I posted recently on what I think David Swann should do with the leadership of the Alberta Liberal Party. I wrote at the time "If Swann was asking for my advice, and I know he's not..."Well, that post caught the eye of Justin Archer, who has been deeply involved in the ALP for a while now, and he asked me if I'd be interested in making that argument to David Swann in person.As it turns out, David was in town today for a caucus meeting, and he was going to be meeting Justin for dinner, so Justin called me and I had dinner with David Swann tonight.My argument was basically what I've said here and here, with the addition that there needs to be some sort of announced, exciting renewal process that Albertans can take part in without necessarily having to join the ALP.He was frank with me, and I wasn't there looking to scoop anybody, so I'm not going to be sharing the details of our interesting conversation. My ability to have constructive conversations with people like David Swann is more important than my ability to share them on this blog. :)I can, I think, share some general impressions I had.I hadn't talked to David since before his entering the leadership race. In entering that race he had evidently decided that the ALP is in a better position than any group in the province, new or existing, to undertake the kind of political construction project that is going to be necessary in order to really fix democracy in this province.Agree or disagree with him on whether the ALP is the way to go, I am heartened that he seems to understand exactly the scope of what's necessary.Is the ALP the way to go? I'm still skeptical. As I expressed to David, there is a serious problem with institutional momentum, not to mention the debt, and the brand liability. Whatever the ALP decides to do in order to renew itself is going to have to overcome that institutional momentum somehow. But as long as David seems to want to do what's necessary, and he does, I'm willing to help in whatever way I can.Still, I'm not the leader of anything, which leaves me in the pleasant position of also being able to help anyone else who thinks they have a way of changing Alberta politics for the better. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to have conversations with those sorts of individuals in the coming weeks, too.I suspect David wouldn't have any problem with that. He said himself that either the ALP has to change, or we have to have something new. I believe he still thinks that's true.