderson. I've been very skeptical of NextGen's mandate in the past, but if they focus on organizing events like Pecha Kucha, they stand a chance in changing my mind (not that they should focus on changing my mind).

Prius

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel awarded the winners of a Edmonton's Zero Footprint Challenge with a brand-new Prius. As usual, the day wouldn't be complete without Scott Hennig and the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation pointing out something negative about the initiative.

Young Municipal Leaders

Thanks to Councillor Don Iveson, Mastermaq and I were invited to the meeting of ICLEIs Young Municipal Leaders, a loose group of municipal leaders within a common age range. I was encouraged to hear that the group wasn't satisfied with sitting at the 'kids table', but also recognized the perspective their age could offer and the knowledge they could gain from some of the older representatives in ICLEI.

Rather than division by age, participants saw the generational gap as key to a positive partnership in ICLEI, rather than a hierarchical relationship. I also thought it was very telling that as traditional politicians continue to discuss important issues in private low-key meetings, this group discussed the potential that online conversation through social media and wikis could have on important discourse. Very encouraging.

Participants in the Young Municipal Leaders meeting included Leduc Councillor Dominic Mishio, Deputy Lord Mayor of Adelaide Stephen Yarwood, Freiburg Councillor Sebastian Muller, Spruce Grove Councillor Jeff Acker, Melbourne Councillor Cathy Oke, Lahti Councillor Eero Vainio, former U of A Students' Union President Michael Janz, and Kelowna Councillor Angela Reid (among others).

ICLEI 2.0

You can follow the ICLEI conversation on Twitter and take a look at my photos on Flickr.

iclei world congress 2009 edmonton: day three in pictures.

iclei world congress 2009 edmonton: day two focus on eco-mobility.

If I could pick a theme for day two of the ICLEI World Congress (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) in Edmonton, it would be Eco-Mobility. The Global Alliance for EcoMobility describes Eco-Mobility as mobility without dependency on the private, Eco-Mobility includes a wide range means of travel, most of the presentations I attended yesterday were focused on bicycle mobility. Here are some points I picked up from yesterday's presentations:

- Edmonton is one of the most car dependent cities in North America.

- Copenhagen (Denmark) is aiming to be one of the environmental capitals of the world. Since 1995, bicycle traffic has risen by over 40% in the Danish capital city.

- In Tilburg (Netherlands) the primary focus is to remove obstacles by improving bicycling parking. There are currently 12,800 bicycle parking spots in Tilburg, with an extra 2,800 spots planned for 2010 and 2,000 spots planned for 2012. Tilburg's 2003 'Balanced Mobility' cycling plan treats all forms of mobility as equally important. Current plans are to build 1600m of bicycle networks.

- Challenges of increased bicycle mobility includes increased theft. Each year, 4,000 bicycle thefts are reported per year in Tilburg, a big problem that needs to be addressed.

- Changwon (South Korea) has a goal to increase bicycle transportation to 20% in 2020. Some Changwon businesses offer $24 per month allowance for employees using bicycle-transportation to work, and the City Bicycle Centre offers free bicycle classes to housewives.

- For Canadians who oppose increased bicycle infrastructure because of our cold winters should know that similar arguments were made in Rio De Janeiro (Brazil) about the intense heat. Heat tuned out not be one of Rio's biggest challenges: bad bike lanes led to four cycling deaths in Rio over a short number of years.

- About half of the air pollution in São Paulo (Brazil) used to come from factories, but now 90% of emissions come from motorized transport. Increase bicycle mobility is a viewed a a solution to car air pollution.

- With a population of 34,000, Koprivnica (Croatia) began promoting bicycle mobility after the end of the Cold War, when the introduction of western automobiles drastically increased local air pollution. In 2008, Koprivnica won the European Mobility Award.

- The Local Motion Eco-Mobility Project in the Edmonton community of Parkallen focused on showcasing and encouraging Eco-Mobility through pilot project improvements and Eco-Mobility education. Community education included local programs, improved bike route marking and the development of a local community map (aka, the Parkallen Field Guide).

I would also like to add how impressed I am with the (likely) hundreds of Edmontonians who have volunteered to help with the day to day operations of the ICLEI World Congress in Edmonton. They've been doing excellent work!

(As most of these points were jotted down quickly during the sessions, apologies if there are any minor inaccuracies)

warning: political fires burn faster, hotter, and more toxic than ever before.

Forgive me if I thought this sub-line on a recent GOA media release was a warning to Alberta PC supporters about the dangers of Bill 44...

Today's fires burn faster, hotter and more toxic than ever before. Preventing them has never been more important

iclei world congress 2009 edmonton: day two in pictures.

video: minister ray danyluk speaks to the 2009 iclei world congress.

Alberta's Minister of Municipal Affairs, Ray Danyluk, welcomed the 2009 ICLEI World Congress in Edmonton this afternoon.

iclei world congress 2009 edmonton: day one.

I attended the opening plenary session of the 2009 ICLEI World Congress in Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre. The 628 ICLEI delegates will face a rigorous agenda over the next four days. Congress delegates have flown in from around the world, including over 100 delegates who do not speak English.

(The great caricatures were drawn by Roy Blumenthal)

The 2009 ICLEI World Congress opened with speeches from:

- Stephen Kabuye, ICLEI’s Vice President, Mayor of Entebbe, Uganda
- Stephen Mandel, Mayor of Edmonton
- David Cadman, Deputy Mayor of Vancouver, Canada & ICLEI President
- Ray Danyluk, Alberta's Minister of Municipal Affairs
- Bärbel Dieckmann, Chairperson, World Mayors Council on Climate
Change, Mayor of Bonn, Germany

Of all the speakers, Cadman was the most passionate. As President of ICLEI, he used his time at the podium to urge delegates to lobby their state, provincial, and national governments for serious action on sustainable development and climate change. As this year's COP15 meeting in Copenhagen approaches, the world's municipalities will play a key role in advocating for serious action on the international stage. Even though it was only the first day of the Congress, I get the distinct feeling that municipal frustration towards regional and national inaction on sustainability and climate change is a common feeling among delegates.

Critics may point out the irony of holding an international sustainability conference due south of Alberta's Energy Beach, but the 2009 ICLEI World Congress will give Alberta's cities an opportunity to highlight some of the innovative sustainability initiatives that are being implemented at a local level. With an increased international spotlight on Alberta's potential as an even stronger energy leader (and the irresponsible way that we are currently exploiting our resources), the Government of Alberta may feel an increased international pressure to become serious about cleaning up the way we are allowing oil companies to extract our natural resources.

For up-to-the-minute coverage of ICLEI over the next week, I will be uploading photographs on Flickr and joining the discussion on Twitter at #ICLEI. For more information on ICLEI, check out Mastermaq's Guide to ICLEI World Congress in Edmonton.