Our Children, Our Future: Getting it Right

Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

What are the top three issues for most people in the Calgary-Varsity constituency? This is what I’m hearing: Healthcare, education, and fiscal responsibility. December 1st, I participated in a 300-person dialogue in Calgary hosted by Minister Lukaszuk. Alberta Ed wants to know what educators, and other people who care about education in Alberta, have to say [...]


Building Community Integrity through Volunteering

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

It’s a three-legged stool: Government, Family & Community. Acting together, these three legs of the stool provide stable support for citizens. Last Friday, I was invited to speak at a TEDx conference on volunteering –Volunteering Better—and I’d like to share some of the powerful messages about how all of us strengthen the community—one of these [...]


Community Integrity – Respecting Seniors

Friday, November 11th, 2011

A week ago, I formally announced I’m running for the PC nomination in Calgary Varsity. This campaign is a wonderful opportunity to talk to people in this constituency about issues that matter to them. What matters to people in Calgary Varsity? Our community is diverse, and there are lots of different priorities. Yet, one priority [...]


Alberta’s Oilsands: Regeneration as the Aspiration

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

The story-line is familiar: Big Oil wants to produce, transport and market Alberta’s Oilsands at a pace needed to sustain economic yields and Canadians’ quality of life. Environmentalists want to slow down, contain, restrain, even stop, Oilsands activity to sustain the Earth, the ecology and human habitat. Both economists and environmentalists focus on ‘sustainability’ as [...]


Coming back from the dark side (of corporate integrity)

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

No one seems terribly excited when a company (simply) complies with rules and laws. What we seem to be looking for are companies that go beyond compliance to voluntarily commit to successively breathtaking thresholds of environmental and social impacts…and on a sustainable basis. When we do talk about the dark side of corporate integrity—we’re prone [...]


What do you think of Wal-Mart?

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Wal-Mart. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear someone mention this company? Everyone seems to have an opinion. My mother, a farm-wife in rural south-western Ontario, won’t set foot in a Wal-Mart. In her opinion, Wal-Mart has squeezed out a swath of mom-and-pop businesses in the rural community where she lives. [...]


Who cares about corporate integrity?

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

A colleague recently responded to my invitation to participate in this Corporate Integrity learning community. And, he asked some great questions that I’d like to share, and attempt to answer, in this blog.  “I really like the concept and measurement tool and I’m glad to see you returning to the ideas you and Dr. Bob presented in [...]


Celebrating Meaningful Labour

Monday, September 5th, 2011

It’s Labour Day – a stat holiday when many take a break from work to actually think about what work means to us. In the present economy, if you have a job, that fact alone may be sufficient cause for celebration. Bemoaning a lack of ‘meaningful’ work could be frowned upon. And yet, we all [...]


Decision Fatigue: another drag on our ability to achieve corporate integrity

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

An article in this weekend’s New York Times magazine caught my attention: Do you suffer from decision fatigue?  Good question…not just in our personal lives but in our corporate environments as well. Routinely, companies and governments and other organizations commit to act with integrity, then fail to make the decisions needed to achieve and/or sustain [...]


Moving from personal integrity to corporate integrity

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Most people understand ‘personal’ integrity. Most people can tell you the origins of their own sense of integrity. For me, personal integrity is built on the ethical values shared in my family  and the many communities I’m connected to… combined with the moral lessons of my Christian faith…supplemented by professional accountabilities as a lawyer.    Yet what [...]