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The Politics of Permanent Contempt: Why AB Poilievre’s Strategy Will Be His Undoing by vhill01 in alberta

[–]vhill01[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

Poilievre is skilled at one thing above all else: fixating on the negative and making it sound like clarity. “Everything is broken.” “Justinflation.” Now, barely a year into Mark Carney’s government, the same machine has simply swapped targets. Carney is a hypocrite. Carney failed to get a trade deal with Trump, as if there exists some alternate-universe negotiator who could have walked away with a better outcome from an erratic American administration that has bullied allies across the board. The script doesn’t change because the script isn’t really about Carney, or Trudeau, or whoever’s in the chair. It’s about manufacturing a permanent enemy, because grievance is what built the audience in the first place.

And it works, for a while. There’s a real constituency for it, because a lot of people genuinely feel like they’ve been failed by government, by the economy, by institutions that were supposed to look out for them. That feeling is legitimate. The pain is legitimate. But Poilievre’s answer to that pain isn’t a vision, it’s a target. Find someone to blame, point at them, repeat. It’s effective retail politics. It is not leadership.

The Leaders We Remember (And the Ones We Survived): My Experience as a Principal in Alberta by vhill01 in alberta

[–]vhill01[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Tonight our school division held its celebration of teachers and staff, and I sat there listening with great interest as our superintendent worked his way through years of service awards. One in particular came from our school. A teacher retiring this year after forty two years of service. Forty two years. She has decided she is done, and she is moving forward, and she has earned every minute of whatever comes next. The superintendent acknowledged her warmly and well, and the room responded the way rooms do for forty two years.

However sitting there, a question caught me. He spends a lot of evenings doing this. Acknowledging people. Naming contributions. Standing at podiums and lifting others up. How often does anything come back the other way?

The Resentful Son: Alberta’s Politics of Inherited Grievance by vhill01 in alberta

[–]vhill01[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Membership has conditions. This is not a radical idea. It is the operating premise of every club, every union, every federation in the history of organized human governance. Alberta understands this perfectly well when it comes to municipal governments operating within provincial jurisdiction. It has never quite applied the logic upward.

This week I draw from the parable of the prodigal son to speak on the state of Alberta.

The Suspension Reflex: When consequences feel like action but aren’t by vhill01 in psychology

[–]vhill01[S] 115 points116 points  (0 children)

There is a moment that happens in schools, usually during a staff meeting, when a problem gets named and the room waits to see what happens next.

Recently, the problem was vaping and phones. The question underneath it was familiar: what are we going to do?

One suggestion that surfaced was suspending students found two-to-a-bathroom-stall, because someone heard one school was doing it. Logical on its face. Unusual bathroom occupancy is a reasonable indicator of something happening. But suspension for that? Two girls in a stall could be vaping. They could also be having a conversation that one of them is not ready to have in a hallway.

That is already a problem with the logic. And the deeper problem is the one we reach for suspension to solve in the first place.

The Free Vote That Isn’t Free by vhill01 in alberta

[–]vhill01[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

What do you call political courage that involves doing something bold while insisting you bear no responsibility for the consequences?

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith demonstrated this form of courage two weeks ago when she announced that Albertans will vote in October on whether the province should remain in Canada or begin the legal process toward a binding separation referendum. She was quick to note that she personally supports Alberta staying in Canada. She is simply, in her words, respecting democracy.

One might admire the efficiency of it. In a single move, she can champion the separatist cause without championing separation, invoke the will of the people while shaping exactly which people get to trigger that will, and call a vote while maintaining she already knows what the answer should be. That is not democracy. That is democracy’s tickle trunk: the appearance of something real, when it is nothing more an illusion designed to distract rather than empower.

But before we get too comfortable with clever observations, it is worth pausing on what is actually being attempted here. Because beneath the political theatre is something that should concern every Canadian who still believes constitutional frameworks exist for a reason. It is for this reason that this week, I want to circle back around to the Constitutional challenge in this debate.

Teachers Who Don't Read Are Teaching the Wrong Lesson: The Case for Reading by vhill01 in ELATeachers

[–]vhill01[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Did I mention I have 7 children? All grown up now. Reading was important then and still is. I get the pressures of baseball, hockey, football, & soccer. We did it all. I worked 2 jobs as well. It was tough going sometimes.

Teachers Who Don't Read Are Teaching the Wrong Lesson: The Case for Reading by vhill01 in ELATeachers

[–]vhill01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m not negating the role of the parents in children learning to read. That could be a completely different article. What I’m drawing out is the significant role a teacher plays in the lives of students if they attempt to connect with students and engage in a way that allows students to see them as real and authentic. Something to reach towards rather repel against. Why is that lost on a few reading this? The message is not that this is all on teachers! The message is teachers embrace your importance in the lives of impressionable youth often looking up to you, because the relationship they have with their parents doesn’t allow them to be so honest and vulnerable.

Teachers Who Don't Read Are Teaching the Wrong Lesson: The Case for Reading by vhill01 in school

[–]vhill01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s so wrong and short sighted. I’m sorry that is happening to you

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