Allow me a brief dip into political punditry. I don't often write on the subject but this weekend I attended the Manning Centre for Democracy's Conference on Alberta's Future. Put aside the terrible title for a moment (Snappy!) and let me recap it for you. Friday night started off with an introduction by Preston Manning (he of the Manning Centre and grand puba of conservatism in Alberta) followed by a two hour discussion with the leader of the Wild Rose Alliance party Danielle Smith and Progressive Conservative MLA Kyle Fawcett.

"It's a trap" - Admiral Ackbar 

I don't know which PC strategist believed it was a good idea to send a rookie backbencher MLA to speak at an event contre Danielle Smith but yeah, terrible idea. Apparently, Stelmach was supposed to represent the PCs, but he backed out and it fell to new Minister of Employment and Immigration Thomas Lukaszuk (in fact that was the name that appeared on the agenda). Then Lukaszuk backed out with a family committment. Kyle Fawcett was only informed that he'd be facing the formidable Danielle Smith two days before the event occurred. Poor guy.  

It certainly seemed like a tap-toe job by Preston Manning on the PCs; setting up Danielle and the WAP as the logical successors to the stale PCs. I don't think Ed Stelmach is sitting very comfortably as leader at this point and it's entirely likely that the PC party tears itself apart or veers sharply to the right in the next 18 months.

Saturday featured speakers opining about specific subjects. They would give the province a grade on the subject they were speaking about. After they were done we broke out into our tables for discussion. We were tasked with three questions. Did we agree with the speakers grade, did we agree with his proposed solutions and what alternative solutions would we propose?

In the spirit of the format I'll grade the speakers -

Fiscal Responsbility - Mark Milke – D+

A simplictic examination of the issues with little new or innovative to offer. Privatize, cut, rinse and repeat. Considering Manning started the day off with a brief talk on vision this was a disappointing first speaker.

Balanced Economic Growth - Mark Percy B

It seemed as if Percy took a Richard Florida presentation on social quality of life and encouraging the creative economy and adapted it to a conservatve audience. Didn't agree with many of his conclusions but considering the day was dominated by business and fiscal concerns it was refreshing.

Environmental Conservation - Marlo Raynolds A-

Raynolds is the executive director of the Pembina Institute, not really a speaker you'd figure to see at a conservative conference but given Preston Manning writings on the environment lately, no surprise. Raynolds had some good ideas on changing the oil sands project permits process, a much heavier carbon tax, as well how things like feed-in tariffs (a pet issue of mine) have bubbled up from municipalities. 

Democratic Participation - Peter McCormick A-

A truly engaging examination of the democratic participation issue. He touched on the terrible participation numbers as well as things like open data and social media. Like so many things, the accounting has to change and the current way of measuring democratic participation, voter turnout, isn't enough. A little short on meaningful ideas but a great presentation.

Health and Education - Peter Cowley and Nadeem Esmail - F

These presentations were best summed up by a tweet -

@atypicalalbertn: I find it fascinating that the Manning Centre used two economists as their experts on health and education. #FAIL #ProjectAB

Not just economists, but Fraser Institute economists. I'm not denying that both of these areas need solutions but I'd suggest that worthwhile solutions won't be coming from ideological policy wonks. Given the general areas of agreement on the centre-right and the centre-left on most things it will be these two portfolios that will truly separate the Wild Rose Alliance/PC's from whatever progressive alternative emerges in Alberta.

Leadership on the National Stage - Monte Solberg D

Maybe because it was the end of the day, but this presentation struck me as particularly superfluous. Solberg is a decent speaker but didn't offer up anything of substance.

Here's where it gets weird

So at our tables there was great discussion about these issues. It was respectful, it was healthy and frankly it's what Alberta needs. Engaged citizens talking about what they want from our representatives. We wrote down what the table was talking about dutifully and handed in our peice of paper after every presentation.

At the end of the day some people associated with the Manning Centre assembled the papers and summarized them in a Powerpoint. Those Powerpoint slides were then presented to us and we were asked to "vote" on them. They all "passed".

This wasn't billed as a policy conference but if they use these things that "passed" as some kind of consensus I would argue with that. The agenda and speakers were chosen by the Manning Institute, the discussion and resultant notes would inevitably be colored by their choices. Just weird. 

Wrap-up

It was a pleasure to meet people interested enough in politics to come to a two-day conference. The presenters were a mix, but having a legitimate conversation about politics without devolving into labels or left-wing/right-wing bull is refreshing.

I believe that with the event Manning is tacitly throwing his support and idealogical heft behind Danielle Smith and the Wildrose Alliance Party. This was my first time meeting and seeing her in person and it's easy to see why the media has given her and her party hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free airtime. She's a great speaker and a sharp lady. I don't agree with her on many things but she will definitely be a worthy opponent in the upcoming provincial politics shakeup.