Every time I see commentators from Quebec on Radio-Canada or TVA analyzing results of an election or referendum vote in Quebec, they always break down the votes into anglophone Quebecers and francophone Quebecers, thereby creating two classes of Quebecers.

These analysts are typically pro-sovereignist, talking about how the federalist cause (i.e. the Quebec liberals) are doing among francophones, etc.  Every single time I hear this, I think about moving across the river to Gatineau so that I too can become a Quebecois and drive the sovereignists mad by getting a vote.

If you live in Quebec, you’re a Quebecer.  I’m aware that drives sovereignists crazy, given their desire for an independent nation, but we live in a democracy, where everyone’s votes – man, woman, English, French, Catholic, Protesant, Muslim, etc. — count equally.

And a final aside — if Canada is divisible … Do the math.

On the day before presenting the 2007 Federal Budget on March 19^th, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty marked the tradition of the Finance Minister buying new footwear by purchasing a pair of new skates (instead of shoes) and for his son at a sports store in his home town of Whitby, Ontario.

What could be more Canadian?  

I think this was a really smart move that made the Minister seem more like a regular guy to Canadians before being all over the media today and for the remainder of the week.

Photos, like this one from Finance Canada’s website, appeared in most papers across Canada today.

A few months ago, CBC started a series on their website called ‘Live Chats’.

So far these have been with people like Martha Hall Findlay and Roberta Bondar.

The way it works: CBC posts an article about the live chat personality and then people can submit questions to the person through the website.

A cool idea that lets people ask questions to prominent Canadians (that they would likely otherwise never have the opportunity to ask) and potentially receive a response.  I say ‘potentially’ because not all questions will be answered.  It makes sense not to commit to answering all the questions in case hundreds are submitted.

The current chat is with Canadian Rock Star, I mean Chief of Defence Staff, Rick Hillier.

Now I didn’t have a huge interest in following any of the previous Live Chats, so I don’t know how long it took to post the Qs & As for each of them.

I do have an interest in this one with General Hillier and, unfortunately, it has not been well executed.

The opportunity to submit questions opened on March 9^th and closed (I believe) on March 12^th.  Qs & As were first supposed to be posted on March 14^th, which was then changed to March 15^th.  The latter is still the date indicated, but General Hillier’s Qs & As are not yet up.  CBC has now added the following note:

We have received word from General Hillier that he has been delayed in answering you but will be sending his answers very soon. He says “I will respond fully as soon as I can, and appreciate your patience in the meantime.”

Fortunately, there is a RSS feed so I don’t have to keep checking back to the website.

Given General Hillier’s responsibilities, CBC should have provided a longer than normal turn-around time for this particular chat.  Say two weeks instead of two days.  It is better to get them up early rather than several days late.

General Hillier is also currently doing a similar session with the Globe and Mail, which is also running late.  It now has the following note from the General up:

I have received your questions as forwarded by Brodie Fenlon your web host, and I am impressed by their scope, their depth, their quantity, and what they demonstrate about your interest and understanding about the Canadian Forces. Your questions deserve my considered answers that will take some time – several hours in fact. I will respond fully as soon as I can, and appreciate your patience in the meantime.

The PR machine that is General Rick Hillier, with his many other important commitments, appears to have stretched himself a little thin on both of these outreach opportunities.

I’m sure this isn’t going to negatively impact Canada’s most popular CDS in recent memory, but both sessions likely should have been better planned to allow General Hillier more time to respond.

Todd Defren of Shift Communications recently posted on his PR Squared blog a template for a Social Media Newsroom.

One of Todd’s/Shift’s clients Neatreceipts has launched a Social Media Newsroom.  Check it out here. (by the way, Neatreceipts’ Scanalizer looks like a cool product)

In his post, Todd has a couple of questions company’s should ask before launching a blog, podcast or Social Media Newsroom where anyone can post comments about their products and/or services:

• Are you confident enough in your product that you’re willing to endure the potential for public criticism? 
• Are you sure that you have enough time, and adequate support resources, to respond to such criticisms in a consistently prompt and professional and public manner?

I think both Shift’s template and Neatreceipts application of it are really good and hope the format will begin to be implemented by other organizations – maybe by one of my clients at Thornley Fallis.

Ryan Anderson of The New PR also posted his comments on it.

Tonight was the Mercer Report’s U-Pick-It Best of Show.

I thought the clips that people selected were pretty good:

Rick skinny dipping with Bob Rae

Rick visiting and sleeping over at the PMs house

Knee in My Package 

and a few other good ones from this season.

Also, my colleague in our Toronto office, Michael O’Connor Clarke, recently attended a taping of the Mercer Report and had his ticket signed by Rick for me – thanks Michael.

(lousy quality scan)

Given the source, I’m not sure whether this is sarcastic or not, but it would appear Frank magazine has published an apology for the content of one of its articles.

Today, Frank apologized to CBC reporter Krista Erickson for a January 31, 2006 article that contained untrue and inaccurate information.

While I’m sure it isn’t the first time, it is definitely a rare occurrence.

You know you’ve had the same anchor for a long time when your current one was part of this report.

I was at the Sens-Oilers game last night, so I PVRed Mercer and watched it today.  Edmonton’s only visit to Ottawa didn’t disappoint, unlike last week’s Mercer Report (Feb. 13th), which I didn’t enjoy that much.  The Sens blew a 3–1 lead in the third period, but pulled out the win in a shootout.

On this week’s show, Rick jumped in a frozen lake (well the hole cut in it) with David Suzuki and drove Toronto transit.

Rick’s Rant about the Auditor General and the Passport Office, and Stop Global Warming, Give Cash to Quebec were my favourite segments. 

Last time I was “franked”, it was for “squiring” a client around town or something along those lines.

This time it was for blogging.  Well… not so much for blogging as for providing information to bloggers on behalf of clients – exactly the same way, as a PR professional (or flack), I provide information (press releases, backgrounders, story ideas/tips, etc.) to main stream media or ‘MSM’ as referred to in the Frank article.

I’m a subscriber to eFrank, but I don’t read it religiously.  Both times I was “franked”, someone had to tell me about it.  Maybe there have been other times that I’m not aware of?  Doubt it though.

Being slagged a little by a “magazine” that doesn’t put bylines on its articles by no means bothers me — sometimes the articles are funny when they don’t go too far over the line. Other times I feel a little dirty (like after leaving a strip club) after reading Frank.

Anyway, I saw the article (which ran a couple of weeks ago) as an opportunity for another post on blogger relations.  I did my last post on this topic after reading Ted Demopoulos’ post on Blogging for Business titled How to Pitch a Blogger.

I’m in public relations (which of course involves a great deal of media relations) and the firm I work for, Thornley Fallis, for more than a year now has been paying a lot of attention to social media (blogging, podcasting, etc.)

With more than 60 million blogs worldwide, how can we afford not to pay attention?

Thornley Fallis represents a few defence industry clients and I manage the accounts.

As part of ongoing public/media relations for these clients, 8 or 9 months ago, I came across The Torch, a blog focused on the Canadian military.  I made contact to introduce myself, identify the relevant clients I represent, ask about their interests and offer to provide information that I think may be of interest to them.  The same way I would if the Globe and Mail or CTV assigned a new reporter to the defence beat. 

Here’s a post Joe Thornley did around the time I first contacted The Torch and here’s a post on Blue Blogging Soapbox, which has an author or authors in common with The Torch, about what they learned about Thornley Fallis after checking us out when I contacted them.

Back to the Frank article, “Blogshite: The Torch” (it quotes Joe’s post, so whoever wrote it must be a fan of Pro PR).  The article suggests that I and Thornley Fallis have some privileged relationship with the authors of The Torch, that they post whatever I send them about my clients and that they attack any mainstream media (listing: Daniel Leblanc, Globe and Mail; David Akin, CTV; Mike Blanchfield & David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen) that write less than favourable articles about my clients and their products.  None of this is true in anyway whatsoever.

The funny thing is, I in fact have less of a “relationship” with anyone at The Torch than with the journalists mentioned above.  I’ve never met or even spoken to any of The Torch authors on the phone.  Email only.

On the other hand…

I had coffee with Daniel Leblanc a few weeks ago, when he started covering defence again for the Globe.

I’ve been emailing and talking on the phone with David Pugliese for likely 4 years now and I worked with his brother for 3 years or so when I was in government.  I still have lunch with him periodically.

I read David Akin’s blog daily, we exchange emails from time to time, we’ve spoken on the phone and I’ve set-up interviews with him for clients.

Yes, The Torch has posted some stuff that I have sent them.  I’ve also sent them stuff that they haven’t posted.  The same way as main stream media sometimes write stories from releases I send them or do interviews that I pitch them, and other times they don’t.

As the blogosphere and social media continues to grow, I think I and my colleagues at Thornley Fallis are taking the right approach on behalf of our clients.

As Ted Demopoulos suggests in his post How to Pitch a Blogger: “Address us by name. Make it clear you’ve read our blog. Be on friggin’ target!”

As I said in my post, after reading Ted’s: “Really not much different that pitching a ‘traditional’ journalist.  Do some research to figure out their ‘beat’/area(s) of interest and personalize the contact.”

Some media outlets (e.g. CTV, Toronto Star) and some journalists (e.g. David Akin, Paul Wells) are embracing social media, others aren’t.  It will be interesting to watch how all this evolves and be part of it.

Thank you Frank magazine for providing the inspiration for this post.

After four years, Canadian men’s magazine Toro, is stopping publication.

In a National Post report today, Publisher Dinah Quattrin said, “Despite steady annual growth, it’s become clear that the advertising revenue available in Canada for a general-interest men’s magazine is such that even a very high-quality book like Toro can, at best, manage to sustain itself.”

The March issue, scheduled to come out later this month, will not be distributed.

As companies continue to evaluate the effectiveness and ROI of traditional (print, TV, radio) advertising, this type of announcement will no doubt become a more frequent occurrence.