Alberta PC-TV - Really? If you can't take reality, create your own..

Well.

This is impressive.

While I toiled in the sub-strata of the PC Party for many years, one of my efforts was to reconnect the party with the reality of the people in our communities who weren't members of some particular lobby with their hand out for some government "cookie".

And while lip service kept coming over the party acknowledging the need to re-invent itself, and to reconnect with its "grass roots", in fact it was always that - lip service.

For example - during one Annual General Meeting, there was a proposed policy initiative approved by the membership as follows:

Be it resolved that the government establish a program to support the promotion of Collaborative Law as an alternative to litigation in disputed family law matters, including the establishment of legislation setting out basic guidelines for practice and requiring minimum training obligations for collaborative law practitioners in the Province of Alberta

No big deal really - just a way to help people stay out of Court (saving tax dollars) helping families retain functionality post-separation (helping children and families, and, indirectly, saving more tax dollars), and allowing people to take more personal responsibility for the organization of their affairs as opposed to lining up in front of Judges to have it imposed upon them.

Seems pretty, well, "Conservative", but more important than ideological principals - it works for families and helps reduce cost to government.

The success of the process, particularly in Southern Alberta, was initially astounding, significantly reducing Court involvement - a success that was reported in the National Post, and, in fact, became relatively well-known world wide in the Collaborative community - one article in Denton County Texas referring to the Bar there becoming the "Medicine Hat of Texas"

The grass roots had spoken - the proposal was sound and in fact well regarded all over North America.

The response of the Alberta Government to this "grass roots" policy proposal?  ..uh  other than some brief lip service in Hansard  ...nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  Not interested.

Of course the Attorney General for Alberta is that hard line, neo-conservative..  Alison Redford.

So. 

Such is how things work in Alberta.  If you are a utility company seeking to impose your will by building lines across farmers fields who thought they actually owned the land they farmed, well, the government of Alberta jumps.

But if you are just an Albertan, even an Albertan with a great idea to help the government..  well, you see, the Alberta government doesn't talk WITH you, it talks AT you.

So anyhow.. back to the point of the blog.

The PC party is in difficulty.

And what do they need to do?  They need to work hard to reconnect with the reality of average, everyday Albertans.

And what do they do in fact?

They "create reality". 

They produce a pleasant little sort of Progressive Conservative "feel good" news broadcast, and hope that, like the good little followers of Jim Jones in Guyana, we'll just line up and drink the kool-aid.

Problem is, they're not fooling anyone.