Game 1 of the Senators vs Ducks Stanley Cup Final is set to go tonight, in about three hours.

If you’ve been looking for anything non-Senators related in the Ottawa papers for the last three or four days, you likely haven’t found much.

Canada’s capital has been taken over by ‘Sens fever’.

I’ll be watching the games at The Standard on Elgin and was lucky enough to get tickets to game 4.

Go Sens Go!

Ted Demopoulos of Blogging for Business did a post last week with three facts to ‘get bloggers back to earth’.

1. Blogging is a fad.
2. You can’t blog on whatever you think is “cool” and build a large audience.
3. You’ll never quit your day job to blog.

Ted forecasts that, “the wild growth of the blogosphere is going to stop soon and there will be a lot of ex-bloggers”.

This got me thinking.

Our CEO, Joe Thornley started blogging about a year and a half ago.

My colleague in our Toronto office, Michael O’Connor Clarke has been blogging since 2001!

Both have successful blogs, but neither have quit their day job.  In fact many social media ‘purists’ frown on ‘blogging for dollars’. 

What constitutes a successful blog among the reported 60 million in existence?  400 subscribers?  1000?  5000?  Whatever the number, its a lot less than what constitutes a successful newspaper or TV show.

Our firm has immersed itself into social media (blogs, podcasts, wikis, RSS, etc).  As a leading PR/communications firm we needed to, but we also believe in it as a tool and we do it.  Basically every member of our team has their own or is a co-contributor to a blog and/or podcast.  We know our stuff in the area and have helped clients launch blogs, podcasts and other social media tools as part of their communications programs.

However, I often hear PR/communications professionals and bloggers/podcasters say they are uncertain about ‘where all this is going’. 

I often wonder how many blogs of the 60 million are like this one and have less than 100 subscribers?  How many of them haven’t had a new post in 6 months?  How many of them have never received a comment?

I think blogging, podcasting, etc. is another part of the communications mix, not a replacement for the other channels.  There still is and will be for the foreseeable future mainstream media, advertising, traditional websites, public events and even print materials.

Like financial investments, diversification in communications is important.

Can you have a successful communications campaign exclusively based on social media?  Of course, there are many examples.

Can you have a successful communications campaign exclusively based on advertising?  Yes again.

Would a communications campaign that includes both plus mainstream media outreach and public events be even more successful?  Likely.

In the last year or so, the vast majority of communications programs our firm has developed for clients have included some form of social media in them.  Some have been very heavily social media focused, but it depends on the target audience and the objectives – launching a blog is not the answer for everything.

The reason I’d like Ted’s post is because a lot of people that are really into social media are untalkable about anything else and do need to get back to earth a little.

Like many other people in my profession, I don’t know where social media is going.  I do know that communications programs still require a mix of vehicles.

A few weeks ago I posted about the absurdness of MPs deciding that the selection of Shane Doan as Canada’s Captain at the World Hockey Championship was their business and that spending time in the House of Commons and Committee Hearings discussing it was an effective use of their time and taxpayers money.

Under Shane Doan’s captaincy, Team Canada won all 9 games they played enroute to the gold medal and outscored their competition 13 to 4 in their three playoff games.

During the tournament, Doan had 5 goals and 5 assists, and was the emotional leader of the team. In Canada’s game against Belarus, in the middle of the controversy, he scored a hat trick in a span of six minutes 25 seconds.

On the Hockey Night in Canada Coaches Corner segment after Team Canada’s win, Don Cherry thanked Jack, Jill [Gilles] and the Language Police for rallying the team behind their captain and inspiring them to bring home the gold medal.

A colleague suggested Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Denis Coderre should wear Shane Doan Team Canada jerseys in the House of Commons and make statements congratulating him and Team Canada on their gold medal win.  A good idea, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for it to happen.

Like all of my colleagues, I am revved up about the SHARP 1080pD82 Challenge. It’s a program we’ve launched for SHARP Electronics of Canada. Thousands have signed on in the hopes of winning a great tv by improving the environment.

This Aquos tv is manufactured in one of the world’s most sustainable plants. We’re sending a group of journalists over  to Japan this week to tour  the facility and take the opportunity to interview a number of SHARP Executives. The offer to travel on this trip came up, and like a fat kid on a smartie, I was all over it.

And greenhouse gases are all over it too. A round trip from Ottawa to Osaka produces over five tons of carbon emissions. Our team decided to purchase carbon offsets. It’s a simple step. By doing so, we’re investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Though using and producing on one hand, we’re trying to reduce at the same time.

David Eaves, a frequent speaker and consultant on public policy, wrote an interesting piece on the banning of access to Facebook by government organizations in the May 17, 2007 Globe and Mail.

What a joy it was to be appreciated on a recent business trip to Toronto.

Instead of flying into Pearson, I opted to take Porter Air to the Toronto City Island Airport. From the moment I checked in at the counter in Ottawa, and through each encounter with a Porter Air employee, I was greeted with a smile along with a please and thank you. What a difference an airline makes!

The last time I traveled Ottawa to Toronto return on the other carrier, there was not one employee smile. And there wasn’t anything else either, full stop. Over the PA system came an announcement there would be no inflight service due to the short route. Over at Porter, everyone’s served a snack and the beverage cart rolls by at least once during the 45 minute flight.

I will definitely be a return customer. Now - if only they could offer Porter Points.

This is the kind of story that drives me crazy about Canadian health care.

Take a self-serving report (this one by the Canadian Nurses Association, but there are others published every year), then oversimplify its findings and report them to the public, highlighting another crisis in Canadian health care.

To quote the story, available here:

“The report, by the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), says 8,000 nurses will graduate but 15 per cent of them won’t be able to find secure employment.

The CNA says the problem is resulting in 10 per cent of new graduates moving to the United States every year.

The unemployment figure is determined by looking at health-care policy studies, past trends and reports from young nursing students across the country.”

Except it isn’t entirely accurate — the key word in the report is “secure.”  A lot of professionals, when they first graduate, aren’t hired into permanent, full-time jobs. Instead, they are hired on probation, given the worst shifts, etc.  Nurses, unfortunately, are no different.

The report goes on:

“According to the CNA, Canadian governments spend an average of $60,000 over four years to train a nurse. If 1,200 of them are unable to find work ever year, that amounts to a waste of $72 million in tax dollars.”

“Smadu said that employed registered nurses are working the equivalent of 10,000 full-time jobs in overtime.

“We know that 8,000 isn’t even meeting that gap and that’s why to us it’s really very shocking that we have new graduates who still don’t have full-time employment when they graduate,” she said.

“We predict at the association that we need about 12,000 graduates a year to deal with the impending retirement of registered nurses.”

There’s that word again — full-time employment.  Does the fact that a new nurse, fresh out of university, isn’t being offered a permanent, full-time shift at a hospital or other health care facility mean that he or she doesn’t have a job?  Not necessarily, but this report is being reported as though that is the case.

The Canadian health care system is a complicated mix of public and private sector management and involvement already.  Doctors, far from being employees of the government, are self-employed business people, by and large.

There are things to be done in health care — moving new doctors to salaried positions, for example, and buying the practices of current physicians.  There are things to be done in medical education — eliminating tuition fees for doctors who agree to remain in Canada, charging the true tuition (about $100,000 per year) to those who don’t agree, and finding a mechanism to enforce that agreement, for starters.

And, yes, we’re facing a demographic challenge — but reporting the results of a study without ensuring the real questions are asked isn’t going to do it. 

So what questions would I ask?

• Are you saying, Canadian Nurses Association, that there are trained nurses in Canada who are unemployed (not underemployed, but out of work completely)?
• Are you saying these nurses, professionally trained and certified and willing to relocate, can’t find any work anywhere?  Or are you saying they can’t find guaranteed, full-time employment in the area they want, with the hours they want — because that’s different.

I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I would want those answers before I reported that “1 in 7 new nurses can’t find work.”

I think the Canadian health care system, by and large, works pretty well, and I think the proof is obvious to anyone who’s watched GM, Ford and Crysler struggle with their health care costs south of the border.  “System needs improvement,” however, isn’t the same headline as ”system in crisis.” 

A well timed knock on my front door gave me a polite and truthful reason to say goodbye to the telemarketer who was interrupting my enjoyment of a Senators playoff game. But I hesitated. What if that knock was someone was trying to sell me yet something else? Perhaps I should have turned off the lights to give the illusion I wasn’t at home. Or run the shower, and wash my suspicions away. 

My hunches were right. It was someone peddling something else. I felt it my civic duty to answer the door though. But the id bearing university student wasn’t actually selling anything, except ideas. His first bright one- handing over a few free compact fluorescent bulbs (CFBs) from Project Porchlight.  By changing one regular light bulb per household for a compact fluorescent one, the average Ottawa resident will save $50 in energy costs on their hydro bill over the lifetime of the bulb. 200,000 bulbs replaced citywide will result in 100,000 fewer tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted. And replacing just one old fashioned lightbulb with one new cfb in every household across Canada is the equivalent of taking 66,000 cars of the road. Now, that’s change within reach!  And just like Saint Nick pulling presents from his sack, this canvasser surrendered even more goodies from his EnviroCentre backpack. It’s an effort to help citizens use less energy and decrease their water usage. In other words, reduce our carbon footprints. Even Queen Betty’s getting involved. 

The EnviroCentre off loaded two 2 low flow showers heads, a kitchen faucet aerator, two bathroom faucet  aerators and foam tubing for my hot water pipes. By lessening the load in his backpack, he helped me lessen my carbon emissions.   

C’est finalement aujourd’hui qu’André Boisclair a décidé de tirer sa révérence. En fait, il s’est clairement fait montrer la porte par son parti. Comment se fait-il que le Parti Québécois ne soit jamais satisfait du chef qu’il choisit lui-même? Bon, il vrai que c’est avec André Boisclair que le Parti Québécois a terminé bon 3e lors de la dernière campagne électorale, mais est-ce nécessaire de mentionner que c’est ce même parti qui n’était pas satisfait de René Lévesque (celui-là même qui a créé le parti) et Lucien Bouchard (celui-là même qui était admiré par une grande majorité de Québécois). Ils ne sont donc jamais satisfaits ces péquistes?!

Et qui viendra remplacer André Boisclair? Est-ce que monsieur Duceppe se lancera dans la gueule du loup? Va-t-il à ce point risquer sa réputation pour le PQ, troisième partie à l’Assemblée nationale? Va-t-il laisser le Bloc québécois qui voit récemment ses appuis au Québec diminuer considérablement? La bonne nouvelle pour nous les fédéralistes — et c’est malheureux pour mes amis péquistes — en s’entre-déchirant ils vont se détruire. Eux-mêmes.

I am an unabashed baseball fan — I think it may be the most pure game there is, and I like nothing better, on a lazy summer afternoon, than to head to the ballpark and watch the Lynx play.

Today, however, my heart is heavy for the future of the game for a very specific reason — I’m worried that Barry Bonds, should he break Hank Aaron’s home run record in the next couple of months, might harm the game in a permanent way that time won’t heal.

No matter you’re opinion of Bonds the athlete, there is no denying Bonds is bad at selling the game.  He’s always been more about Barry Bonds than about the team, or the game, and he’s been one of those athletes unwilling to realize how good they have it, etc.  In short, by all accounts he’s been graceless, tactless, and — here’s the largest condemnation — not a winner.  That’s right, there are no World Series rings on Barry Bonds’ fingers.

Hank Aaron?  World Series winner …

Babe Ruth?  World Series winner …

So, Mr. Bonds, here’s what you can do to preserve the game that has made you wealthy beyond your wildest imagination and has brought you fame and fortune …

Since the Giants finished under .500 last year, unless they are in a tight pennant race, there will be no competitive reason to carry on, so my advice, Mr. Bonds, is as follows: Tie the record, then retire.

Hit 755 homeruns, then say “I’m done.”

Otherwise, it’s an asterisk for you forever, Mr. Bonds, and every discussion of the most home runs ever will start, ” well, Hank Aaron hit 755 homeruns clean, but Barry Bonds got __ and kind of holds the record.”

You might want to ask Roger Maris how he felt about the asterisk for his whole life — particularly since his asterisk was for a much less serious transgression of the rules.

Will Barry Bonds listen?  Has he ever?