News

Broadbent Institute names Ms. Monk Honourary Board Member

OTTAWA—In recognition of her outstanding service as founding Executive Director and Senior Advisor, the Broadbent Institute is pleased to name Kathleen Monk as its first Honourary Board Member.

Canadian Press

Left and right-wing politicians have traditionally clashed over economic, social and environmental policy.

Now Ed Broadbent is adding democracy to the list of issues that differentiate so-called progressives from conservatives — at least in Canada.

The former NDP leader says the Harper government's proposed overhaul of national election laws has turned what used to be a shared value among all federal parties into another ideological battlefield.

"Whereas 10 years ago progressives had little or no need to defend our basic democratic values and institutions, today it is essential," Broadbent says in a speech prepared for the inaugural summit of the progressive think-tank founded in his name.

"The mis-named Fair Elections Act is nothing more than U.S. Republican-style voter suppression."

The speech is to be delivered Saturday morning to welcome participants at the Broadbent Institute's sold-out "progress summit."

Text of the speech was made available to The Canadian Press on Friday.

During his 24 years in Parliament, Broadbent says no prime minister ever attempted to rig election laws and undermine voter participation in the way he accused the Harper government of currently trying to do.

"Before Stephen Harper, changes in electoral institutions — the rules of the game — were always made on the basis of an all-party consensus ... He has acted unilaterally and undemocratically."

Broadbent, who worked in developing countries around the world as head of a non-partisan democratic and human rights advocacy group created by Parliament in the 1990s, says Canada used to be seen "as a model democracy."

"Now, as the prime minister promotes democracy in Ukraine, we have 19 serious scholars from half a dozen countries publicly denouncing him for repressing democracy at home."

Experts on democracy and elections, both at home and abroad, have been scathing in their criticism of the proposed overhaul of election laws. They fear it will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters, muzzle the chief electoral officer and give a big advantage to the political party with the most money and biggest database — which happens to be Harper's Conservative party.

It would boost, both directly and indirectly, the amount of money parties can spend during campaigns. It would end the practice of vouching for voters without adequate identification. And it would forbid the elections watchdog from communicating with the public about anything other than mechanics of how, where and when to vote.

Thus far, the government has been undeterred by any of the criticism.

In addition to their fight to defend and strengthen Elections Canada, Broadbent says progressives are characterized by their belief that "prosperity needs to be broadly shared," that the gap between the very rich and everyone else must be closed.

They are also characterized by their belief that economic growth must go hand in hand with environmental sustainability.

"Progressives, indeed most Canadians, understand that environmental and economic priorities need to be reconciled and made mutually reinforcing," Broadbent says.

"And at some basic level the federal government has rejected this ever since Mr. Harper came to power eight years ago."

OTTAWA—The Broadbent Institute’s Progress Summit continues Sunday with a focus on a path forward for a progressive Canada. 

Panels on the concluding day of the Summit include developing winning campaigns and providing policy solutions to income inequality and good jobs in a green economy. 

Anastasia Khoo, Marketing Director of the Washington, DC-based Human Rights Campaign, will cap off the Summit with a keynote address about online engagement. Khoo was behind the groundbreaking online campaign to spread the now iconic red and pink marriage equality profile photo on behalf of the largest civil rights organization in the United States. That campaign is considered to be Facebook’s most viral ever. 

The summit will wrap up with closing remarks by Broadbent Institute Executive Director, Rick Smith, about seizing new momentum for the Canadian progressive movement.

WHAT: Progress Summit 

WHEN: March 30, 9:00 am to 12:30 pm 

WHERE: 
Delta City Centre
101 Lyon St. N, Ottawa 

For the full schedule: http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/en/summit/schedule

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For more information, please contact:

Caitlin Kealey
[email protected] or 613-818-7956 

Laura Beaulne-Stuebing / iPolitics.ca

Progressives who gathered in Ottawa this weekend will not hesitate to say they’re on the right side of history on so many things – the environment, labour rights, gender equality. Some may not admit this as easily, but they’re also getting tired of, as they say, just being right all the time. They want to win.

That’s no secret, though — the first annual Progress Summit, put on by the left-leaning Broadbent Institute, was peppered with panel sessions and speeches about leading effective campaigns, with advice for organizers in how to build and improve a movement.

While the summit was open to everyone, and all political stripes were in attendance — Tories, Liberals and Greens included – the obvious subtext was an orange flag-waving one.

Tzeporah Berman, a Broadbent fellow and environmental campaigner, noted in one of the panel sessions Sunday that the left, in all its earnestness, wants to explain things — priorities and policies and ideas — with a lot of intellectual rigor.

But good campaigns have always been about simplifying a message and sticking to it. We have to stop assuming facts will win campaigns, she said.

This was an echo from keynote speaker Julia Gillard’s address the previous evening. The former Australian prime minister told a packed hall that progressives have leaned too long on facts, and expecting that facts are all that they need.

The weekend also featured policy-oriented sessions — opportunities to discuss and reflect on how a (potential future) progressive government would address things like resource development, manufacturing and jobs and the relationship between people and government through the tax system.

Broadbent Institute Executive Director Rick Smith, to close the Summit, delivered a campaign-style speech Sunday. He told the group it’s time for the left — the NDP, cough, cough — to go on the offence.

“We are the inheritors of the best country in the world. A country with a proud progressive tradition. But, a country that is moving in the wrong direction,” he said.

“So what are we going to do about that? Well, the best defence is a good offence.”

Citing bill C-23, the much-debated Fair Elections Act, his speech painted a stark picture between the progressive movement and the Conservative government — that the two are in opposition to each other.

So, Smith said, here’s what the Broadbent Institute is going to do, to deal with what almost everyone in the main hall of the Delta Hotel would call the government’s regressive policies: work with a team of Broadbent fellows to streamline a ”practical agenda for change” and train activists to take that agenda to peoples’ doorsteps.

“Continue working with us and with each other on a set of common priorities,” he appealed to the group, “to make our great country even greater.”

Delegates, volunteers and organizers were all-smiles for much of the weekend — interested in the conversations taking place, eager to get to work and hopeful their work will bear some political fruit in the future.

Earnest and hopeful and optimistic, for what will be an uphill battle towards 2015.

Chris Plecash / Hill Times

The federal government sees the public isn’t interested or engaged in its controversial elections overhaul bill and is using that to “demotivate and demoralize” political opponents, says Jamie Biggar, executive director of Leadnow.

Asked what could be done to mobilize the public against Bill C-23, Mr. Biggar suggested that Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, Ont.) recently “lied” when he said that only academics and journalists, but not the general public, oppose the legislation.

Karl Nerenberg / rabble.ca

When the founding leader of the Reform party, Preston Manning, retired from politics to start an Institute bearing his name, folks around him said the Manning Institute would not be a 'think tank' but a 'do tank.'

The Institute that bears the name of one-time NDP leader Ed Broadbent has similar 'do tank' ambitions and they were on display this past weekend.

From Friday to Sunday, the Broadbent Institute held what was, in effect, its inaugural major event, the Progress Summit, in Ottawa.

The Summit brought together Canadian progressives -- or, at least, people the Broadbent organizers consider to be progressive -- with activists and politicians from the United States, Australia, Great Britain and France.

There was significant discussion of policy, including indigenous rights, the green economy, youth employment, income inequality and the future of manufacturing.

But there was also a strong focus on strategy and tactics.

The Broadbent Institute, like its counterpart on the Right, is all about linking theory with practice, ideas with action. And so, there were workshops and panels on everything from Google campaigns to options for a beleaguered labour movement to "lessons from winning progressive campaigns in the U.S. and Canada.”

That last panel paired British Columbia environmental campaigner Tzeporah Berman and one time NDP Quebec organizer Ray Guardia with two Americans: Erik Peterson, of the strategy and training institute named after the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, and Ashley Pinedo, who worked at the grassroots level on the 2012 Obama campaign in the key swing state of Florida (which Obama carried, as he had in 2008).

Peterson talked about something he called the Wellstone triangle (the grassroots, electoral politics and public policy).

Guardia and Pinedo told generally upbeat stories about the winning campaigns in which they had been involved.

Berman, however, struck a more sombre note. She said pointedly that the Right is beating "us" in the tactics department.

"We have been too focused on the air war, on a core team that sends out messages, and not sufficiently focused on the ground war, working at the people-to-people and community level," she said.

The B.C. environmentalist advocated for smart and data-driven strategy.

"We should stop trying to talk to everyone," she said, and use good data to focus on those groups who can be convinced.

"The Right is good at message control." Berman sighed, "They know how to create an echo-chamber. We progressives are too invested in our own intellect. We become bored too quickly and move on to another topic."

On this point, Berman seemed to be speaking from a wealth of bitter experience.

"Winning campaigns is not a function of policy, it is about motivation," she noted, and then added that progressives are good at critiquing but "suck at proposing alternatives."

On Sunday evening, a half day after the Summit, one of those too-many-to-remember CBC-TV panels, this one call "Three to Watch," had a brief chat that brought Berman's comment to mind.

The three young up-and-comers and CBC Sunday night news host Wendy Mesley were discussing the still fairly feeble public opposition to what the three seemed to agree is frightful legislation -- the Harper government's Fair Elections Act.

One panelist almost echoed Berman's view when he observed that opponents of Fair Elections have not yet crafted effective messages.

They have not yet figured out how to motivate ordinary folks, he said, and that includes folks who might actually consider voting Conservative.

If the opponents of the Fair Elections Act want to have an impact, and maybe force major changes to the bill, they will have to campaign in a smarter and more effective way.

That, at least, is how this panel sees it.

It is also probably pretty close to what Tzeporah Berman would advise.

Broadbent Institute and Equal Voice to celebrate Australia’s first female Prime Minister

OTTAWA—Equal Voice and the Broadbent Institute are hosting a special event tonight to celebrate Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard this weekend. Equal Voice, a national organization dedicated to the election of women in Canada, will name Ms. Gillard a Global Champion for Women in Politics. Ms. Gillard is in Ottawa as the keynote speaker at the Broadbent Institute’s inaugural Progress Summit.

“We are so pleased to have the opportunity to honour Ms. Gillard for her remarkable leadership.  She is only one of only very few women to ever lead a G20 country and we are delighted to seize this opportunity to celebrate her,” notes Raylene Lang-Dion, National Chair of Equal Voice. 

Ms. Gillard served as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, and the Australian Labor Party leader, from 2010 to 2013 by forming a coalition government. She was the first woman to hold either position. During her tenure, she did not shy away from calling out sexist behaviour from other politicians in the legislature.  In 2013, she lost the party leadership to Kevin Rudd.

“Ms. Gillard is a role model for women in politics and public life,” said Kathleen Monk, Senior Advisor at the Broadbent Institute. “A capable leader whose government ushered in many progressive social and environmental policies, such as paid parental leave, Australia’s first national program for people with disabilities and carbon pricing.”

A small number of tickets remain available for tonight’s event. They can be purchased on site on location at the Delta Hotel, Penthouse suite located at 101 Lyon Street North. Tickets are $50. All proceeds after costs will go to advancing women in politics.

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For more information, please contact:

Nancy Peckford, Equal Voice (613) 292-7941
Denise Siele, Equal Voice (613) 276-3274
Kathleen Monk, Broadbent Institute (613) 296-2073

Laura Ryckewaert / Hill Times

Governments and economic leaders around the world are increasingly speaking out about the economic impetus to address climate change and the need to shift to green economies, but Canada is dragging its feet and investing money and attention into further developing existing, traditional energy sources, experts said Saturday at a Broadbent Institute summit panel on green economies.

“There are many people who think we can only have a greener economy by having less of the other things, and other people who think we can have more of the innovation and prosperity but only by having a less green economy. I think that’s fundamentally wrong,” said panelist Chris Ragan, associate professor of macroeconomic and economic policy at McGill University in Montreal, adding the two sides need to stop being pitted against each other.

The Broadbent Institute’s first-ever Progress Summit is being held at the Delta hotel in downtown Ottawa from March 28-31. On Saturday, Mr. Ragan, Bruce Lorrie, president of the Ivey Foundation, Tom Rand, Cleantech adviser at the MaRS Institute, and Clare Demerse, a fellow with the Broadbent Institute and director of federal policy at the Pembina Institute, took part in a discussion on “The (good) business of building a green economy.”

Panel moderator Jeremy Runnals, managing editor of Corporate Knights magazine, said it doesn’t take a hard look to see that change is underway globally when it comes to economic policies and the environment. Over the past year-and-a-half, global economic leaders, including International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde, have spoken out about the economic impetus to address climate change, he said.

Globally, a transition to clean energy is already well underway, said Ms. Demerse, with more than $1.5-trillion invested in the global clean energy sector to date. Ms. Demerse said in some international markets, alternative energy technologies like wind and solar are already “cost competitive with the fossil fuel alternative.” With an international shift towards green energy policies and a reduction of carbon emissions, Ms. Demerse said there’s a strong fiscal argument to investing in new energy sources that are environmentally friendly.

 “At this point in Canada we’ve got a couple of options. One is we can choose to build that resilient, diversified clean energy economy that can compete successfully in a low-carbon world, or we can run the risk of sinking billions more into infrastructure for oilsands production that the world’s markets ultimately may not want,” said Ms. Demerse.

She said greenhouse gas pollution from the oilsands is at a level that oilsands growth is set to undue other efforts made to reduce carbon emissions over the years. Ms. Demerse said if countries around the world begin taking the environment more seriously, oilsands development will look increasingly “fragile.”

“So making that clean energy transition, I would argue, is a safer economic choice for Canada, even before we look at the risks we would run economically from climate change itself,” she told attendees.

Mr. Ragan, who qualified himself as a macro economist and not an environmental economist, said finding “clever” policies that encourage both innovation and environmental protection would create a better economy overall.

A redesign of our current fiscal structure is a “crucial piece” of the puzzle, he said. Governments need to be prepared to make those kinds of shifts, like imposing new taxes on activities that create pollution, while in turn lowering taxes on personal income to address “both halves of that package.”

“None of this ought to be, in a sensible world, a partisan issue,” said Mr. Ragan, who later added that Canada has been “passive-aggressive obstructionists” in the global environmental conversation in the last few years.

In response to Mr. Runnals questioning whether an economic indicator other than GDP should be used to measure economic growth, Mr. Ragan said in terms of calculating national assets, when a tree is cut down to make lumber, we should probably also be accounting for the loss of that tree, an idea that was met with applause from attendees.

Mr. Lorrie said better information and better measurements will help bring about more investment in green technology, and said right now there’s an information-gathering deficit, pointing to the cessation of the long-form census as an example.

Mr. Rand said “energy incumbents” continue to invest in finding more oil and gas reserves which are likely to be limited by environmental regulation as the world works to combat climate change, rather than investing to find new sources of energy. Mr. Rand said he thinks enhanced geothermal energy is the “holy grail” of clean energy. Despite the fact that clean energy investments make economic sense, Mr. Rand said the market isn’t rational, and companies need to be incentivized to invest in clean energy.

Ms. Demerse said Canada needs to take its own approach to improve environmental regulations and shift to a green economy and can’t look to the U.S. as a marker because the circumstances simply aren’t the same as the U.S. does not have an oil sands equivalent.

OTTAWA–Women from around the world will take centre stage as the Broadbent Institute’s inaugural Progress Summit kicks off its first full day in Ottawa.

Following a speech by Broadbent Institute chair Ed Broadbent laying out the paths to build a progressive Canada, three keynote speakers will take the floor through the day, beginning with Mariana Mazzucato of the University of Sussex talking about the economics of innovation. Mazzucato, author of The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths, will be followed by Axelle Lemaire, a Canadian-born French National Assemblywoman.

The summit’s main keynote takes place at 4:30 p.m. Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard will discuss the future of progressive politics. Following her keynote address, the Broadbent Institute and Equal Voice will host a special event to celebrate Australia’s first female Prime Minister.

In the evening, Canadian musician Sarah Harmer, along with Toronto’s Blurred Vision and Sally Folk of Montreal, will take the stage to entertain summit participants. 

WHAT: Progress Summit