Opinion
Council’s Strategic Plan Misses The Mark
Opinion Editorial submitted by Chad Krahn
It took a full year, but we finally have a glimpse into where Mayor and Council want to take Red Deer. This week they released their Strategic Plan … and it’s underwhelming. The plan is heavy on buzzwords and light on a concrete vision of where Council wants the city to be in four years.
Let’s start with the “vision” statement Innovative Thinking, Strategic Results, Vibrant Community. These six words do not tell us anything about where Council wants to take the city or anything specific Council would like to achieve in four years. Where is the inspiring vision with big goals to propel our city toward
greatness and make us proud to be Red Deerians?
There is also a complete lack of anything specific to Red Deer; this document could easily be the strategic plan for Medicine Hat or Lacombe. Every community should want to thrive and be healthy and connected, but what will Council’s focus be to ensure Red Deer grows into the great city we know it can be?
The focus areas of A Thriving City, Community Health and Well-being and An Engaged and Connected City are all wonderful, but they are tough to measure.
Many of the goals that Council hopes to achieve are minimalist and are not stretching the capabilities or the imagination of Red Deerians. Council wants to have a “vibrant downtown” and a “strong, respectful, and collaborative relationships” with citizens. That’s nice, but the indicators are so weak that one more event downtown and the goal was achieved. If the population grows by one person, another goal is achieved. Many of the indicators focus on the feelings of Red Deerians, which are virtually impossible to measure. Data-driven results are a great goal, but how does Council expect to get data on our collective feelings? Without numbers and benchmarks, this becomes a plan that is impossible to fail but also exceedingly difficult to make progress toward any difficult goal.
One of the top issues for Red Deer is crime. This does get mentioned in a roundabout way under Community Health and Wellbeing as a Safe and Secure City. It also comes with some indicators:
feeling of safety
number of calls for service (urban encampments)
Reported crime statistics are within guidelines specified in the Annual Policing Plan
This seems passive for a huge issue. Feelings of safety are essential, but they are, by nature, hard to measure. My feelings of safety have a lot to do with how recently my garage was broken into. They also want to measure the number of calls for service, particularly around rough sleeper camps. Why not just measure the number of rough sleeper camps? Rather than specifying that crime statistics are within guidelines, where is the commitment to make sure our crime rate drops so Red Deer doesn’t appear on Canada’s most dangerous cities? What about committing to innovative ideas for our police officers to help get the crime rate down? Or even efforts to increase the number of RCMP members in the city. The Mayor has spoken several times about how community safety is a top priority, so one would have expected it to feature more prominently in the Strategic Plan.
The economy is another top issue in Red Deer, which is mentioned under Local Economy is Strong and Diverse. And there are some indicators:
Net gain of businesses in Red Deer
Business developer and local contractor satisfaction
Neither of these indicators speaks to the diversity of the economy. While a net gain is better than a net loss, it hardly represents an aspirational goal. Would council be satisfied if there was only a single more business in the city after four years? Where is a percent growth benchmark that the plan is striving to achieve? Where is the commitment to being a regional economic driver? What happened to Mayor Johnston’s push for hydrogen service hub development in Red Deer? Would that not be something that belongs in a Strategic Plan?
Red Deer’s biggest challenge is that it is a city that thinks like a small town. We are on the cusp of having the best of both worlds – a great community with a small-town feel. But I fear we won’t get there without a clear and distinct vision that will propel our city toward greatness. We can be so much more.
Chad Krahn is a former candidate for Red Deer City Council.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Newt Gingrich
In an amazing show of courage, Vice President J.D. Vance offered an intervention for some of our European allies.
That is the best way to think of the two historic speeches he made in France and Germany last week.
In Paris, Vice President Vance pledged the United States would do whatever it takes to lead the world in the development of Artificial Intelligence. He went on to assert that Europe’s automatic response to regulate technological change rather than adapt to it was doomed to fail.
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Vance warned the Europeans that the Trump administration would retaliate to protect American high-tech companies from being fined and regulated by the European community.
Then, Vance went to the Munich Security Conference. It is the annual meeting of European leaders concerned about defense and threats to peace. The Vice President shocked the Europeans by launching a frontal assault on the decay of their political system.
As Vance put it:
“But while the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense, the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with the United States of America.”
He then went through a litany of specific complaints about the behavior of different European countries. They ranged from failing to control immigration, suppressing free speech, and Brussels seeking to control and define futures of independent countries such as Hungary and Romania.
The leading French newspaper, Le Monde (their equivalent of the New York Times) asserted that the American Vice President was declaring “ideological war on Europe.”
Le Monde was right. The European elites have been decaying for at least two generations. They hide behind their privileged status and take ideological positions that feel good but are destructive. Europe’s failures are devastating for most everyday Europeans.
I have personal knowledge about this. I have a Ph.D. in Modern European History – and I have lived in France, Germany, Belgium and Italy. As a young Army dependent, we were living in France when the French Army came back from Algeria, killed the French Fourth Republic and brought back General Charles de Gaulle to establish the Fifth Republic.
It is now the longest serving non-royal government in French history.
The European elites value each other’s opinions more than they value serving the people of Europe. The European elites live in a fantasy world of green policies that destroy industries and jobs, welfare policies which destroy the work ethic, and immigration policies which undermine the popular culture. They simply hope for a peaceful world without a strong military.
Meanwhile, state enforced speech codes protect Islamic extremists at the expense of local citizens.
The result has been a steady decline of European culture, economic development, and defensive capacity.
The Afghan Islamist who wounded more than two dozen people and killed a mother and her two-year-old daughter with a car two days before the supposed security conference signals the willful avoidance of reality at the heart of the elite European worldview.
To be clear, I admire European civilization. I believe America is far stronger and safer if Europe is healthy and capable of growing and defending itself.
I hope vice president Vance’s intervention at least starts European elites thinking about what must be done to revive their continent.
For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Mariane Angela
President Donald Trump announced Friday the dismissal of General Charles Brown, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump expressed his gratitude toward Brown for his extensive contributions and leadership, wishing him and his family a prosperous future. Brown’s departure marks a pivotal moment in U.S. military leadership following over 40 years of service.
“I want to thank General Charles “CQ” Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump wrote.
Simultaneously, Trump introduced his nominee for Brown’s successor.
“Today, I am honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a “warfighter” with significant interagency and special operations experience,” Trump said.
Trump said Caine’s appointment comes after he was overlooked for advancement during former President Joe Biden’s presidency.
“General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden. But not anymore! Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military,” Trump said. President Trump also announced plans to appoint five additional senior military officials, tasks he has delegated to Secretary Hegseth.
It was reported Thursday that Hegseth plans to dismiss Brown as part of President Trump’s commitment to eliminate “wokeness” from the military. Brown reportedly appears on a list of proposed removals submitted to Congress.
Brown had previously expressed his wish to retain his position even after Trump took office, and according to sources speaking to NBC News in Dec. 2024, Trump seemingly moderated his views on the general. Biden nominated Brown as chairman in 2023, and despite a heated confirmation hearing where senators scrutinized his alleged implementation of racial quotas in Air Force hiring practices, he was confirmed.
Meanwhile, Brown’s replacement, Caine, took office as the associate director for Military Affairs at the CIA on Nov. 3, 2021, after serving as the director of Special Programs at the Pentagon. Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, an F-16 pilot with extensive experience including over 150 combat hours, was commissioned in 1990 and has held numerous key roles, from the White House staff to special operations, and balances his military career with entrepreneurial ventures.
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