This
week the American public sent a strong rebuke to their President. The
Senate seat that has been both Democratic and Kennedy since 1952 was
lost to Republican Scott Brown. To the conservative press this is
vindication that Americans were hoodwinked into making the wrong choice
in 2008. For the Democrats the shock of a 30% vote swing in the bluest
of blue states has yet to wear off, but the question each of them must
be wondering is why? ...
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Economic Development in Ottawa, 16 February 2010
Post Secondary Education inCanada,
11
February 2010
Put a frog in boiling water and it jumps out immediately. Put a frog in cold water and gradually turn up the heat, and eventually it gets cooked.
Please Mr. President, where’s the “we”? 24 January 2010
Looking For a Fresh Start in Ottawa, 7 January 2010
Over the last two months, The Ottawa Citizen has published a number of stories, editorials and op-ed pieces that have underscored the dysfunctional nature of municipal government in Ottawa. In particular, with the onset of municipal election season, various writers have pointed to few mayoral and councilor candidates with truly leadership caliber.
My question is whether anyone has assembled any leadership criteria that could be used to assess candidates to lead Council and the municipal bureaucracy towards the kind of future the citizens of Ottawa think they might like have (leaving aside for the moment a legacy of complete absence of shared vision for the city). What kind of skills or competencies should we expect of these candidates? How will we judge one candidate from another? In any other hiring process we would begin by assessing a candidate’s skills and then judging whether the candidate can adjust to the needs of a new organizational context. So why, as Denley suggested November 19th, can’t we do the same with our municipal leaders? ...
Economic Development in Ottawa, 16 February 2010
I was once again struck by the fact the City just doesn’t seem to get it. It just doesn’t seem to understand that economic development in today’s globalized marketplace is primarily about intra-regional cooperation. That cooperation is essential to create a base of regional competitive advantage that can not be easily imitated by firms elsewhere. To create that regional advantage the City, as economic developer, must act primarily as a facilitator and broker to bring about the cooperation of others. It is not about divining the perfect plan or imposing it on local businesses and institutions...
Post Secondary Education in
Put a frog in boiling water and it jumps out immediately. Put a frog in cold water and gradually turn up the heat, and eventually it gets cooked.
Please Mr. President, where’s the “we”? 24 January 2010
Looking For a Fresh Start in Ottawa, 7 January 2010
Over the last two months, The Ottawa Citizen has published a number of stories, editorials and op-ed pieces that have underscored the dysfunctional nature of municipal government in Ottawa. In particular, with the onset of municipal election season, various writers have pointed to few mayoral and councilor candidates with truly leadership caliber.
My question is whether anyone has assembled any leadership criteria that could be used to assess candidates to lead Council and the municipal bureaucracy towards the kind of future the citizens of Ottawa think they might like have (leaving aside for the moment a legacy of complete absence of shared vision for the city). What kind of skills or competencies should we expect of these candidates? How will we judge one candidate from another? In any other hiring process we would begin by assessing a candidate’s skills and then judging whether the candidate can adjust to the needs of a new organizational context. So why, as Denley suggested November 19th, can’t we do the same with our municipal leaders? ...
Response to Sibley's "Trust Us On This", The Ottawa Citizen, April 11, 2009
Recently, the Ottawa Citizen ran a column entitled “Trust us on this” written by Robert Sibley with assistance from David Mitchell of the Public Policy Forum. I was very appreciative that they raised the issue of an overall, system-wide lack of trust that has emerged as a distinguishing and worrisome feature of today’s economic recession. They suggested that in going into this recession, the leaders of today’s private, public and not-for-profit organizations do not enjoy the same degree of public confidence that leaders have in the past, making the climb out of this recession likely to be that much more difficult. However, in attempting to map a way forward, their analysis got it wrong! ...see more CWA blogs here:
Selected Archived Blogs
Ten Criteria for
Selecting
Candidates 15 September 2008
The Anti-Democrats 12
September 2008
A
Failure of Citzenship? August 5, 2008
What We Need is More Democracy Not Less Friday, May 09, 2008
Chalk River: How to Turn a Victory for Democracy into a Tawdry Political Episode Mon., January 28, 2008
Encouraging Lifelong Learning, 3 May 2006