Doug's Blog

This morning I had the distinct pleasure of joining a video conference that included over 20 communities with over 200 people on the use and future of video conferencing.  I served as Chair of Rural Development for four years for this province and for those of you that don't already know, rural development is my passion and purpose and the reason why I first ran for this position.

There is so much opportunity to utilize video conferencing and communication tools to enhance the opportunities in rural Alberta.  I visited Capital Health Region a few years ago and they were so please to point out that they could have a team of specialist who could now do remote diagnostics and telehealth to a community like Hinton, and they demonstrated it to me.  I was quick to point out to them, however, that communication tools is a two way system and a team of specialists in Hinton could do remote diagnostics and telehealth into Edmonton as well.

Education strikes me as a fantastic medium for teleconferencing.  When we first proposed that every student in grade 4 and up would learn a second language the notion was brilliant but the logistics were nightmarish.  Now, the chance for someone to teach French or Spanish, or even Portuguese or Hungarian from anywhere in Alberta to a group of students spread around the province is a reality.

The locations are there as well, with Libraries and Community Futures and a host of other venues, the only thing left is to develop a culture of use.  That culture has to begin with me and my collegues.  Although I attend virtually any town or county council meeting in my constituency and find that they have no paper (all correspondence is place in folders on a central server) and all have access to the internet, the same situation does not exist with MLA's.  Many of the meetings I attend still occur in places without internet access and with reams of paper at the table. 

I hope that someday soon I will be able to sit in my office in Edmonton (like today, when I still have meetings up here to attend) and do a video conference with a constituent from my office in Wainwright.  Or better still, sit in my office in Wainwright and talk to a school class in Daysland in the afternoon, or a constituent with an issue in Castor in the morning, so that none of us have to drive 60 or 80 miles just to have a face to face.

I would like to say that this is all the wave of the future, but after witnessing this morning the birth of an all day conference that brought so many people from so many places together, I would have to say . . . . the future is here.

Today is Monday, October 27th and I am official 36 years and one day old.  According to Stats Canada I am pretty well half way through my life if I live to be the average age.  It seems the majority of the population is generally afraid of getting older, but as I reflect on it, it seems to me that the best is yet to come. 

I have passed all of the awkward phases in juniour high and high school and passed through two university degrees, discovering myself along the way.  I have a job that gives me purpose and meaning in my life, a lot of friends and family that love me, a beautiful family and a lot to look forward to.  It has been revealled in surveys the majority of people say that their forties is the decade in which they have the most fun and the fifties is the decade in which they make the most money.  The sixties is when you get to relax a bit, travel, and enjoy grandchildren, and the seventies is when you still get to do most things you did in your sixties, but you get to reflect a little more on what you have accomplished, and get respected for your wisdom.  How can the first 36 years have been better than the next 36 . . . I just don't see how. 

Even if I don't get 36 more years, I have lived one of the greatest lives that anyone has in the world (and so have you).  No, I don't mean that I am great, I mean that I have lived a great life.  I have grown up in a nation almost free of desease, with clean drinking water and lots to eat.  I never had to worry about being shot or knifed or blown up on my way to the playground, and . . . hell, we had a playground to go to.  I got a great education, great healthcare, warm clothes, and a world of opportunity laid before me if only I was willing to work a little bit for it.

I guess my point is that not only have I lived better than most of the rest of the world, we all have in this Province, but also that I live in a nation where the average life expectancy is twice my age, while half of the rest of the world has a life expectancy that I have already passed. In some circumstance people will argue that what is important is quality over quantity, while others would argue it is quantity over quality.  In this case, when you get double the quantity and exponentially more quality, a little appreciation is in order.

For those of you who asked, I am not sad about my age, I am glad for another year of glorious opportunities to pursue.  I will take full advantage of each and every one of them.

I once heard someone describe politics, or at least successful politicians, as walking a fine line.  The fine line apparently was between doing what you need to do to get elected, and doing what you need to do because it is the right thing to do.  Politicians, it was argued, that only do what they believe is right often don't embrace the importance of public opinion and quickly lose elections, while those that only do what they need to get elected often have longetivity but little credibility so they get nothing done.  Success, she argued, was that fine line somewhere in between.

Today, it seems to me, that there are many fine lines that I and my collegues must walk every moment of every day.  Take the situation today . . . well, not exactly this particular day, more like these particular days.  Albertans have high expectations and want more and more over the last few years, but they also have begun to demand that the government save more to prepare for an economic lull, which has recently appeared.  Spend more to meet growing expectations and demands, slow down spending to prepare for economic consequences - a fine line. 

Speaking of fine lines, another recent one involves the recent global economic downturn.  Some calls come in that demand that we reduce spending immediately and drastically, but the government has a bigger role than just to manage spending.  Many people are justifiably concerned about the global economic situation and are closely watching their governments for signals on what will happen.  If the government, any government, were to drastically cut spending or programs it may signal panic to the public, who in turn will lose confidence in their economic future which could in fact generate a further economic decline.  Granted, this economic situation will be challenging for 1 to 5 years and we have to ensure we have contained, or rather, restrained operating spending increases to transition through the slowdown, but a drastic sudden change is not the answer.

This government took proactive measures 15 years ago and has managed to save money and eliminate the debt.  Few other jurisdictions in the world are more prepared than Alberta to weather this global situation and so while others may be inclined to panic, we can still show confidence.  And we must still show confidence.

My most interesting observation today was that the leader of the official opposition stood in the House today and chastized the government for spending too much money (something I have done in the past as well) but almost every other question from every other member of the opposition was about why we weren't spending more on each of their issues of choice.  Sad that one party can talk out of both sides of their mouth and demand more spending and less spending at the same time.  Doing that is NOT a fine line.

Yesterday I put up a blog about my day of frustration, and today I have to say that I am feeling elated and proud of the work that I am doing in using many different methods of social media to communicate and engage Albertans.  I received a lot of feedback on my Facebook Page about my blog, and as you can see it was all about continuing down the road I have travelled and in using all of the mediums available to communicate and to get back feedback.

Today, I jump onto my website and I see that my speech, "13 Ways to Kill Your Community," has been posted onto the website and broken up so that you can listen to each one of the ways individually.  I recorded the speech in Ponoka at a Chamber event and asked Robert and the crew at Vital Effect Web Design (the company that designed my website) if they could find a way to put it up.  Not only did they find a way to do that, but it is in a useful and dynamic format.  I get requests to do this speech all of the time and have a current line up of communities waiting for me to come and speak.  Now the message is out there in another format, and easily accessible. I would like to thank the team of brilliant minds at Vital Effect Web Design, as well as the social media gurus, such as Troy and Heather, here at the Legislature for backing me up and driving me forward.  Great things are here, and even better things are yet to come.

Some have you may have noticed by latest status updates on Facebook.  Today I found that everywhere I turned I faced criticism over what I was doing.  The irony is that the action I am taking is in direct response to other complaints that the same person has made in the past.  Today, someone told me I shouldn't use facebook for political activities, but that same person complained that I needed to find better ways to communicate my message.  Another person complained that they never seem to know what I am working on, so I created two Facebook accounts, post the videos of my speeches in the house on 6 different sites, use Twitter and MySpace, and am building LinkedIn connections, and have my webpage with all of the bills, speeches, pictures, videos and so on for them to view, and today he called to complain that I am relying to much on new communications technology to get the message out and that I should start using faxes.  I'm not joking.

Today was a day when it seemed that no one is happy with anything I am doing, they all have better ideas on how to do it, but not one seemed to want to help with their own solutions.  I think it was my grandpa who said to me, "Before you complain you had better meet three criteria: first, you fully and completely understand what the problem is, second, you have a solution that is well thought out and comprehensive to offer, and third, you want the job of implementing the solution."  I don't mean to sound too negative, but sometimes I am astounded by people who have nothing to offer but negative comments, expect you to act on them with no suggested solution, and then complain about the solution.  Today just happened to be a non-stop day of that and it started to wear on me a bit.  I reminded myself all day long however, that you can never please everybody, and so I am determined to be the best communiticating politician in the nation, to continue to engage the people of Alberta, continue to serve my constituents, keep everyone up to date, and . . . well, stick to the plan.

Have a good day folks.  Tomorrow, let us all smile at those we pass, pass on compliments to each other on jobs well done, and be done with letting negativity get us down

Well, this has been an interesting day already.  We are slowing working out some of the bugs on the website and it is coming along nicely.  We have wonderful links to YouTube, Yahoo Videos, Google Videos, and Revver Videos.  I have my connections and page building on LinkedIn, on MySpace, you can follow me on Twitter, and on Facebook I have a personal page and we also have a Doug Griffiths Supporter Page, both of which will have videos of my speeches in the Legislature up, just as they appear on the other video pages and the website. 

I am doing all of this while keeping up on my regular committee work, constituency issues and speaking in the House.  Today, or more specifically this afternoon, you will be able to watch me speak on Private Members Bill 2006 - Personal Income Tax (Physical Activity Credit).  The hansard text and video will be on the website tomorrow or you can watch live at the Government of Alberta Legislative Assembly website.  This evening when we re-adjourn at 7pm, I will move Bill 32 - Meat Inspection Ammendment Act, 2008, and Bill 33 - Agriculture Financial Services Amendment Act, 2008, through the house.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the first week of session is almost complete.  What a week it has been.  Working on Public Accounts meetings, helping with Agriculture issues, regular work on constituent's issue, and putting together meetings with Ministers.  Most days I have started at 7am and having finished until we adjourn late in the evening.

I completed a members statement today on the Alberta Livestock and Meat Strategy, I pressed Bills 20 and 21 (Bill 20 - Agriculture Statutes Repeal Act, 2008 and Bill 21 - Heating Oil and Propane Rebbate Act, 2008) through Committee of the Whole, and introduced Bill 32 - Meat Inspection Ammendment Act, 2008. For updates on the Bills, their progress, and the content, please see the section of this site entitled, Government Bills. You can also view the text of the members statement on this site under speeches, or shortly the video of it will be uploaded and you can listen and look as you like.

Tomorrow I will be in Calgary to attend the Harvest Gala hosted by Growing Alberta, where I will introduce the Premier and present an award. 

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen;