Our discourse is becoming increasingly polarized. How to move it beyond polarity? Lawyer, author and self-proclaimed recovering politician Donna Kennedy-Glans is trying to find the answer. Columnist with the National Post and author of Teaching the Dinosaur to Dance, Donna is asking the hard questions that stir up controversy in the hopes of sparking deeper citizen engagement. Donna’s journey has taken her from a cattle farm in southwestern Ontario, where she grew up, to the cabinet table at Alberta’s legislature. She’s worked in 35 countries as a lawyer and business leader in the energy sector, including serving as the first female vice-president of the oil and gas company Nexen. She’s penned multiple books and founded the non-profit Bridges, which helps youth show up, stand up and be heard. And Donna has received numerous awards for her work, including receiving the Global Woman of Vision Award, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, being named as one of the 50 Most Influential Albertans and one of Canada’s 50 Most Powerful Business People.
Donna invited us to her home in Calgary to discuss digital journalism and citizen voice in an increasingly polarized society.
What do you think?
- What did you learn from Donna’s story?
- Do you think we need to move beyond polarity?
- Is Donna changing how we see polarization? Is she redefining the future of journalism?
- How do you define meaningful citizen engagement? Is it something we do well in Canada?
- Is it possible to ask hard questions in our society without creating controversy or deepening divides? And if the answer is no, what does that mean for people and nature?
- Do we need to ask ‘why’ more often? Is that how we can heal our democracy?
Different Perspectives
More on Donna
As an elected politician, Donna was the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Calgary-Varsity in 2012 and served in that role until April 2015. During her tenure as MLA, she championed citizen voice in provincial decision-making and acted in several capacities, including: Associate Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy; Chair of the Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship; Member of Treasury Board; Chair of the government’s Results Based Budgeting review of all economic diversification programs; Government founder of First Nations and Métis Women’s Councils; Member of the government’s Ministerial Working Group on Natural Resources and Environment; and Member of Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future.
In the private sector, Donna has hands-on experience solving integrity dilemmas across the globe, largely in the energy sector, including as:
- A lawyer and negotiator with TransCanada Pipelines’ exploration and production company during the deregulation of energy markets in the 1980s;
- A corporate executive and first female Vice-President with Nexen Inc., an upstream oil and gas company, where she was responsible for managing above ground risks in domestic and international projects from 1991-2001; and
- An independent consultant, advising global energy operators on how to manage non-technical risks in resource projects over the past decade from 2002-2012.
In the non-profit sector, Donna founded Bridges Social Development in 2002 as a voluntary organization training female leaders in the country of Yemen. In 2009, a youth social entrepreneurship initiative was launched, in partnership with young leaders in Alberta (including youth from Diaspora, First Nations and Métis communities) and continues to operate in the province.
In 2015, Donna founded a citizen engagement initiative, ViewpointsAB, to directly engage with Albertans on emerging energy and climate change choices. Over a four month period, 500,000 Albertans were engaged and these voices from Alberta were shared in Paris at the COP21 meetings.
In 2007, Donna was awarded a Global Woman of Vision award; was named a ‘Compelling Calgarian’ by the Calgary Herald in 2010; received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal; was named one of Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People, 2014 by Alberta Venture; and one of Canada’s 50 Most Powerful Business People in 2014 by Canadian Business.
Watch her TEDxCalgary Talks:Volunteering: The Next Generation, Wield Hope like an Axe
Read her books: Corporate Integrity: A Toolkit for Managing beyond Compliance (Wiley), Unveiling the Breath: One woman’s journey into understanding Islam and gender equality (Pari), presently, Donna is co-authoring a book on the leadership principles of Premier Peter Lougheed in Alberta.