Election Fever

Who would have thought there would be so many surprises coming from the federal election campaign. When the Conservative government fell and an election was called, it looked like it was going to be a useless election and that the status quo would remain.

Now with the election coming up on Monday, things are looking different. Depending on what polls you believe, the Harper government could be pushing towards its first majority government or falling short of the 155 seats needed. Either way, the Conservatives aren't losing this election.

The big surprise is the contrasting fortunes of the Liberals and the NDP. Iggy and the Liberals haven't seemed to connect with Canadians and that disconnect has seen them drop to a distant third in the polls. Steven Harper's dream of the destruction of the Liberals as a centrist-political force might be coming true.

On the other hand, Jack Layton and the NDP have risen like a phoenix. Layton is riding a surge of personal popularity in Quebec. This has translated right across the country. Smilin' Jack seems to have finally broken through.

For an election that people were decrying as a farce and useless, things are starting to get interesting. Canada could be changing in some fundamental ways after this election.

Monday will be an interesting day to see how it all plays out.

Visit Manitoba's Parks

Spring has officially kicked off, with the beautiful weather of the last few days. That means camping season is right around the corner. After spending eight months traveling around Manitoba and camping last year, I can tell you that there is much more to this province than the same old crowded campsites.

Head over to the Manitoba Parks: A(sessippi) to Z(ed Lake) blog at the Winnipeg Free Press to find out about Manitoba's excellent and undervalued provincial parks.

The Worst Jets

So, all those guarantees that the Jets were returning to town might have been a little bit premature. The situation in Phoenix is still looking pretty dire for the Coyotes, but Gary Bettman seems to be working a little bit of his magic.

I will never underestimate Bettman’s weaselness or his complete inability to ever admit that he made a mistake. He and Hulsizer have apparently struck some sort of new deal that they hope will be more favourable to the Goldwater Institute.

With this news, Jets talk has quieted down here in the Peg. Gary Lawless has given up on reaching his one Jets story a day quota for the Free Press. So what a great time to write a blog post about you guessed it…the Jets.

There’s been a lot of reminiscing recently about everyone’s fond memories of the team. Whether it be Teemu’s glove hunting, Ducky, the animated clapping hands, “Jump” or the Queen, everyone remembers the good times that the Jets provided in the NHL between 1979 and 1996 and the previous decade in the WHA.

I have all these same great memories of the team. I have great memories of heading down to the old Winnipeg Arena as a kid to see my heroes, like Teemu, Dale, Phil, Khabby, Tie, and Pokey. But I also remember the bad times. In honour of the team that when they managed to make it to the playoffs could never get past the first round…I give you the worst players to ever pull on the blue, white, and red.

I’ll preface this list by saying that this is completely subjective. My frame of reference is 1990 to 1996. I’m sure some of the worst players to play for the Jets (and likely in the NHL) were on those record breaking losing teams that the Jets put on the ice during those first couple of seasons after they entered the NHL. But, I wasn’t around back then, so I’m going to ignore them. For me, the Jets started with Hawerchuk and the legendary 1990 Oilers playoff series and ended when the team skated off the ice at the end of the 1996 Red Wings series.

So, without further ado and in no particular order, here are the worst players I that I ever saw take the ice at the Winnipeg Arena.

Sergei Bautin



A supposedly offensively-gifted defencemen and a first round pick, Bautin chocked up 30 points in 130 games with the Jets. Basically a pylon on the blue line.

Oleg Tverdovsky



He was the guy that came over for Teemu Selanne (should have traded Tkatchuk). He had a lot to live up to, which he didn't come anywhere near to. Had a semi-successful career after he left Winnipeg, though.

Russ Romaniuk

Hometown boy and that was the only reason he was with the Jets. Wouldn't have been able to crack the roster of any other team.

Doug Smail



As a kid, I just remembered hating his mustache. No other reason.

Evgeny Davydov

Another highly-touted player who never really amounted to anything in the NHL. He's mostly known for being involved in the 1987 World Junior brawl with Canada and not for his play with the Jets. I did enjoy Curt Keilbeck pronouncing his name though.

Carp Samurai

This blog has kind of been meandering all over the place lately and that will continue with this blog. I found a video that, while being extremely redneck, is pretty funny.

Asian carp are probably the greatest threat to North America's freshwater rivers and lakes. Introduced in the 1980s in the American South, this invasive species quickly spread into the Mississippi River and has been making its way north ever since. Because they reproduce so fast and eat literally everything in a freshwater ecosystem, if they reach the Great Lakes (which they are close to doing) the damage to the ecosystem of the lakes will likely be devastating and permanent.

A second danger related to the Asian carp is that at the sound of a motor boat, they will jump out of the water, sometimes up to ten feet in the air. These flying fish have injured water skiers, fishers, and boaters.

Some fishermen in Illinois have decided to fight back against these ecosystem damaging fish in some pretty bizarre ways. Warning - if you don't like rednecks or have a special affinity for fishing industry destroying, invasive species - don't watch this video.

The Moose Revisited

The Manitoba Moose came back from the brink of elimination to down the Lake Erie Monsters in the first round of the American Hockey League playoffs. The 4-1 victory in game seven means they now have to face off against their division rivals, the Hamilton Bulldogs.

As part of my Sports Journalism class at Red River College, I was able to cover a Moose - Monsters game from the press box, earlier this year. Because it was a school project it never saw the light of day. Here it is:

Three games of an 80 game schedule may seem insignificant, but when your team is mired in a losing streak, three games can seem like an eternity. Not wanting to extend their misery, the Manitoba Moose broke their losing skid in convincing fashion.

In front of minor hockey players from Swan River to Gateway to Altona, at the MTS Centre celebrating Hockey Night in Manitoba, the Moose downed the Lake Erie Monsters, moving back into a tie for first place in the American Hockey League's North Division. Recovering from a 5-1 loss to the Monsters the previous night, goaltender Eddie Lack backstopped the team to a 4-2 victory. The win prevented the Moose from setting a team record for futility. No Moose team had ever lost four regulation games in a row.

“A lot of things went our way tonight,” said Kevin Clark, the game's first star. “I don't know if it was the crowd, but guys we're making plays for each other. We showed that we weren't the same team from last night and that we're a first place team.”

The Moose took control early, pounding Monsters' goalie Jason Bacashihua with 17 shots in the first period. Their reward for this sustained pressure was a pair of quick goals near the end of the period. Alexandre Bolduc scored on a breakaway that pushed Bacashihua into his net, a minute and a half after Garth Murray opened the scoring.

The Moose kept the pressure on in the second period. Sergei Shirokov scored his team-leading 17th goal and then set up Mario Bliznak for the team's fourth goal of the night. Bliznak's goal meant an early exit for the beleaguered Bacashihua. The Monsters rallied late in third, led by goals from Ben Walter and Luke Walker, but it too little, too late.

After only scoring 15 goals in their past seven games, you couldn't fault the 14,775 in attendance for being surprised by the home team's offensive explosion. Moose coach Claude Noel chalked it up to some soul searching in the dressing room.

“Sometimes it's important to prove that you're a good team and we've got a lot riding on the next few games,” said Noel. “It's a lot about will, the will to play and the will to succeed. Tonight the guys showed that they have that will.”

The Moose have a few days of rest before hitting the road for a franchise record-tying ten game road swing, beginning Wednesday night in Rochester. A win against the North Division cellar dweller Americans would catapult the team past the Monsters for first in the division.

Honouring Manitoba's Athletes

Besides representing Canada at the Olympics, what do Jonathan Toews, Clara Hughes, Shannon Rempel, and Brittany Schussler all have in common? The answer is that they are all former winners of Sport Manitoba’s Junior Athlete of the Year award. On Thursday, April 28, two more young athletes will join these Manitoba sports heroes.




This past year was a banner year for Manitobans and their athletic endeavors. Manitobans made a splash on both the national and international level in many sporting disciplines – from baseball to volleyball, fencing to judo, and swimming to gymnastics (among many others).

A lot of these young athletes have flown under the radar of our province’s consciousness even though they have won major international events or set personal and provincial bests in the past year. Sport Manitoba will give these athletes some shine at the Sport for Life Gala tomorrow night at the Club Regent Casino here in Winnipeg.

At the Gala, awards will be handed out to the Junior Male and Female Athletes of the Year, Coach of the Year, Official of the Year, Volunteer and Youth Volunteer of the Year, and Manitoba Team of the Year. All categories are incredibly competitive this year, as Manitoba athletes had a year to remember on the national and international levels.

Alongside the presentation of the awards, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame will be adding two new members in the Veteran category. Ronald Turnbull will be inducted for his role in Manitoba cricket, both as an athlete and a builder. In the Team category, the 1963 St. James Rams senior football team is being inducted. Coached by Blue Bomber legend Bud Tinsley, the Rams were the first Western Canadian senior team to win the national championship on eastern soil.

The 2011 Sport for Life Gala takes place Thursday, April 28 at 7 PM at the CanadInns Club Regent. To see the full list of nominees visit here. If you’re interested in coming to the Gala, tickets can be purchased from Sport Manitoba.

Canada's Northern Artist Collective

As a follow up to my blog post yesterday, I think its essential to highlight a positive story coming out of Nunavut. That story is the Cape Dorset artist community. In a settlement plagued by crime, world renowned art has been used for the past half century as an economic engine.

It is mind blowing to learn that in one community, with a population of roughly 1200, roughly 25 per cent of the population earns their living through the arts. These artists bring in around $1.5 million in revenues each year. This is staggering. I'm not sure if there is an artist's collective like this anywhere in Canada.



Beginning in the late 1950s, Inuit artists set up an artists workshop in Cape Dorset, producing prints and soapstone carvings. Each year, the workshop, known as Kinngait Studios, has issued a print collection and carvings are sold through galleries in Toronto and Winnipeg.



It's interesting to note that a true artist community exists and thrives in Canada's North. While cultural forces have almost completely destroyed their traditional way of life, Cape Dorset Inuit have built an economy based on their past.

Canada's Northern Problem

Over the past several years, there has been much discussion about Canada's North and protecting our sovereignty in the Arctic Archipelago. Much of this talk has focused on military and international diplomacy solutions.

Little attention has been paid to the region's inhabitants, the Inuit. Thirty-three thousand Inuit are spread across across the massive Nunavut territory, living in 25 settlements (accessible only by air). They face a myriad of challenges whose roots stem from the transition from a nomadic to sedentary lifestyle, forced relocation to the High Arctic (eg. Resolute and Grise Fiord), and the devastating effects of the residential school system.

In Nunavut, the suicide rate is 40 times higher than in the rest of Canada and the crime rate is more in line with South Africa than the southern provinces. As the territory passes its twelfth anniversary, it is faced with serious social issues that continue to compound.

The Globe and Mail's Patrick White wrote an excellent, in-depth portrait of trials and tribulations of Canada's largely forgotten northern people. It's a long, but extremely educational read about the struggles of our fellow citizens.

Negative PR and sports labour unrest...not limited to North America

It's interesting to note that unchecked greed is not something isolated to North American professional sports.

While the National Football League (the billionaires) and the players (the millionaires) fight not just a labour, but a public relations battle (hears and minds), everything is not rosy in Spanish futbol.

The Spanish government recently decided that one La Liga game per matchday must be shown on free television. This is the equivalent of the Canadian government mandating that Hockey Night in Canada must exist or the American government saying that CBS has a legal right to air Sunday afternoon football.

The concept of sports on non-pay channels in North America is pretty-well accepted. Not so in Spain, apparently. La Liga and its member teams have taken the Spanish government to court over the decision, claiming it will effect their revenue streams. If the decision is changed, the league will collectively go on strike.

This can't be good pr for a league that pays some of the highest salaries in soccer and has some of the largest revenue-grossing teams.

Social Media Slam Dunk

Ah, it's that time of year again. The temperatures are rising, the snow is melting, and Winnipeg is beginning to turn into one gigantic, dirty puddle. Beyond that, another sure sign that its almost spring is that March Madness kicked off on Thursday.



The 68-team, three week NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship is treated like a religion by hundreds of thousands on both sides of the border. The prospect of seeing, not only college's best teams, but also the prospect of a "minnow" knocking off a "big fish" makes casual basketball viewers fanatics for a short period of time each year.



In the world of Web 2.0, March Madness is a perfect avenue for social media marketing. Facebook was one of the first social media websites to take advantage of this, when they launched a NCAA bracket pool in 2007. This year they've expanded on this app, by partnering with Citizen Sports and having a $5,000 grand prize. For the iPhone, Citizen Sports offers a mobile version of its Facebook app.

Talk Hoops offers an app for the iPhone that provides in-depth information, news, and game scores about all 68 teams taking part in the Madness.

The NCAA and tournament broadcaster CBS haven't been left behind in the social media derby. The NCAA offers on-demand streaming of all tournament games, while CBS has an app that allows you to watch every game on your iPhone.

All these new social media avenues for the tournament are a goldmine for their creators and everyone out there jonesing for more coverage of March Madness.

With these new apps you have no chance of missing the 2011 version of Valparaiso-Mississippi or Princeton-UCLA.

IPPP Time

Wow time has flown by over the past few years. It feels like only yesterday that I was sitting in the multi-purpose room at Red River College's Roblin Centre at the Exchange District Campus, having the Creative Communications program explained to me. But, in reality it has been almost a year and a half since this event. In the meantime, countless written, audio, and visual assignments have been produced, I chose public relations as my career path, and I, along with roughly 70 of my peers completed an IPP.

What exactly is an IPP? In order to graduate from Creative Communications, students must complete an Independent Professional Project. This can be a written project, audio or video project, or a promotional project. Students pitch their idea in the form of a written proposal and to a panel of instructors for approval. They then have roughly a year to complete this project.

I chose to produce a travel blog focusing on Manitoba's stunning and diverse provincial parks. Thanks to the support of the Winnipeg Free Press, I was able to market my project by having it featured prominently on the front page of their website. Manitoba Parks: A(sessippi) to Z(ed Lake) ended up being a great success.

Next week marks the completion of the IPP, when every Creative Communications student is tasked with presenting their project in front of an audience of their peers, instructors, family, and media industry professionals. The Independent Professional Project Presentations (IPPPs) will take place Wednesday, March 9 to Friday, March 11 at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Students will each have 10 minutes to present their project and all the work that they have accomplished.

If you have the time, stop by and learn about Manitoba Parks: A(sessippi) to Z(ed Lake) and Steve Dreger's South African World Cup Odyssey. Watch Jeff Ward's feature film, "The Trainman" and learn about "Debuts" thanks to Lennie Eulalia's documentary, among many other excellent and thought provoking projects.

If you have the time

Exploitative PR?

This is from Michael Grange's blog for The Globe and Mail. He discusses the UFC taking advantage of good pr coming from a man who fended of an attack by a mass murderer.

Which brings us to the dramatic events in a New York City subway station earlier this week, where a Maksim Gelman, 23, accused of killing four people in a weekend crime spree, allegedly attacked Joe Lozito with a butcher knife.

The burly father of two survived the first swipe and told reporters he used a wrestling move he picked up from his years of watching UFC fights on pay per view to help subdue his attacker.

"It was my instinct to get him down," Lozito said. "Like getting an opponent down in MMA, what do you do? You go for the legs. When we were on the ground he was flailing at me with that knife. I just wanted to get control of that right wrist. In the process, he got me on my thumb and left triceps, but I was aiming towards getting control of his wrist for sure."

Dana White, UFC president, invited Lozito to be the guest of honour at the upcoming UFC card across the river from New York, in Newark. This picked up heavy news coverage from the New York media.

New York State is the last major market in North America that refuses to sanction mixed martial arts events. This good news story will likely go a long way to convincing state legislators to change their minds.

When I first read the blog post, I thought that it was a good PR move, but after thinking about it a little more it seemed a little exploitative. Four people were killed by the attacker. Taking advantage of any PR, for financial gain, out of this story doesn't quite seem right?

Blogosphere, what do you think?

Hockey goes Pink

It's almost surreal to imagine grown men shooting, hitting, and fighting in a pink jersey, but in Anchorage this February 14th that will be the case.

Minor league sports is a cutthroat business. In order to maintain a small, loyal fanbase and attract new customers, teams have gone to every extreme to draw fans to the arena, diamond or stadium. Minor league hockey is no exception and promotional jerseys have become the norm, with Valentine's Day jerseys being worn by hulking, behemoths every year.

These promotional jersey's have become a public relations staple for minor league hockey teams and obviously have been proven to be a successful tactic, as teams constantly trot them out, year after year. Valentine's Day jerseys are just the tip of the iceberg though. Teams have commemorated New Year's Eve, Christmas, beach night, and Milwaukee legend/Mr. Belvedere star Bob Ueker, among many others.

The Alaska Aces, of the ECHL, join a long line of team's that have tried to draw in couples celebrating Valentine's Day. Here are some of the best of the worst.

Bakersfield Condors



Las Vegas Thunder




Grand Rapids Griffens

New ideas at the FreeP

It's nice to see that the Winnipeg Free Press is taking steps to evolve and diversify at a time when the future of media industry is uncertain and constantly in a state of flux.

I was just reading an article about the "News Cafe" that the paper plans to open in the Exchange in the spring. The Free Press describes the cafe as a place that people can come for food and interaction with journalists. I like the idea of having working journalists in the downtown area, instead of just operating out of the Free Press offices on the edge of the city.

This new office/cafe seems like an ideal spot for more co-operative work between the Free Press and journalism students in Red River College's Creative Communication program. That seems like a win/win for both parties involved.

Whether this new Free Press venture lives up to its potential remains to be seen, but it's nice to know that the "old guard" of the Winnipeg media is thinking outside the box. The staff has introduced a lot of new features in the last year, including Winnipeg Free Press TV, live-tweeting of events, interactive chats, and large amounts of video content. The Free Press seems to be catching on to the interactive role that media plays at the present time.

Manitoba parks still threatened by logging

This week marked the end of my IPP (Independent Professional Project) journey to visit all 77 of Manitoba's road-accessible provincial parks and to document it for the Winnipeg Free Press.

I thought I'd take this space to republish an article I wrote roughly a year ago, concerning the on-going logging that takes place in one of Manitoba's flagship provincial parks, Duck Mountain. The research I conducted for this article helped inspire me to take on my IPP.

A year later and logging continues to take place in Duck Mountain Provincial Park and logging trucks continue to rumble through the caribou migration path in Grass River Provincial Park.

This feature article originally appeared in Sustain Magazine.

Logging Manitoba's Mountains

A disruptive protest at a downtown Winnipeg hotel far away from the majestic Manitoba boreal forest became a catalyst for change in the logging policies of Manitoba. Combined with an extensive education campaign, this event, organized by the Wilderness Committee lead to the end of industrial logging in 79 of 80 Manitoba provincial parks. Left off the list was Duck Mountain Provincial Park. The chain saws continue to rip through the heavily-forested park.

“Duck Mountain is one of the most beautiful areas in Manitoba. It’s one of the few forested, elevated areas in the province,” says Robin Bryan of the Wilderness Committee of Manitoba. “Yet it’s 61 per cent available for logging.”

Bryan and the Wilderness Committee began a campaign in 2006 to mobilize citizens to speak out against logging in Manitoba’s provincial parks. The campaign was a natural extension of the Wilderness Committee’s goal of protecting boreal forest throughout Canada. The organization was created as a citizen’s action group in Vancouver in 1980. Its concern was the conservation of wilderness and also to mobilize citizens to take action and become more politically active concerning the environment and its issues. The group’s Manitoba offshoot includes 6,000 members, while the national organization boasts 30,000 members, making it the largest member- based wilderness group in Canada.

The fight to end commercial logging in provincial parks was an uphill battle for Bryan and the Wilderness Committee.

“Logging companies have a lot of control and a lot of political sway in Manitoba,” says Bryan, who organized rallies, including a mass protest outside a 2007 Tembec logging conference in downtown Winnipeg. He was also involved in discussions with former Conservation Minister Stan Struthers and organized Wilderness Committee members to contact their MLAs with their concerns.

The protest outside the 2007 Tembec logging conference at the Place Louis Riel Suite Hotel in downtown Winnipeg kick-started the Wilderness Committee’s campaign against logging in provincial parks. Tembec was clear-cutting in the Nopiming and Whiteshell parks.

“We basically confronted them on the issue and that really kicked off this campaign,” Bryan emphatically explained. “We had some red-faced, embarrassed logging representatives on our hands, but it was a necessary step in showing our intentions.”

The fight was won in 2008, when the Manitoba government announced that it was banning commercial logging in Manitoba’s provincial parks. The ban included the Whiteshell, Nopiming, and Grass River parks, where large- scale clear cutting operations had been taking place. Logging companies found to be violating this ban could face fines ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 per offense. Missing from this ban was Duck Mountain Provincial Park.

Duck Mountain is actually not one mountain, but a series of pine, spruce, and balsam covered hills that rise up near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border. It is a diverse ecosystem, home to large herds of mountain and valley elk. Moose, white-tailed deer, black bears and lynx also call the park home. The area is a nesting ground for countless species of birds. It was established as one of Manitoba’s original provincial parks in 1961.

Logging in the Duck Mountains began when the first European settlers moved into the area in 1899. Lumber mills sprouted up in the new settlements of Swan River and Grandview, as the settlers realized the area’s potential as a source of timber. Industrial logging arrived soon after and continued throughout the century. Even though Duck Mountain Provincial Park was established in 1961, logging continued due to lack of government protection. American lumber giant, LP Building Products (formerly Louisiana-Pacific) established itself in the region in 1996. The company does not log in the park, but independent harvesters of the park bring the timber they harvest to its mill in Swan River.

“LP logs in the Duck Mountain Provincial Forest, outside the park,” says Wade Cable, LP Building Products Area Forest Manager. “Approximately 30 Quota Holders who were logging prior to 1997, when the Duck Mountain Provincial Park’s boundaries were changed, can harvest in the Resource Management Zone of the park.”

The industry’s effects on the region’s economy complicate the situation.

“Because there is no alternative replacement wood available in the region, removing logging from Duck Mountain Provincial Park would significantly threaten the viability of hundreds of jobs and several mills in the region,” explains Rachel Morgan, the Press Secretary to Cabinet for the Government of Manitoba, as to the reason Duck Mountain was excluded from the ban.

Bryan has another take on the situation, speculating on then Conservation Minister Stan Struthers’ ties to Swan River, where LP Building Products’ operation is based.

“I think the minister, Stan Struthers, is from Swan River and he doesn’t want to piss off his friends,” says Bryan, who received the 2009 Brower Youth Award from the Earth Island Institute in San Francisco, for his efforts to stop logging in provincial parks. “It’s a sign that there wasn’t the political will to make the legislation complete. It’s an incomplete piece of legislation.”

Bryan is optimistic that the work the Wilderness Committee is doing to ensure an end to logging in Duck Mountain Park will be successful. He is hopeful that new Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie will re-examine the case of Duck Mountain.

“I have a lot of respect for the history of activism of both Bill Blaikie and the assistant, Rob Altemeyer, so we’re hopeful that their background will carry through to this issue,” says Bryan.

Whether that happens remains to be seen. Rachel Morgan refuses to comment on the issue, saying that the government “does not want to scoop itself.”

So in Duck Mountain, the status quo remains. It’s a place where logging trucks rumble through the habitats of countless species of wildlife. It’s a place where the opening line of the Manitoba Provincial Parks Act is ignored: “Provincial parks are special places that play an important role in the protection of natural lands and the quality of life of Manitobans.”

If you are interested in contacting the Wilderness Committee, they can be reached at (204)942-9292 or at www. wildernesscommittee.mb.ca. If you are interested in contacting the Manitoba Department of Conservation about Duck Mountain, they can be reached at (204)945-6784.