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Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Pace’s Third Birthday (May 2010)

Sasha’s third birthday is this weekend.

How time flies…it feels like it was only yesterday that we were having Pace’s third birthday party…

3rd Birthday Cake

Posted 14 April 2016 § Family § Humour § MemoryLane § Pace § Photo § ThrowbackThursday ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

A Female Leader for SK NDP? Of Course…If They’re The Best Candidate #skpoli

I have no idea if this is a concerted effort but if not, it’s quite a coincidence.

In the last 24 hours on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and in letters to the editor (including in the comments), a variety of people have been putting forward the idea that the next leader of the Sask NDP should be a woman.

Dave McGrane who’s a political science professor and member of the NDP Executive goes so far as to say “the leadership race should not go forward if there is not a female candidate.”

Yikes!

First off, if anyone had agreed to that rule in 2013 when it was four young white dudes named Broten, Meili, Weir and Wotherspoon running, the NDP might still be waiting to pick a leader!

Second, although I am a fan of diversity, I’m never a fan of tokenism (it’s a subtle distinction but it’s there.)  Perhaps Cam Broten’s greatest legacy is that he brought gender parity to a political party in the legislature for the first time in history. But that wasn’t because the party ran women over men purposely (as far as I know) or gave them extra supports or backing (presumably, unless they were in a ridings that was going to get that extra support no matter what.)  Those women who were elected won their nomination contests then they worked like hell then they won their respective elections, just like every other candidate who won.  (Okay, maybe not some of those Sask Party candidates in rural Sask.) 😉

Third, it’s interesting to hear this groundswell for a female candidate when there could equally be calls for other groups to be represented – First Nations most obviously but others as well – but I’m not hearing that (which is maybe telling in and of itself?)

Anyhow, all rambles aside, I honestly quite like the idea of a female leader and think the right (left?) person could provide a nice counterpoint to Brad Wall.

But my hope is that the NDP *won’t* get too focused on this sort of non-issue and that there’s a strong leadership contest featuring (to be fair, as McGrane also says) a range of candidates who could be young or old; male or female; party insiders or outside activists with the best candidate coming out at the end.

How will the party know that someone is the best candidate?

Hopefully, this time the party will pick the candidate who does the best job in the leadership contest in demonstrating they can do the most important things that a Leader needs to do:

Ten Things The Sask NDP Needs From Its Next Leader 

  1. Showing fundraising prowess
  2. Signing up new members
  3. Inspiring current and new members across all parts of the province
  4. Demonstrated intelligence and mastery of policy
  5. Genuine connection with non-members even if they’re not NDPers
  6. Utilizing innovative practices that will lay the groundwork for the party to finally end the Brad Wall era in Saskatchewan
  7. An inclusive, positive approach that brings the party together after the leadership race
  8. Someone who provides a strong contrast to Brad Wall.
  9. I’m not a fan of MBA-speak but I’d like to see someone who *gets* branding, PR, framing, spin and other modern marketing techniques.
  10. The candidate *must* be bilingual. (oops, I thought I was posting about the next Federal leader for a second!) 😉

One Thing The NDP Does *Not* Need From Its Next Leader

  1. A requirement that the leader have a vagina.

May the best (wo)man win!

 

Posted 13 April 2016 § List § News § Politics § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Ranking Some Potential #skndpldr Candidates #skpoli

So Cam Broten resigned as Leader of the Sask NDP yesterday.

I’m seeing a range of reactions across social media ranging from lots of “Thank-you Cam“-type messages to some that are celebrating his defeat.

Maybe it’s because the Stanley Cup playoffs are about to start (Go Panthers!) but personally, I keep thinking about a sports analogy.

To me, being Party Leader is sort of like being a head coach in hockey.  You’re “hired to be fired”. Even when you get results, you’re just postponing the inevitable.  And if you don’t get results, sometimes you leave unceremoniously – even if you only get one chance and/or even if it’s not fair that one person gets singled out for the faults the players, the managers, the others on the coaching staff, the team’s historical performance or myriad other factors, both within and beyond your control.  (Edit: Ack! I see Noah Evanchuk has already used the “coach” analogy. I didn’t see that before I wrote this – honest!)

(Someone else had another analogy – they said it’s sort of like a funeral where everyone’s saying nice things about the dearly departed but what really needs to be done is to have a frank conversation about why this is the second person to meet the same fate in less than five years!)

So anyhow, I may have some other thoughts about the Sask NDP’s campaign and how they might move forward in the weeks and months to come.  But for now, I think I’ll focus on turning the page with a patented Head Tale list…

Here’s a list of some of the names who might run for the Sask NDP leadership, ranked roughly by their odds of winning the leadership…

Top Tier

Top-Middle Tier

  • Buckley Belanger, Danielle Chartier, Cathy Sproule – existing MLA’s with more than one term in office

Middle Tier

  • Doyle Vermette, Warren McCall, David Forbes – also multi-term MLA’s but whose names don’t come up as much as other current MLA’s in “potential leader” discussions
  • Yens Pedersen – former leadership candidate, former party president
  • Noah Evanchuk – former MP candidate 

Bottom-Middle Tier

Long(er) Shots

  • There are probably numerous others within the party in behind-the-scenes roles (Party President, etc.) or municipal politicians (eg. Charlie Clark in Saskatoon) or academics (eg. David McGrane) or former MLA’s/MP’s or others who are involved in grassroots activism or the labour movement (someone suggested Sask Fed of Labour President, Larry Hubich on Twitter but I think he quickly shot them down.  But maybe Tom Graham who’s President of CUPE Sask?) who might throw their hat in the ring.
  • Maybe some media personality?
  • Possibly a First Nations leader?
  • Some are speculating about a former leader coming back – Lorne Calvert or Roy Romanow – but I think they’re either joking or delusional! 😉
  • [Edit: Along the same lines as a former leader coming back, someone suggested to me that a former MLA who was defeated in 2011 or retired might also consider running – someone like Frank Quennell is tied pretty closely to Cam Broten but others like Pat Atkinson or Sandra Morin or Darcy Furber might consider it.]

Longest Shots

  • Naveed Anwar (sorry, I couldn’t help myself!)
  • Dwain Lingenfelter (suggested by a reader)

As for interim leader, I think it’ll either be Cathy Sproule (if she doesn’t want the leadership) or David Forbes.

Posted 12 April 2016 § List § News § Politics § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Music Monday – “I made something of myself and now you wanna come back/But your love—it isn’t free, it has to be earned/Back then I didn’t have anything you needed so I was worthless”

“American Idol” which has had a massive impact on pop culture ended its 15 season run last week.

So I thought I would post a recent clip from the season one winner, Kelly Clarkson, who gives an amazing performance of a very personal song she wrote that contrasts her absentee father against the father of her current child.

Beyond Clarkson being emotional thinking about where she started and how far she’s come as Idol nears its end, she’s also pregnant as she sings this song which adds even more to the emotional impact if that’s possible.

Watch with the Kleenex handy…

“Piece by Piece” – Kelly Clarkson

Posted 11 April 2016 § MemoryLane § MusicMonday § Sad § United States § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

A Bad Week for the #NDP: Federal NDP Lose Election Then Leader. Sask NDP Lose Election Then Leader? #skpoli #canpoli #yeg2016

So it’s been a pretty tough week for Team Orange…

The Saskatchewan NDP got a shellacking in the provincial election last Monday, a loss which many are blaming at least partly on still lingering divisions between the 50.3% of the party that supported Cam Broten and the 49.7% of the party that supported Ryan Meili in the last NDP leadership race.  This setback for the Sask NDP was capped by the shocking loss of the Leader Cam Broten’s own seat.

Then the Federal NDP had their convention this weekend which many are also portraying as evidence of a party divided – between those who would defend the resource economy and the workers who rely on resource jobs against those who want to LEAP into the future via a quick shift to a green economy.  This convention was capped by the shocking defeat of Leader Tom Mulcair in a leadership review.

This never-ending dichotomy between the pragmatists and idealists reminds me of the post I did after the last Sask NDP Leadership Race summarizing some reading I’d done about how there are two differing approaches to politics – the naive (embodied by idealistic progressives like Naomi Klein) and the cynical (embodied by more pragmatic centrists like Rachel Notley) in a constant push-pull between ideological purity and making concessions to appeal to the broadest swath of citizens so as to gain power and actually have the potential to implement your positions.

Given recent events, that post needs revised though.  Both Cam Broten and Tom Mulcair have shown that there is one faulty assumption in the definition of these two approaches, namely, the conventional wisdom that a strong focus on centrist policies, top-down control, safe over risky in all things, etc. is your best bet for electoral success while “radical” left wing candidates are unelectable.

In fact, with the quick rise of democratic socialist, Jeremy Corbyn who was elected Labour Leader in the UK and leads the official opposition there; the meteoric rise of Bernie Sanders from fringe democratic socialist candidate at the start of his Presidential campaign to challenging and often defeating the best positioned political candidate in history to yes, even Mr. Trudeau, who true to Liberal form, ran as if he were a leftist and ended up being rewarded with a resounding majority for his efforts (yet is back to centrist positions), something different seems to be happening.

People appear to have a hunger for something different – authenticity, honesty, trustworthiness, inspiration – that they’re not getting anywhere else but from the candidates that are normally easily dismissed as being too idealistic.

Given that, it’ll be interesting to see where the Sask NDP and the Federal NDP end up with their respective leadership situations.

(Quick clarification – As I said in my initial post a couple years ago, the lines between “naive” and “cynical” aren’t always 100% in one direction or the other and are more along a spectrum that mixes aspects of both.  Or as a colleague put it, “Why are people shocked to hear that supporters of the NDP can hold and consider the pros and cons of two opposing positions in their head at the same time?”  On that same point, I think it’s safe to say that Mulcair/Broten were both chosen because they were “safe” centrist candidates who were seen as giving their parties their best chances for electoral success.  Yet even those two clashed on certain policies even though they otherwise had many political similarities.  These variances are partly due to the spectrum and partly due to different perceptions in different parts of the country about what is “moderate”, what is “progressive” and so on.)

Posted 10 April 2016 § Canada § MemoryLane § News § Politics ‡ Comments (0) °

Saturday Snap – Maybe At Assassin School Though?

I don’t think “Hiding in small places after class” is something he learned at parkour…  

Posted 09 April 2016 § Family § Pace § Photo § SaturdaySnap § Sports ‡ Comments (0) °

Friday Fun Link – Hack The Menu

Some interesting ideas on how to “hack” the menus of various chain restaurants.

Posted 08 April 2016 § FridayFunLink § Meme ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – A Creative Use For Assistive Technology in a Public Library (March 2013)

When I worked in RPL’s Outreach Unit serving Regina’s homebound & visually impaired citizens, one of my projects was to facilitate the purchase and implementation of  a number of pieces of Assistive Technology equipment.

Due to an inquiry from a colleague who was setting up a series of Lego programs, we also realised this equipment could be re-purposed in creative ways.  For example, the example pictured below where a member of the Sask Lego Users Group (SLUG) was able to use one of our magnifiers to help people attending his program (including Pace and I) get a better view of the figures and other creations he was showcasing.

img4904

Posted 07 April 2016 § Library § MemoryLane § Pace § Photo § Saskatchewan § ThrowbackThursday § Work ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Yay For Meaningless Internet Points! #feelthebern #whichhillary

I occasionally post on Reddit but most of my comments get a handful of upvotes (maybe) then disappear into obscurity.

Lately, as I’ve been following the Bernie Sanders campaign from afar and knowing how much the campaign is being driven by Reddit users, I’ve been a bit more active than usual adding my theories, observations and/or snark on various topics related to Sanders’ run for President.

Tonight, I threw out a quick jab in a discussion about a recent development where, about a week ago, Hillary was being all high & mighty and saying Bernie’s should “watch his tone”.

It seemed like a weird comment at the time since Bernie Sanders has been relentlessly positive and refusing to get dirty about Clinton’s various faults and scandals or even to directly attack her by name, instead choosing to link her into a wider problem with American politics.

But that comment about “tone” appears to be a set-up by the Clinton campaign so she’d have an excuse to start going negative on Sanders – who is relentlessly gaining on her – which she has done in the last 24 hours.  This includes her making a disgusting attack on Sanders that attempts to tie him to the shooting at Sandy Hook by saying he supports gun manufacturers over victims of gun violence.

My Highest Upvoted Reddit Comment on Bernie Sanders

I posted a quick comment, almost as a throwaway joke, expecting to maybe get a 10 or 20 upvotes which is what my most popular Bernie comments tend to get.

Instead, in a couple short hours, it’s become my most Upvoted comment ever on Reddit (and still going up as I type this – now at 1348)!

Plus people are also re-posting this comment on Twitter (and probably other places as well.)

As always, things like this make me contemplate the ever-changing role of social media in politics.

I mean, on one hand, lots of people still say social media can’t impact elections.  But every election that goes by, I say the influence of social media only grows.

My quick comment has been seen by *at least* 1200 people in a matter of a couple hours.  If something goes really viral, it can be seen by millions in that same time frame.

No doubt about it – that can have a YUGE impact! 😉

Posted 06 April 2016 § Humour § Internet § Meme § News § Politics § Technology § United States § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

(Not Quite) The Mother of All “I Told You So!” Posts #skvotes #skpoli

As I mentioned yesterday, soon after the last Sask NDP Leadership Race in 2013, with Ryan Meili’s extremely close loss to Cam Broten still fresh and painful, I posted that I wanted two main things from the new Leader:

1) in the short term, genuine, humble outreach to other teams to acknowledge what a close race it had been and to draw everyone together

2) in the longer term, to get the party back to at least the 20-seat level it had been at before the disastrous experiment with bringing Dwain Lingenfelter as Leader so it would be clear the NDP was heading in the right direction.

My take is that the first point never happened which led directly to the failure on the second point.

Instead, last night, the NDP ended up with only one more seat (gaining two and losing one) compared to what they had going into the election.  Apparently, they also ended up with *less* of the overall vote share since the Sask Party recently added three new seats in the province.

On top of that, I think it was beyond shocking for most observers to see the one seat lost belonged to NDP Leader Cam Broten who was upset in an extremely close race in what was probably the nail biter of the night.

There’s all kinds of things I’m thinking and would love to say in the mother-of-all “I Told You So!” posts – good, bad, ugly, angry, sad, sentimental, resentful, conciliatory, and even humourous – but given that the result was probably worse than anyone predicted, I think I’m going to skip all that for the moment.

(Okay, I’ll share a humourous one – one colleague looking for bright spots mentioned that the NDP now have perfect gender parity in the legislature – five men and five women.  I responded that if Nicole White had won her close race in Saskatoon, she’d join Nicole Sarauer and Nicole Rancourt as new MLA’s and the NDP would also be well on the way to “Nicole” parity too!) 😉

Anyhow, instead of loudly blaring “I Told You So!” and unnecessarily rubbing salt into a lot of people’s wounds today, as gently and quietly, as possible, I’ll just say…

“I told you so.” 🙁
Posted 05 April 2016 § News § Politics § Saskatchewan § Wisdom ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: