In what may be the death knell for this blog I’ve decided to start a new blog – AlbertaVote.ca – about the upcoming provincial election. Here’s my post on why:
Getting off the pot and into a blog
I left partisan politics a couple of years ago, right around the time of the coalition discussion in Ottawa and the global economic downturn. You can listen to much of my rationale on The Unknown Studio’s podcast on the topic where Dave Cournoyer and I were guests but the shortest way I can explain it is that I was at a point where I had to choose where to put my political energy and partisanship no longer was rewarding. Do not get me wrong, a lot of people whom I like and even love dearly devote countless hours and dollars to partisan causes and I applaud their efforts, indeed your democracy would not work at all without their passion and participation. It was far more personal than any general disgust with the system or a specific party. I felt I had better things to do, better ways to be heard and so rather than hang around, I got off the proverbial pot.
And I haven’t regretted it one minute – at least until the other day. Having fought two provincial election campaigns I recognized the tell-tale signs that the next one had begun, and I was on the outside.
I still have a passion for politics, a keen interest, some training and a day job that means I have to pay attention anyway so I thought I needed to channel that into something. This blog is that something.
I’m not sure where it is going to go, but I do know it is going to focus on the next provincial election, and the many political moves that will happen between now and then. I’m going to endeavour to make the posts of a reasonable quality and provide as much context to what is going on and how it relates to the coming polling day where we elect our provincial government.
What I cannot promise is to be free of bias. I will try and be upfront with any biases I might have and present you the information, news and subtext from my perspective, and try and point interested readers in additional places to find more information. You should be judge – and you will be, one way or the other, come Spring 2012 if not sooner. I also can’t promise freedom from run-on sentences. I’m notorious for it and albertavote.ca does not have an editor.
If you have any thoughts share them in the comments section, drop me a line at duncan@phendrana.ca or send them to @phendrana and @albertavote over Twitter.
This is the first election in many Albertans’ lifetime whose conclusion isn’t essentially foretold. The first since I’ve left junior high. I’m excited to see where it takes us and I hope you are too.
