Austin Connelly

If Albertans want to have the Conservative party win a majority government in the future, they’ll need to shift their Wexit energy towards something more feasible that could actually give them some real momentum, like new leadership.

The Wexit movement is really just people kicking and screaming with no real chance at success because they’re so frustrated with the Conservative’s losing at the Federal level and the feeling the Eastern provinces don’t care about them. Although, that attention is misguided it could be thrust towards upheaving the failed leadership at the top of the Conservative party instead of a fantasy separation movement.

From creating currency, to being landlocked, having no support from either Alberta or Saskatchewan Premiers’ and, needing reliance on the American government, the Wexit movement has no legs and no chance of ever succeeding. “Well, the first thing I’d say is they don’t have any real support in terms of political power break brokers who could actually make this come to life, not Jason Kenney, or even someone from the federal Conservative Party of Canada,” says Omar Mosleh a reporter for the Star Edmonton.

His recent article on the Wexit movement in Alberta featured Peter Downing who’s on of the leaders of the movement and his rally in Edmonton which featured 700+ attendees according to Omar. “The idea that these mainstream political movements are just going to fade into obscurity and this fringe movement is suddenly going to be taken seriously just doesn’t make sense to me.”

An obvious comparable for Alberta or the Western provinces to separate from Canada would be Quebec and their history of sovereignty talk, although the last time that movement had real legs was in 1995 and the referendum they held. Ultimately, the vote didn’t carry enough weight and Omar see many other reasons why Alberta isn’t even close to where Quebec was in terms of separation.

“The other thing I would say is just that if you compare Quebec and Alberta and their cultural history and their linguistic history, there are two fundamentally different beasts. Like the biggest thing for Alberta is I don’t think we’ve established a sense of nationhood,” says Omar. “I don’t think many people see Alberta as a nation, whereas Quebec has that sort of distinct cultural identity. I think the closest thing you could find with the prairies is a region, which would you could maybe argue, you know, a Western Republic, but I think Alberta on its own just doesn’t have a strong enough identity.”

What we can take about the Wexit movement at its infancy stage is the real frustration it has garnered from the 250,000+ members apart of the Facebook group. However, it’s one thing in anger to sign up for a separation movement while its quite another to stick with that sentiment for the next few years. But, that frustration could be put to better use by pressuring the party to elect new leadership that could actually unite the Canadian voters to another majority government of the Stephen Harper years. The real question is, can the Conservative’s find a leader who can sway voters from the Liberal party?

Incumbent Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer is a dime-a-dozen leader in the party, meaning he doesn’t have the ability to sway voters. The election was too focused on attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and defected Conservative member Maxime Bernier who formed the People’s Party of Canada, instead of swaying the undecided voters. If Albertans want to be better represented in the Canadian government, they need to understand the need for unconventional leadership who can genuinely steal votes and leaders who aren’t compressed into traditional conservatism that could deter some would be voters.

Not everyone is decided each election on who they’re voting for and there are votes to be had, but when your party leader defends candidates who’ve recently shared homophobic, transphobic, and anti-Muslim sentiments across social media, you alienate too many voters from considering your party. When your party can’t win a minority government after the Trudeau blackface scandal it’s time to re-evaluate the leadership.

It’s plain and simple, the Conservatives need to be pushing more progressive candidates into positions of power if they want to get back to the Harper led majority governments from the past. Candidates like James Cumming who recently won his MP seat for the Edmonton Centre district who has already shown signs of being a more progressive leader, like welcoming a Syrian refugee family and donating furniture to them.

Perhaps he’s not the best example but he is definitely a step in the right direction and there are many more examples across the country that the Conservatives need to be pushing into bigger roles within their party.

 An article by the CBC’s Robyn Urback outlined several candidates who weren’t narrow minded in this last election who she quoted: “It can be pro-choice, like Lisa Raitt, who lost her seat in the Greater Toronto Area riding of Milton last night. It can be openly supportive of same-sex marriage, like Michelle Rempel, who was re-elected to hers in Calgary Nose Hill. It can be be responsive to social injustice, like Rona Ambrose, who pushed a bill for mandatory sexual assault training for judges even after she left her post as interim Conservative leader. And it can be concerned about climate change, like Michael Chong, who was re-elected to his seat in the Ontario riding of Wellington-Halton Hills,” says Robyn Urback in the article. When asked if Alberta would promote more progressive candidates she said: “I think it might be too soon to say, I think we’ll have to see if and how the Conservatives plan to pivot in response to this new minority government.”

Perhaps the party is concerned that if they sway too far away from the maybe ‘traditional’ Conservative values they’ll lose their loyal supporters. But I’d argue that since the economy is the main platform they push, those voters wouldn’t sway, instead ones from the centre or left side of the political spectrum could be inspired to vote Conservative. In fact, the PPC only gained 1.6% of the total vote for the Federal election showing that they really weren’t as big of a threat as Scheer was anticipating. Hence, the true need for inspirational leaders within the Conservative government otherwise they’ll fall short once again in the next election.

James Cumming Wins MP Seat in the Edmonton Centre Riding

Austin Connelly 

October. 21^st 2019 

It wasn’t a perfect night for the supporters of James Cumming who saw the Liberal’s regain power with a minority government. But the supporters who gathered at the James Cumming’s HQ party on Jasper Ave were able to cheer when the man they voted for was able to win with 21,586 votes.  

At the party, the mood was surprisingly upbeat, but the election was called for a minority government before any votes in Western Canada were really counted. One man at the party was visibly disappointed because he knew it would be four more years of the Liberal government early on, but he did share why he strongly supports the Conservative party.  

“I’m from Ontario originally and my wife is from New Brunswick. We moved all over at the start and I support the Conservative party because when I moved to Alberta it gave my wife and I a chance. If you have a work ethic in Alberta you can get ahead,” says Dave Flemming. 

For a Province that’s largely voted Conservative during their history, the Edmonton ridings are seemingly up for grabs each Federal Election. The Edmonton Centre district is one of the biggest ridings in the city and incumbent Liberal Randy Boissonnault was able to edge out Conservative James Cumming by only 1,200 votes in 2015. This time around, however, it was Mr. Cumming who came out victorious and will be heading to Ottawa as a first time Member of Parliament.  

The mood of the party quickly changed once almost the entire Alberta province started going blue as cheers erupted after each riding was announced. The party then quickly got going once James Cumming was elected and his Conservative predecessor Laurie Hawn who won three of his four ridings starting in 2004. 

“This was the best campaign that I have ever seen run in my so many years around politics,” said Laurie Hawn during his introduction speech for James Cumming.  

It was clear why Mr. Cumming was so well-liked by his supporters when he spent more time thanking his volunteers individually during his speech than talking about himself. 

After congratulating the other candidates James got into what type of leader he wants to be for his supporters.  

“I’m here to represent all the constituents of Edmonton Centre and I will do that with all my heart—and I can assure you that I will stand up for everybody in this riding, not just the Conservatives but everybody that deserves our support,” said James. “We have a lot of work to do and I promise you I will fulfill that task.”  

James and the other Alberta MP’s will have lots of work to do as the official opposition to Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal minority government, but will be behind the eight ball as they’ll likely have no Cabinet Ministers representing the Canadian government. Minority governments rarely last so Mr. Cumming won’t have too much time to settle in and will have to prove his supporters right quickly if he’ll maintain his seat for the next Federal election.  

Austin Connelly

October. 16^th 2019

Edmonton’s economic future in the Edmonton-City Centre district is at the top of the platform policies for the upcoming Federal Election, but how much weight does that issue have with young voters? Since millennials make up the largest portion of voters for the upcoming Federal election, do the young people of Edmonton actually believe that they can make real change for their respective district? I talked to the young people of Edmonton to get voters perspective on how much the future of the economy matters when they’re deciding who to vote for.

“Slightly, it is not a major factor but it is not trivial either,” says Michael Chute a 24-year-old lab researcher who lives in the City-Centre district. David Readman, a 25-year-old accountant who works and lives in the City-Centre district had this to say, “Well a lot, if this is where you want to live you want a strong economy that provides you some stability and growth potential for your future.” Sam Bendortitis a 22-year-old nurse in the City-Centre District didn’t feel the same way. “To be completely honest the future of the economy doesn’t sway my vote. I’m more interested in the future of Edmonton’s actions towards improvement in climate change, social programs and health care,” says Sam.

The importance of millennial voters cannot be understated and this Twitter thread goes into more detail of how important that demographic will be in the upcoming election.

If young voters feel the economy is the utmost importance, James Cumming the Conservative Party candidate has an experienced economic background that could give him an advantage to win over voters. He’ll be in tough again against incumbent Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault who nearly edged out James last time election in 2015. Although, James has years of experience in the business sector as the President and CEO of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and non-profit organizations, which could give an edge in that field of the election process. His main platform is directly associated to economic growth in the district and he shared this sentiment on his website’s main page: “In many ways, Edmonton Centre is a prime example of Canadians’ entrepreneurial spirit as our riding is home to so many amazing creators and small business people. These folks are ready to thrive and create economic prosperity for generations to come, but they need and deserve a government that will create the conditions they need to succeed, then get out of the way.”

The Conservative Party has been door knocking to gain support and talk to voters for this upcoming election and the same goes for James Cumming who’s been busy everyday going door-to-door in his campaign. In fact, James has said they’ve been to over 60,000 homes during this campaign.

(Flyer for James Cumming with a signed message and contact information)

Talking with Mr. Cummings about his door knocking experiences during this election campaign he had this to say about millennial voters and how much importance they seemed to have placed on Edmonton’s economic future: “The common theme is that people want opportunities, whether it’s working for someone else or being an entrepreneur people want to grow and they want to prosper.” 

 It’s also worth noting that in an interview with CBC, Edmonton’s Chief Economist John Rose predicted that “What we’re going to see this year is a very sluggish economy, and quite honestly, I don’t know if Mr. Kenney or anyone else could do very much about it at this point.”

The future of Edmonton’s economy will revolve around which party gets in on October 21^st but whoever gets in will be facing an uphill battle to set it on a better course. 

Over the course of the next few months, I’ll be covering some local Edmonton Politics specifically in the Edmonton Centre district. I’ll be reflecting on some of the things I’ve learned as a student journalist in class and updating my experiences here!

Beat Reporting

This week was especially beneficial to me because I’ll be embarking on my first real job as a beat reporter. I was recently granted full credentials for the upcoming Edmonton Oil Kings season and will be attempting to gather stories from the top of the organization all the way down. Some of the challenges I’m anticipating facing are making those initial contacts within the organization while also trying to get stories on other teams. I also don’t have the luxury of travelling with the team so I’ll only be able to watch the team live at home, and typically teams fair much better at home than they do on the road. So I plan on combating that roadblock by following the Oil Kings on social media and reading their recaps along with the broadcast team who follows them. Another way I plan on getting a better reading on the team is by watching the game recaps the WHL puts up after each game. I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity and the challenges I’ll face in getting better stories and scoops that more experienced and connected journalists have.

Dean Bennett

Having Dean Bennett come in this week was pretty cool being able to pick his brain on certain industry secrets with politics and sports. I wish I was able to ask him a little about his sports reporting since that’s the career I’m pursuing to a certain extent, however, I thought his insights into how he blocks out the noise of other stories and focuses in the best story for his audience was a great tip in the industry. He also touched on some tricks to get politicians or athletes to either answer your question or get something quotable for your story that your readers would like to hear. Asking the question a few times or rephrasing it would definitely help me when I’m interviewing hockey players who are notorious for giving bland answers like “give 100%,” and “it was a team effort.” 

Sheena Rossiter

I’m not sure that radio journalism or podcasting is ever an avenue that would seriously interest me for my career going forward. However after doing a few journalism jobs now I’m quickly understanding it’s incredibly valuable to have a wide range of skillsets that can be valuable in a work setting. Being able to take photographs, use adobe programs, edit and take audio or footage are things that will really round out your journalism abilities. So with that said even the little workshop we did with taking audio and learning about their mechanisms was definitely valuable information to have. I feel better prepared if an employer asks me if I’m able to take audio clips now and I’ve already had a job situation where I’ve been asked to take photos for the MacEwan hockey games and I was able to say that I probably could do that because of the photojournalism class I took. So I think anytime I can learn a little more about different journalism jobs is always valuable and worthwhile for me.

Political Ideas

Getting into our groups and talking about political story ideas has been challenging. I’m not well versed in the political landscapes, but hearing other people talk about issues that matter to them and their own ideas has helped me think of different angles I can take. Although I’m pursuing sports journalism, politics and crime also interest me and I think adding some knowledge in other fields would be beneficial to rounding out my reporter knowledge and overall portfolio. I want to become a better reporter and I think by challenging myself with stories that are outside of my comfort level helps me grow.

Ledes

 “We are not responsible for lost items.” A popular sign seen across various tourist attractions all over the world is usually meant for people, not monkeys. This curious George was able to steal a patron’s phone while enjoying the natural hot springs in Jigokudani Park, Japan. I quite enjoyed writing that headline during an exercise in class and I’ve found my headline or lede writing has always been the weakest part of my writing ability. It’s something I work really hard on. I’m constantly asking for feedback with professors or industry professionals on my published work and I feel that has helped me a lot. Some advice I’ve gotten from Jefferson Hagen who’s my boss at MacEwan Athletics has been especially helpful. Probably the biggest thing I’ve taken away from his advice is to not force anything. If there is something clever to say go for it, but never force it.

Editing

I’ve never been the best self-editor, so instead of being able to do a second or third draft on my writing, I’ve always just tried to implement the advice from peers, professors or industry professionals. By that I mean, I think everyone has a certain writing style and it’s hard to pick up on your own bad writing habits. So to combat that, every time I get feedback or edits by someone the next time I write, I’ll make sure that advice makes it way into my writing to try and create better habits. I think this has helped cut down on my own bad grammar or bad habits, but obviously no one is perfect and a second set of eyes is always valuable. That’s clearly the reason we have editors and I think you’re doing yourself a disservice to your own writing if you’re not open to that constructive criticism. As much as I want my filed story that I send to my editor to be perfect and not have a single edit that expectation is definitely unreasonable. However, I think you can always get close and pick up on the certain nuances your editor will want in the article if you’re proactive in taking in those edits.

Ethics

I feel I’ve always been quite ethical when writing articles and haven’t ever pushed those ethical boundaries. My only real experience with an ethical dilemma in journalism was this past summer. I was at a charity softball tournament and ran into an athlete there I knew. We proceeded to hang out while drinking and there were a few stories that came out from him that isn’t damaging but probably weren’t the best looks for him either. He did know me and we’ve had interactions in the past but under the circumstances, I never even considered digging into the story further or pursuing it. The public definitely didn’t need to know at all and it was just him being a young person partying. The story was also nowhere near as bad as what Auston Matthews did over the summer. Overall it would’ve been a story that probably would’ve gotten some traction, but the public definitely didn’t need to know about it, and I didn’t want to ruin that relationship. I know I did the right thing by just keeping it to myself and moving on.

Job Searching in Journalism

Luckily, my job searching in journalism has been off to a decent start so far. Currently, I’ve been paid to write for two different companies, Special Olympics Alberta and MacEwan University Athletics. I think the experiences have been incredibly beneficial for me on how to go at jobs in journalism and that’s definitely the connections you make along with putting yourself out there. I think you need to be proactive in building those connections by either showing your work to industry professionals or asking for advice. I think reaching out and understanding that the journalism community is big and it’s an incredibly supportive group is integral for finding those future jobs. Having those connections look out for you and vouch for you is how I got my two jobs. I think in an ultra-competitive field you need to get all the help you can get and that starts with asking for help. Is my cover letter and resume for this job good? You’d be surprised to know how many people in the industry would like you to succeed, especially if you’re going that extra mile to reach out and make those initial connections.

Time Management Essay

“Embarrassed and Panicking“

Austin Connelly

Embarrassed and panicking.

I’ve never had that feeling for an assignment in University before. I was even more ashamed that I let it happen in a 400-level course in my program.

Time management is something I’ve always prided myself on. I’ve proven to myself time and time again that I can handle work, school, and my social life all at the same time. So, for the first time when I missed a major assignment, I couldn’t really understand how I let that happen.

First, I tried to figure out how that happened. My biggest mistake was obviously missing the class where we went over the assignment and had time to practice. Secondly, I missed the seeing the assignment in another folder on the course blackboard. Although, that easily could have been prevented if I had just put all my assignments in my calendar or set reminders on my phone, which is what I usually would do.

Now in my fifth year at university, I think I probably got too comfortable with being able to handle everything and I stopped double-checking some things I needed to accomplish. I think it has been a good opportunity to reflect on this year’s habits.

I’ve been excited about new writing opportunities I’ve found this year and I think school has sometimes fallen to the wayside on my priorities. Being so close to graduating and starting my career seemed daunting when I first joined the program, but now, not so much. Leaving school and joining the workforce full-time has become something I’m really looking forward to, so I think caring about school and my GPA have become secondary this year.

In a study by Lebedeva, Shchipanova, Konovalova and Anton O. Kutyin (2016) they highlighted how vital time management can be to a student and how that translates to their professional identity.

“It was established that students with different professional identity profiles exhibit various peculiarities of time management. It was also shown that there exist multiple interconnections between the time management indicators (time competence, personal time disorganizers, student procrastination and time orientation) and characteristics of professional identity and its components,” (p.6922).

Before I was quite concerned about boosting my GPA and getting A’s in school, but now that has also shifted towards gaining work experience, increasing my connections and putting myself and work out into the field of journalism.

Overall, that is where I think I really messed up. I still should be giving all of my attention on the rest of my classes before I graduate. To be completely honest I know I could be doing better in some of my classes.

To finish off my last upcoming semester, I want to finish my courses off strong. I should be putting more effort into making sure I can balance everything evenly without swaying too far in one direction.

I want to enjoy my last semester as a university student but that shouldn’t come at the expense of my classes. I want to do better and I will to finish off my last year as a student.

References

Lebedeva, E. V., Shchipanova, D. Y., Konovalova, M. E., & Kutyin, A. O. (2016). Time Management and Professional Identity of Students of Pedagogical Universities. International Journal Of Environmental & Science Education, 11(14), 6913–6914.