Click Here for Diversity Online July 24, 2020
While Premier Kenney and the UCP are busy wrestling with our beloved and respected doctors, nurses, and teachers, in the foreground, handing juicy packages to giant corporations and friends in the background, you will expect to read or hear more public and private meetings of the opposition reaching out, not just to collect opinions or rally support against the UCP policies on the table, but also to build alliances, partnerships, and relationships, right?
Well, it seems Leader Rachel Notley and the NDPs just got that memo!
…Better late than never…!
This week, Alberta NDP organized a heavily attended roundtable with Edmonton Ethnic Media.
After listening to every question and answers, I’d be glad to whisper some casual observations.
Before opening my bag of observations, may I first say the world has changed a lot, such that it’s easier for the moon to shine during the day than for a Democratic Party to win an election without a solid multilateral base.
The world has changed such that most whites now lean conservatives, and most multinationals pull democratic.
As you know, we have a lot in common with conservatives but the racist elements scare us in the same way hell does. The ease and comfort with which conservative party leaders talk about, and defend their white supremacist members, colleagues, and friends, is more scary than the experiment of putting a scorpion in your pants. A classic example is Premier Kenney’s speechwriter. You continue the story from here….I need not say anymore!
On the other hand, Democratic parties talk the racism and multiculturalism talk, support more social projects, contrary to conservative cuts. The Democrats support the social justice rallies for change, but fall remotely short of real action to support the poor multinational communities get out of poverty, get accreditation, recognition, and jobs, or have true cultural inclusion in opportunities and success building.
This means that the Obama-styled strategy of effective engagement, passion, and excitement is the reason why democrats win elections, not concrete promises backed by effective actions. Maybe conservative anger too might pave Democratic success, a rare commodity though, that doesn’t happen often, does it?
The fact that Rachel is more rare in multicultural communities than the the white tiger, but ever present in front of the cameras of the mainstream media, is an old fashion mentality that Hilary Clinton knows too well how it ends. Yap! You guessed right, mainstream media is an endangered species in a fast changing internet dominated world where a bunch of community crazies like us with just our cell phones are able to reach over 30K people in a day, a hard to reach component of the population that few mainstream media are lucky enough to hit 2K.
Well, rushing back to the Ethnic Media Roundtable gist, the first of its kind for an opposition party in the face of a silent UCP government that responded to just one of our last 10 questions.
I must admit that Rachel has come a long way on issues like supporting Ethnic Media, the voice of multicultural communities, since the last time we asked her that question. The NDP now has a community engagement action plan with an upcoming event on systemic racism scheduled for July 30, opened to the public unlike the hand-picked UCP model that you never even heard about on the same topic. Rachel most importantly, admitted the fact that they could have done more on the Police Act, and related race issues, a topic that the UCP is now taking on in their characteristic secretive style, leaving us with very little knowledge of what they are really doing, especially those of us who will appreciate it the most and take the good news to the “gentiles”.
Engagement strategies are different for every politician but when we speak to some of the most influential multinationals in the province and they tell us that Rachel or someone from her team has not reached out to them with a few even crossing over to the UCP, I wonder if a wholesale mainstream media strategy and sustained ineffective multinational engagement strategy will be enough to overturn the extreme aggressive door-to-door retail politics invoked by Premier Kenney when he was Jason, especially at a more vulnerable time when he’s got a new version of the Wildrose flames to extinguish.
There can not be a better time for Rachel and the NDPs to face a UCP Leader who has fashioned a confrontational approach that has led to him picking fights with almost everyone, especially our beloveth doctors, nurses, and teachers, as a true “fight-picker in chief” of Alberta will do.
Have a very wonderful weekend and stay turned to Diversity Magazine on all platforms, and a video summary at the end of the day on Diversity TV on Facebook, and Diversity TV YouTube Channel.
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