It was pleasure to meet you yesterday at the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary.

Doctor Oberg:

It was pleasure to meet you yesterday at the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary. As I said I am probably not in your side of the political spectrum but thought I would expand on what I discussed with you last night.

As an aside, I have to admit I am surprised at your association with Grant Doyle.

Grant is a very nice guy, but is considered to be less than that in the business world in Calgary. In fact since he managed somewhat the campaign of Belinda Stronach here in Calgary, it is even doubly ironic that you are using him for your campaign. You may find his history in Calgary to be a hurdle to your campaign. Doyle’s name and business practices are legendary here in Calgary.

I hope you got out to see many of the exhibiting companies, to get a feel for the current situation in the oil patch. Just in that tent there were many people you should have been talking to, meeting with, and getting to know.

There are many scenarios being talked about in the leadership race. One is that Dinning will win flat out on the first ballot.

The second is that he has hit the ceiling and can go no further on the second ballot and the person with the best staying power and second ballot support will come up the middle.

Who that third person is, is still unclear. It could be someone who is not in the spot light right now, or it could be a late-comer to the race. For the latter I have heard several names swirling around.

If the process is going to be one person one vote for the leader and there will be several ballot rounds done, such as the system used for the nomination race Klein was in, then the person with the best ability to muster members for the second and third ballots will be in the best place to win.

It is a benefit that the e-marketing methods in this province are state of the art and can be a significant contributor to the winning teams success. Both at the beginning of the campaign and in to the second or third ballots.

The other issue is that the research is finding the average person, is turning away from politics, politicians, and the political process. To win, you must focus on those people that are not the same group Dinning is working on, and are those that have fallen off the radar of most mainline political parties, politicians and their strategists. It is in the best



interest of these people to focus on the 50% of the people that do vote, because the represents the status quo, and no politician, political party of their strategists want to challenge the status quo, because that pushes them into an unknown territory.

My suggestion is to go where the other candidates aren’t, talk about the issues and policies that you can talk passionately about that the others aren’t, and talk to the people the other candidates are not talking to, on their territory. You will see my theory on the strategy outline I think would work best for you below at Campaign Strategy below.

Here it is, my theories on becoming the leader:

Calgary. 2
Education. 2
Health care. 2
Infrastructure. 3
Senior’s issues. 3
Ecology. 3
Rural Concerns. 4
Post secondary education: 4
High technology. 5
Business development 5
The Province and Confederation. 5
Same-sex marriage. 5
Campaign Strategy. 6
Calgary

You have three things against you in Calgary.
Education
One is the fact you were the Education Minister, and Calgary’s school system has not kept up to the growth in the city. Growth generated and encouraged by the Alberta Advantage.

As Education Minister you can rightfully be painted as the person who could have done much for building the new schools needed, and did not.
Health care
Calgarians are also concerned with the fact that our health care system has not kept up with the city’s growth either.

The solution here is more involved, but I would suggest that if you talked about a ‘health consumer,’ centered health care system you would earn more points than


focusing on the current ‘doctor or bureaucrat centered,’ system we have now. Prevention and inclusion of other alternative health care methods must be looked at as well.

There is a huge potential for savings if the province would get on with ‘smart,’ health care card. I know you have had several plans put in front of previous health ministers, to no avail.

We need to get the health care system refocused back onto the consumer and focused on the prevention model.
Infrastructure

Calgary is drowning in oil and gas money, but none of the benefits of the Alberta Advantage flows down to the city fast enough to help keep up with the demand for new or more housing and infrastructure. In fact much of the oil and gas development takes place out of many of the larger centres and flows directly to the provincial bank account. The pulp mill in Athabasca, the oil sands developments and plants near Fort McMurray, and the Lakeside processing plant, are all outside of the town limits they are next to. The towns are faced with developing new housing and facilities to house the employees but have to rely on their tax base, which does not rise as fast as the demand does.
Senior’s issues
As for the senior’s issues, I would suggest that first leadership candidate that apologizes for the poor care being provided to seniors in long term care facilities, will garner points. As well they must promise to impose all of the recommendations for a new formula for funding it, as well as a new method of making sure the seniors in the system will not be subject to abuse either through neglect or lack of care.

Any MLA that tells me they did not know some of or any of the problems brought to light recently about the conditions in certain nursing homes is either blind or a liar.
Ecology

If you are listening when you visit with your constituents, you will know that they have a concern over water.

If you are studying the health trends in Canada and Alberta you will know there are certain health concerns that are on the rise.

You will also know that the growth in Alberta is going to quickly become unsustainable especially if some of the planned population growth over the next 50 years comes to fruition.





In the youth ecology is becoming a big issue. Hence the growing number of voters voting for the Green Party both provincially and federally.

With farmers ecology is a big issue. This I saw with my own eyes with the three leader tours I organized for Jim Harris (federal Green Party of Canada leader) here in Alberta. This happened in both the big cities and small town Alberta.

Preston Manning sees the light, and it is greening fast.
Rural Concerns
Your rural friends, who earn their living from the land, are tired of how they are treated in the energy pie. Their land and their place in the process of this province getting the oil and gas to market is a disgrace and they are increasingly getting riled up.

Land surface rights are a problem in this province.

The use of water by the energy industry at a cost that is close to if not free is another agitator.

Coal Methane gas will be a problem to rural Alberta as it will make certain land holdings worthless after the farmer decides to sell or retire.

Help to develop a local organic and farm gate agricultural industry.

Help to diversify the agribusiness into new markets, and new value added processes.
Post secondary education:
In regards to post secondary education my daughter had an interesting point of view over the idea of funding students at university. She is working towards a medical degree and figures it would make more sense if the provincial government would start to reward her for her marks in her first and second years, by refunding or rebating her tuition over her third and fourth years. She figures this sort of system would reward the students who really deserve the reward, and help weed out the students that really do not want to be at university.

We need to create an aggressive program for the provincial government to fund completely the education of certain PhD candidates if they move to Alberta, in select disciplines other than that energy. This way we can diversify not only our research community but also watch the spin off benefits flow out into the province.



High technology
The province needs to create special high technology zones in the major centres other than Calgary and Edmonton, with investment tax treatments, provincial infrastructure investment, and such things.

Currently our government’s efforts are directed too much on the energy sectors, and the two major urban centres when looking at the high technology industry.
Business development
As for business development, I personally favour a policy that encourages high technology industries to locate in centres other than the two major centres. It will help to keep the local high technology students in their hometowns, and help to rejuvenate and diversify the smaller centres away from the agribusiness and oil and gas sectors. A cap put on the amount of development of the oil sands will help as well. The oil sands are driving the provinces inflation and worker shortages. The oil will be there today, tomorrow, and long into the future so developing it now, for the sake of short term gain and pain, does not make sense.

The heated demand on everything in the province is driving up the cost of housing, creating labour shortages in other sectors of the province’s economy, and just not a smart industrial development strategy.
The Province and Confederation
A premier that sees by working with the other provinces within confederation will see that the other provinces can be the solution to our worker shortage. It is their trades training programs that we will benefit from, not by choking them off through the equalization system. Alberta does not need in to import workers from outside of Canada; it needs to work with both the other provinces and the federal government to solve the worker mobility problems within Canada.

I personally believe that the province is in a place in its history that we can put the effort and actions behind the empty rhetoric about diversifying our economic base, and start processing and adding value to what we seem want to ship elsewhere. Why shouldn’t our farmers be encouraged to process their own beef or grain here in Alberta? We saw the problems caused by the BSE situation with one major market buying most of our beef from only two or three processing plants in the recent few years.
Same-sex marriage
As far as the same-sex marriage thing, it can be fixed without new laws or regulations. It can be solved tomorrow. The religious leaders have to get out of the business of issuing marriage licenses.

No license-issuing agent can refuse to issue a license or other government document, if it is something the government has legislated. If you allow one license agent to refuse to



issue a legislated government document, then you set a dangerous precedent. It means any judge, police officer, or enforcement officer is now allowed to enforce the law as their religion or personal beliefs determine. That means you are endorsing a theocracy,
Campaign Strategy
As for getting your message out, don’t rely on the main line media, as they do not command the majority of the eyes, ears, and minds of Calgarians. Which could is the 70% of the people who did not vote in the last election, provincial or federal.

If you are looking for union support you should be taking a strong look at the Teamsters Union. From previous work with them on the federal stage, the Teamsters local here in Calgary influences all of the unions, especially the trade and public sector unions. It will not be for the politicians faint of heart, and to build these sorts of coalitions you will need people who see past the initial façade of the groups and see who they can bring to you.

While the co-chair of Joe Clark’s Election Readiness Committee in Calgary Centre in 2000, as well as sitting on the board of directors of the Calgary Southwest P.C. riding how effective joining in forces with groups like the Mormons can be for political gain.

Jim Dinning is doing much of the same thing, but with the old guard is missing an entire demographic in his leadership campaign. He has many of Klein’s organizers on his team, and they are following that path in their strategy.

Go electronic and go direct/database E-marketing.

Remember that Ralph Klein became Premier with about 25% of the eligible voter in this province. That means 75% of Albertan’s did not vote for him, and 50% of the eligible voters did not show up to vote at all. Close to 80% of the younger voter, 18 – 35 did not show up to vote. The major media are having the same success in bringing in those same people. You need to go where the non-voter is and talk to them about their issues, not yours. You need to show those non-voters you have your own ideas, and want to hear about them, and show you are open to altering your position.

There is no reason that with the right thinking and creative thinking that Alberta could not be the centre of a discovery of a cure for many of the cancers found today, and why we can not be the province to lead the way in fixing the environmental issues that are starting to grow.

You need to come out with good, big, and innovative ideas. Then you can grab hold of the agenda's rudder. Don’t follow Dinning; lead him into your agenda. Show the province that being outside of the government for too many years can be detrimental.

There is no reason that Alberta cannot be a world leader and centre for many things.

There is no reason why Alberta cannot be the province to lead Canada back on to it previous spot on the world stage.

As far as working on your campaign, I couldn’t do it for free, nor could I work on it while you have Grant Doyle there. You would also have to accept the fact I am a member of the United Church of Canada and not a conservative or born again Christian, albeit I am a committed in my faith and do try to follow the path that Christ would want me to.


Thank you

Norman Greenfield
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
403-807-1251