Alberta

Wearing bloomers leads to career success

You’d never think wearing bloomers would get you anywhere. But it did. I had the best worst job for two summers of university. I was a role player and a tour guide at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. What does that entail and how was it both the best and the worst? First, a bit of dirt on “The Village”. For those that haven’t spent time at The Village, it is a living history museum just east of Edmonton on Highway 16 that recreates the lives of Ukrainian settlers in East Central Alberta from 1899 to 1930. The buildings on […]

My crystal ball

Let me start by saying I don’t believe the polls. We’re hours away from an Alberta provincial election and throughout the entire campaign, the release of polling data has been a daily sport. From the beginning, all of the polls have been pointing to a majority or minority win by the upstart and unproven Wildrose Party. With all due respect to my market research friends who do good, solid work, I struggle to wrap my brain around the poll results. I don’t think this struggle comes out of denial or a desire to see a different result, but simply because […]

5 lessons Alberta’s political parties can learn from Christy Clark

The election of Christy Clark as the head of the BC Liberal Party and that province’s next Premier holds some valuable lessons for the many political parties in Alberta that will soon be choosing their next leader. 1. Clark wasn’t in cabinet before the leadership vote, nor was she particularly loyal to her party in the years preceding.  And party members didn’t care. Clark was not only not a part of Gordon Campbell’s government or cabinet before the leadership vote, she had pretty well abandoned her party for many years as she built her profile as a province-wide radio show […]

Four reasons why Canadian politics might actually be interesting in 2011

Okay, so I think politics are interesting every day of every year, but most Canadians would completely disagree. And I can understand why most would feel this way. But this year should be different. Here’s four reasons why.