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Kevin Taft’s Why we go on speech

Kevin Taft’s keynote address to the recent ALP convention deals with “why” Alberta Liberals keep pushing for political change.  As his farewell address, it is a moving and intelligent commentary on political life in Alberta for opposition supporters. 

It’s over four-and-a-half years since I became Leader of the Alberta Liberals and I have given more speeches than I can count. I’ve given speeches on financial policy and the need to build up the Heritage Fund; speeches on upgrading bitumen on this side of the 49th parallel; on the value of public health care and the failures of electricity deregulation. 

And I’ve spoken at Alberta Liberal Party events about things that are pretty personal, like our honeymoon; about my misadventures in farming, getting jolted in sensitive places by electric fences, and trying to collect eggs from a rooster;

And I’ve spoken about the values that I think Albertans and Canadians hold dear.

Today, I thought-- I’m going to take a different approach.  What are they going to do, fire me?

So I decided to give today’s speech on the theme of: ‘Why?’ That’s the title of my speech: “A Speech on the Theme of ‘Why?’”

I want to talk about us, here, today, and the big ‘Why’ mystery concerning us: Why do we keep challenging the odds? Why do we keep bucking the system and coming back for more?

This weekend is about new beginnings, about the future, about the possibility of new directions and the promise of new successes. There is spirit here, there is energy and enthusiasm. 

Of course, that gets one to thinking: Why?  Where does that energy come from? 

Let’s be honest: it is 87 years since there was an Alberta Liberal government.  So I don’t think anyone would fault us too terribly much for throwing in the towel.  Just play along with Ed or Ralph or whoever happens to be the head Tory of the day.

But No, not us. 
Here we are, and not just with interest, but with enthusiasm and passion!
Well, one explanation is pretty simple: In the case of Mo and David and Dave, they are crazy.  They are absolutely nuts. But then, we’re all nuts!  I know this to be a fact—I’ve worked with most of you. You are as crazy as I am, and that’s pretty crazy.
Let me illustrate with an example: Let’s say, you come home one day to your family and you say: “Honey, you won’t believe the exciting news!  I was approached today to help with this organization.  They want me walk door-to-door every evening for two hours, and all-day every weekend for a month in the dead of winter.  I get to talk to all kinds of people who won’t like me.  Some will even slam the door in my face.  It’ll be soooo much fun.”
Your family starts to look oddly at you, but you continue: “They told me that last campaign a bunch of people fell on the ice and hurt them selves, and that that makes this even more thrilling. And then I’m going to have to make hundreds of phone calls to people I don’t know, and organize events until I can hardly stand it. 
And so your kids say, “Are we short of money?  Is this a part-time job?”
And you say: “Did you ask if I get paid?  (And even you want to know if you get paid.)
“Well, no, but I get to donate as much money as I can … they’re going to ask and ask and ask.  They will be our friends for life! And then, maybe I’ll get onto the Executive, and be able to go to long, long meetings and drive hundreds of miles to get to them. Isn’t that exciting? Aren’t you proud?” you say and then you add “Oh, and by the way, no one has succeeded at this since 1921!”
And your family looks at you like you are nuts.  And they are right.  And with any luck at all, they’ll be just as crazy as you are.
So Why DO we keep doing this? 
We’re dreamers. 

We’re skeptics but not cynics. 
We’re idealists but not completely naïve. 
We’re fighters. 
We’re not prepared to settle for the easy way, just because it’s easy.

In every successful society there are voices that question the conventional wisdom. Voices that say: ‘There is a better way.’ Voices that ask, ‘What about this?’
and ‘What about that?’

History and destiny are not like highways, with lane markers and turn signs. 
The future is mostly uncharted; it’s like sailing across open water or trekking without a trail—you constantly need to make course corrections. 

Like sailors and trekkers, successful societies need to make course corrections too.  They need members who say, ‘We’ve gone too far this way.’ ‘We’ve overlooked something.’
‘Keep your eye on the stars.’ And sometimes:  “It’s time to chart a new course.’

Every successful society needs those voices, and in Alberta many of those voices come from you, the people in this room. We are people who believe in the value of debate and discussion and constructive opposition. People who think that many different voices, heard loud and clear, are healthy for democracy, and better for society.

I think one of the things that drives us crazy, is that we –those of us in this room-- see two things about Alberta that others aren’t noticing: we see what unbelievable potential there is here, and at the same time we see how far off course this province is sailing. 

The paradox is that, it is the unbelievable potential of Alberta that allows us to get so far off course. Today, that’s a paradox; if we don’t correct our course, some day it may be a tragedy.

What do I mean?  You’ve all heard me say this over and over: there is probably no place else on Earth where so few people share in such abundance.  We have it all, and we’ve had it all for over half a century. 

So of course Alberta is a comfortable place to live, for most of us. Comfortable enough that most people don’t really want a change.

But here’s the thing: If we don’t make a course correction, and make it soon, we’re going to be in for a rude awakening. Our government is spending far more than it can sustain;
Alberta’s Treasury has brought in hundreds of billions of dollars in royalties and we’ve saved virtually none of it; we are piling up environmental liabilities; we trail the developed world when it comes to managing climate change. 

Sure, our schools are mostly good; our health system works pretty well for most people if they can get into it; and our roads are finally getting the repairs they need. But as a society we’ve lost our course. We have no particular destinations. Our government hasn’t had a fiscal goal since they took Laurence Decore’s goal of balancing the books. 

There is no particular social goal, or intellectual goal, or any other kind of goal. Alberta is in danger of becoming a well-stocked boat adrift on the ocean of history, with the crew and passengers gradually partying their way through the supplies.

We in this room are the ones who have worked hard to bring forward the plans to correct the course; to manage the wealth, and support the people, and look after the environment.  Obviously we haven’t succeeded in convincing enough people that a change is due. The fact that we haven’t succeeded at that is frustrating… and yet, the hope that we might-- keeps us going.

So there are a few thoughts on why we keep going. 
We look at things differently and we see different threats and opportunities.  We believe deeply in the need to correct this province’s course and though we are frustrated with ourselves that we haven’t succeeded we know it is important to keep trying. 

One of the great things about this kind of work is you constantly meet people who teach you new things. A couple of weeks ago I was meeting with a woman about a particular concern. Part way through she paused and said, “You know, I’m from a very conservative family, and one of the things I’ve noticed about conservative people is that they come from a position of fear. They don’t see a world of problems to solve, but of things to be afraid of. And that gets in their way,” she said.

I found myself thinking about that quite a lot. What do so many people fear?  They fear change, especially when things are as good as they have been in Alberta.  They are frightened of losing what they’ve got. And other things too: they’re frightened of standing out from the crowd…of being criticized or rejected…

The people in this room, by the very fact of being here and standing in opposition to the majority, are less frightened.  There are times when I think many of our members are practically fearless. I will never again see as much courage as I’ve seen among the people in this room: candidates who put their jobs on the line, people who speak out for unpopular causes and take risky stands because of what they believe to be right.

After working with so many of you, I think our fears are almost the opposite of conservative fears. Our fears are less for ourselves than for others, for our children or grandchildren, for the less fortunate, for our society as a whole and the opportunities we may be squandering. And I’m sure that often we get angry more than afraid—angry at stupidity and injustice and waste and deceit.

But anger and fear are not at the very core of why we keep doing what we’re doing. After fear and anger, there is hope. More than anything, the reason we keep going on this crazy path is because we have hope.

Here is how Wikipedia defines hope: “Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life. Hope implies a certain amount of despair, wanting, wishing, suffering or perseverance — i.e., believing that a better or positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary.” Don’t you like that: Some evidence to the contrary… like 87 years worth.

In the Greek myths, Pandora was sent to Earth by Zeus to punish mankind for stealing the secret of fire.  She carried a box that was filled with every imaginable evil, and when she opened the box they all escaped and brought complete despair to the world. The despair was so deep that she was begged to open her box once more to see if anything good might come of it.  There, lying on the bottom was hope. At first it looked like hope was the weakest of all the things in Pandora’s box, but as it turned out, hope was the most powerful gift of all.

As far as I see it, then, those are some of the answers to ‘Why we keep doing what we’re doing,’ and why people before us have been doing this for so many years.

A healthy dose of nuttiness. 
A different way of looking at the world. 
New ideas about how to do things. 
Some fear and some anger and some hope.

And one last thing:  They say that when soldiers join the army they do it for adventure and patriotism and the desire to help the world.  But when they go into the heat of battle they ultimately do it for the friends who stand beside them. 

Thank you all so very much for being those friends who I have had the honour of standing beside these past years as leader of the Alberta Liberal Party.