ministers mel knight and luke ouellette crash landowners rights meeting.

This is nothing more than a put up job for the Wildrose and people see through this type of negative campaigning. Shame.

What a joke. How about the Wildrose puts up both arguements and let the people decide, instead of intentionally spreading misinformation to conjure up fear and confusion.

I was at this meeting and although the video is edited to show the Ministers in a bad light, I can confirm that Luke Ouellette did admit to not understanding the bills (“I have one heck of a time understanding a lot of the real legal stuff within bills and how it works.”) This comment was not taken out of context and Ouellette answered no questions pertaining to the bills. Mel Knight, although obviously more well-versed in the bills, also did not answer questions from the landowners in the audience.

Joe Anglin presented one side of the story and magnanimously gave the uninvited Ministers an opportunity to share their side of the story. Unfortunately neither Minister chose to articulate the valuable and important parts of the legislation that benefit Albertans. Instead they went on the defensive, shut down questions from the audience and visibly showed their frustration.

As a 2011 Alberta Party leadership candidate I attended this meeting, as well as the debate in Eckville between Keith Wilson and Ted Morton, with an open mind. I gained no insight from the PCs at either meeting (or during ableg questions periods) that would lead me to support the bills. The most rational conversations I’ve had have been with people who were part of a Regional Advisory Committee (RAC). From their perspective there is a lot of great planning and collaboration that will be lost if we repeal the bills.

But my question is: “How do we restore productive debate in Alberta that can elevate the conversation and move our Province towards its full potential?”

I see good debate happening sometimes in different blog comments, but I think we need to unite and get each debate in Alberta that matters in one place online. Albertans need a place to go to find both sides of every story rationally presented. I personally have notes that give the pros and cons of many different issues that I would love to share.

Or perhaps this already exists somewhere?? If it does, please let me know and I will start contributing to the conversation.

If it doesn’t, I know people willing to invest in getting a “One-Stop Alberta Debate Shop” going online. We could couple this with face-to-face discussion groups, research and even formalized debates between citizens, not politicians. Across the province we could use this as a tool to get informed, learn how we personally feel about different issues and use the information to help us decide who to elect to represent us. I even see it evolving to having the ability to crowdsource solutions that reflect the majority of Albertan’s values and beliefs (and then we could get rid of partisan politics altogether!)

When I lived in Europe and Nigeria, I participated in true debate daily. After being home for 2 years I’ve come the conclusion our quality of life and our ability to address social issues is being seriously affected by our inability to openly debate without being persecuted for our opinions. This is perhaps why we are behind Europe on many fronts. (For example, social entrepreneurship, micro-financing, appreciation of architecture etc.)

I may be a member of the Alberta Party, but the reason I joined a political party for the first time was so I could go beyond ideology and safely explore all sides of an issue. I have come to the conclusion that people currently won’t allow a political party to remain non-partisan. I therefore want to be a part of something outside of a political party that restores debate in Alberta.

We are getting Alberta nowhere closer to its potential debating in Twitter, so let’s unite and get a real conversation going. One where we can talk about taxes, royalties, land use bills … One where we can figure out when deregulation helps Albertans and when it doesn’t … One where we can safely explore private healthcare solutions that work and those that don’t.

Maybe I’m crazy thinking these conversations need to happen outside of politics, but if you agree with me and want to be a part of a group that creates a “One-Stop Alberta Debate Shop” going, please email me at seachange4alberta@gmail.com.

Or as I mentioned before, if it already exists please point me in its direction so I can get involved.

Tammy Maloney

Am I the only one who finds it disturbing that a Minister of the Crown is unable to articulate the intent of legislation that his Government introduced? Isn’t that why these people were elected? Ministers are supposed to be responsible (i.e. accountable) to us as voters through our elected representatives in the House for legislation they introduce and policies they implement. How can they do that if they are unable to even speak intelligently about those very laws and policies?

Yeah, where’s the unedited version? Oh wait, that would be presenting all of the facts – something that’s against Wildrose policy.

for the unedited version, contact info@landownersagainstbills.com

Here’s part of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk8D2KNNlXo&feature=email

The full version doesn’t make it any better
jerrymacgp and Kevin s – those are exactly the points that need to be made.