I am championing Jeff Gailus’ book The Grizzly Manifesto in the Alberta Readers’ Choice Awards. You can vote for this book – and you should – if only because I asked you to. But you should also read the book and the other four books in the …
Continue readingAuthor: Ken Chapman
Ken Chapman: Take Time to Vote for The Grizzly Manifesto
I am championing Jeff Gailus’ book The Grizzly Manifesto in the Alberta Readers’ Choice Awards. You can vote for this book – and you should – if only because I asked you to. But you should also read the book and the other four books in the competition. There is
Continue readingKen Chapman: The Alberta Party Leadership Candidate Debate
Here is the long form video of the recent Alberta Party Leadership Debate held in Calgary. It is 2 hours long so put on a pot of coffee first. The Alberta Party Leadership Convention is in Edmonton May 27-28 and will be Live streamed. More to follow on those details. Check out
Continue readingKen Chapman: Vote for The Grizzly Manifesto in the Readers’ Choice Awards.
The Readers’ Choice Awards is a great prize and serious upside recognition for an Alberta author. The competition this year is between five terrific titles but my preferences is for The Grizzly Manifesto. I really think Albertans are hungry for this kind of information and narrative. We can’t presume our species is
Continue readingKen Chapman: Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy Report is Some Kind of Wonderful
Premier Stelmach gathered together and challenge twelve of the most thoughtful minds you can imagine to actually imagine the reality we face as Albertans to ensure our prosperity from now until 2040. Then they were challenged to get focused on major aspects of the challenges ahead. That resulted in the five themes
Continue readingKen Chapman: Meet Glenn Taylor Alberta Party Leadership Candidate
The Alberta Party has done some short videos of the leadership candidates so the people of Alberta can get to know them better. Here is the Glenn Taylor video. He is my choice to be the next leader of the Alberta Party and the kind of fresh thinking and collaborative
Continue readingKen Chapman: Coming to Grips with the Election Implications
So here we are, in a “stable majority government” in times of enormous uncertainty in the world. Democracy has spoken and the collective wisdom of an ever diminishing number of democratically engaged citizens sets Canada on a new course. It looks like voter turnout was even lower this time than
Continue readingKen Chapman: Is Layton the New Nenshi?
Watching the last minute rise of Jack Layton in the polls for the election on Monday reminds me of the Calgary civic election last October. What we saw then was Naheed Nenshi, an “also-ran” candidate with little hope of success, turn the election for Mayor into a rout and rejection
Continue readingKen Chapman: Youth Are Not Politically Disengaged – If They Have a Reason to Believe
A great thing about political campaigns is you meet new people, often outside your usual spheres and circles. It adds dynamics and depth to ones understanding of how others see the world. I especially enjoy spending time with younger people and finding out more about their points of view and not just
Continue readingKen Chapman: Dave Meslin Makes Sense of Citizen Engagement
Readers of this blog know that I am keen on progressive politics but also citizen engagement. Dave takes on the presumption of apathy. The presumption of apathy is challenged and seen as a function of institutionalized barriers and obstacles. He explores my other passion of leadership. Leadership is an heroic effort and a
Continue readingKen Chapman: Alberta Party Leadership Nominations Close Today
The next growth stage for the Alberta Party starts today. The nominations for the leadership close today so we will know who is really in the running to lead this new political party and who is not. GLENN TAYLOR FIRST AP LEADERSHIP CANDIDATE CONFIRMED: Glenn Taylor was confirmed as qualified
Continue readingKen Chapman: Are Canadian Youth Standing Up and Showing Up This Election?
Here is a video that is simple and pointed about youth at the University of Guelph showing up as citizens and encouraging voting to make a difference. Lets hope this spirit spreads to other campuses and to other groups. It is election time in Canada. Time for citizens to take back control
Continue readingKen Chapman: Canadian Women Are "Breaking Up" With Harper
In all the negative ad space this election and even before the election there are glimmers of satirical political hope on YouTube. These clips of Women Breaking Up With Stephen Harper fit the bill. I think the most politically disengaged citizens in Canada are youth and women. When you put
Continue readingKen Chapman: Vote for an Independent Conservative. Vote for Jim Ford May 2
OK – it will come as a surprise to many that I am endorsing a conservative candidate in the May 2 federal election. Well I am. It is my strong recommendation (for what it is worth) that the good citizens in the Edmonton Sherwood Park Fort Saskatchewan riding vote for
Continue readingKen Chapman: Alberta in a Global Perspective Partly Because of Oil Sands
The oil sands have put Alberta on the world stage in many ways. The size of the reserves is enough to turn heads. The size of the capital investment for development in billions of dollars is another attention grabber. Then we have the negatives of a branding of “dirty oil”
Continue readingKen Chapman: More Harper Contempt? This Time is it for the Law?
The picture is getting clearer every day about of just how bad the Harper government is (sic) and what a danger he has become to our democracy and in his indifference to his governance responsibility to Canadians. Now we have reports of a “damning audit of G8 spending by
Continue readingKen Chapman: Imagine No Harper
This link came from an anonymous comment on another post on this blog. It is a little bit of satire you can spare 3 mins or so to enjoy and reflect on. I know its anonymous and everyone know how much I detest anonymous comments. But OMG if they used
Continue readingKen Chapman: More Curiosity About Alberta Party
Here is a link to an interesting article in FFWD out of Calgary that will give you a sense of the recent history and amazing growth of the Alberta Party. The Alberta Party is doing everything at once. They have set up constituency organizations (44 in five months). They are
Continue readingKen Chapman: Do Elections Actually Equal Political Accountability?
Back in 1993 Kim Campbell was excoriated for stating the obvious that elections are not the time to deal with complex issues. The reaction was swift negative and part of her disastrous electoral outcome. She was right however. The sound bite journalism with the superficial horse race mind set of traditional media
Continue readingKen Chapman: An Oz View of the Canadian Political Culture
This opinion piece out of Australia, written by a Canadian is a terrific compilation of the sad state of the Canadian political culture and the decline of our democracy. The essence of Canadian disengagement and the consequential political atrophy and decline of our democracy is captured in this paragraph: Edmund Burke noted that
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