7 Comments
User's avatar
IM Citizen's avatar

The house that Peter built from parks to Heritage Fund to moratorium on coal mining to EA to public services all but demolished burnt to the ground by raging extremists governing Alberta and their keepers.

Andreas Hartung's avatar

Truly sad situation.

Leni Spooner's avatar

What I find important in this breakdown is the distinction between the institution and the function.

Elections Alberta still exists, but the independent enforcement layer that once operated alongside it no longer does in the same way. And what replaced it has a much higher bar to act.

That’s not something most voters would naturally know or assume.

Heading into a referendum, that gap between perception and reality matters more than we might think.

Factsmtr's avatar

Most voters would not assume that shift just by hearing the name “Elections Alberta,” so the perception gap is real. Alberta’s legislature also often compresses debate and pushes major changes through on Fridays, when attention is lower, so that reality gap is also real. Our mission is to close that gap with evidence-based facts as fast as possible and before October 19.

Leni Spooner's avatar

Given the amount of noise being generated, especially on social media, it is not going to be easy to hold people’s focused attention on something this serious.

Broad strokes rarely capture what the details actually show. And in this case, the details matter.

I do think most people want to think things through and act accordingly. But the volume of noise makes that harder than it should be.

Factsmtr's avatar

Exactly. And it leads to information exhaustion. Factsmtr promotes and encourages civic action through our courses, which we are happy to provide free to anyone who asks and wants to participate. The courses teach how to stay focused as well as teach what civic action tools are available to them. This isn’t a competition, it’s a reality and it’s up to citizens to act.

Leni Spooner's avatar

Information exhaustion is real, especially when issues are complex and attention is fragmented.

Helping people stay focused and understand how to engage is an important piece of the puzzle.

That kind of civic work matters, particularly in moments like this.