Alberta 2019

FORCES OF CHANGE

Parkland Institute’s 22nd Annual Conference – Alberta 2019: Forces of Change – takes a deep dive into our history, economy, and social conflicts to better understand Alberta’s past, present, and future within Canada, North America, and the world.

In 2015, Alberta elected a New Democratic government for the first time. It was a stunning moment in Albertan – and Canadian – history. For some, it was a wrenching experience; for others, a moment of exhilaration, the results of which have continued to reverberate ever since. Four years on, we examine the forces at work that will determine Alberta’s and Canada’s future – forces of change and forces that resist change – and the means by which progress and resistance are themselves changing for 2019 and beyond.

Parkland Institute seeks to provide ways to understand forces of change, forces that resist change, and conflicts of interest in our society. This understanding identifies the decisions that must be made if these forces are to be harnessed for social change and the greater good.

Register

Early bird pricing until October 31!

Full Conference

Tickets:
Parkland Supporters: $125 / $80 Low Income
Regular: $175 / $105 Low Income

Keynote and Single Sessions

Tickets: $20 / $15 Low Income

Opening Keynote

In the Eye of the Storm

with Lynne Fernandez

Alberta is in the eye of a storm that has been brewing around the planet. Climate change, migration, and the residual impact of global economic austerity measures – stemming from the 2008 financial crisis and from which the world is still reeling – are just a few of the forces at play in a tempest that has seen the appetite for hard right politics grow in Europe, the US, and here at home in Canada. What do changes in global trade, the oil industry, inter-provincial relations, and the labour market mean for Alberta? Could we have four contiguous provinces run by conservative governments that are decidedly opposed to government intervention on climate change? If so, what will be the effect? What remains after the storm has passed?

Lynne Fernandez holds the Errol Black Chair in Labour Issues at the Manitoba Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. She holds an MA in Economics from the University of Manitoba where she studied with the department’s heterodox economists.

Closing Keynote

The Charge in the Global Membrane

with B.W. Powe

The global membrane is an evolutionary jump from the global village and global theatre into sensory, psychic alterations in which communications bring us closer and into sharp, painful divisions. Ecology, the afflictions of the Trump phenomenon, the quick-time metamorphoses of the internet, the rush of data, the upsurges of ultra-nationalism, trolls and hackers, soul distress, crises of identity, A-Literacy, #MeToo, the Netgens, the search for silence and rest, the intimations of a worldwide linked consciousness, the transfiguration of digital experience into cellular intimacies and illuminating hope, the shape-shifting artistic expressions of the current: all these are elements of what we experience.

B.W. Powe is a writer and teacher. He has published over 14 books of non-fiction, poetry, and fiction. Notable among them has been Towards a Canada of Light, Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye: Apocalypse and Alchemy, Where Seas and Fables Meet, and Decoding Dust. He teaches in the English department at York University in Toronto.

Plenaries

Saturday Morning Plenary

The Values, Attitudes, and Motivations of Alberta Voters

with Janet Brown

In the lead-up to the 2019 provincial election, pollster Janet Brown has been closely tracking the values, attitudes, and motivations of Alberta voters. Through this research, she’s identified four clusters of Alberta voters. Janet will take us through the numbers, and help us understand the mindset of Alberta voters and what matters most to them.

Saturday Afternoon Plenary

Thoughts from a Traitorous Albertan: Treaty Feminism in 2019

with Emily Riddle

Both Treaty and gender are relevant to all major policy debates, from pipelines to education. From the perspective of an Alberta ex-pat and Treaty 6 feminist, this presentation will provide a report card on where we are in Treaty relations in the province and imagine a future in which Indigenous peoples can live safely in our homelands beyond Alberta 2019.