The Geography of Hope

So we had a provincial election here in Alberta yesterday, and we here at GOH HQ were disappointed (though not exactly surprised) to see the business-as-usual Conservatives returned to power for the 11th straight time with a landslide majority.

I won't bore all you non-Albertans out there with the province's political minutiae, but I will say that I think some of the Conservatives' success came down to a marked preference for the devil you know, who at least felt obliged to run on a "change" platform.

I'll also mention that Premier Ed Stelmach told the CBC he was in fact reading The Geography of Hope during the campaign. (Click on the "Get to know Ed" tab to read the direct quote.) I can only hope that "Change That Works" Ed accepts the basic premise of the book and realizes that his wait-a-generation climate change plan is the closest thing to my book's antithesis this side of an ExxonMobil ad campaign and an insult to the idea of progress. I won't hold out too much hope in the near term, though Alberta's still a folksy enough place that the possibility I might one day get to discuss all this with Ed in person is not out of the question.

Finally, click here to read a fun little riff I wrote for the Globe's Report on Business Magazine, wherein I invented a best-case scenario in which Alberta became the engine of Canada's green economy by 2018. (Scroll down to "Canada's Oil Capital Will Go Green.") Note that one of the first things I suggest is dissolving the provincial Liberal Party (which will wear the stain of Trudeau's hated National Energy Program forever), merging with the Greens, and reclaiming the province's reasonable centre (which I remain convinced is far larger than the current Legislature would lead you to believe).