Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops

David Emerson - Member for Kamloops?

On June 25, Stephen Harper shuffled his cabinet. David Emerson, who crossed the floor to the Conservatives from the Liberals shortly after the last federal election, was promoted from his posts as Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics to Foreign Affairs.

At the time, Macleans reported THE CANADIAN PRESS reported (emphasis my own),

Harper is determined to keep Emerson in government, instructing Tory officials to find a safe British Columbia riding for the former top B.C. bureaucrat and business leader to run in during the next election.

Emerson currently represents Vancouver Kingsway, where he was twice elected as a Liberal. However, his stunning defection to the Tories sparked an angry backlash in the riding, the lingering effects of which would likely doom any attempt to seek a third term.

Indeed, Emerson has signalled privately that he'll quit politics rather than face humiliating defeat. Hence, Conservatives are searching for another riding where Emerson would be more welcome.

Insiders say Tory officials are now exploring the possibility of a riding in B.C.'s Conservative-friendly interior.

So, into which Conservative-friendly Interior riding do you think Mr. Emerson might parachute?

Both Wikipedia and the Pundit's Guide to Canadian Federal Elections indicate the following candidates have been nominated to represent the Conservative Party in the next federal election here in BC's Interior:

• Robert Zandee: British Columbia Southern Interior
• Ronald D.E. Cannan: Kelowna - Lake Country
• Colin Mayes: Okanagan - Shuswap
• Stockwell B. Day: Okanagan - Coquihalla
• Jim Abbott: Kootenay - Columbia
• Richard (Dick) Harris: Cariboo - Prince George
• Jay Hill: Prince George - Peace River
• Sharon Smith: Skeenna - Bulkley Valley

That leaves just one BC Interior riding without a nominated candidate for the next election: Kamloops - Thompson - Cariboo. Betty Hinton didn't win the last election by a landslide (in fact, it was the narrowest winning margin of those carried by the Conservatives in the Interior during the 2006 election), so one might argue that this is the least "Conservative-friendly" riding in the Heartlands. But since then Ms. Hinton has delivered a lot of goodies, so with the right candidate in place, Kamloops - Thompson - Cariboo should be a solid blue win.

Given that this is the only Interior riding in which Mr. Emerson would not displace a duly-nominated candidate, the political bounce would probably be considerably less here than elsewhere. Of course Mr. Emerson's position as a star in Harper's cabinet would also play well; it's been a long time since a Kamloops MP sat in cabinet. And there has been a lot of speculation as to why the local Conservative riding association has not nominated a candidate to replace Ms. Hinton since she announced in October of 2007 that she wouldn't run in the next election.

Mr. Emerson's deep domain expertise in the forestry and transportation sectors is a strong positive, although forestry might become a weakness if the local contest turned into a referendum on the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement he ushered in as Minister for International Trade. But if the Minister does land in Kamloops, the shrillest shrieks of outrage won't come from voters, but rather from NDP and Liberal riding associations caught flat-footed without their own star candidates.

To share your thoughts about the upcoming federal election, David Emerson, the benefits of sending a senior cabinet minister to Ottawa, the problems with parachuting candidates, other ridings Mr. Emerson might represent should he elect to run again, or anything else about this post with Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops readers, just click on "Comments" (below).

No Grey Lady

On July 9, 1998, after an uninterrupted run of monochrome glory spanning more than a century and half, the Old Grey Lady of Canadian newspapers - The Globe and Mail - responded to competitive pressures by belatedly embracing full-colour editorial content.

Ten years later, stylistic decisions that handcuffed Canada's largest daily in the nineties seem pretty straightforward in retrospect. While the large-scale shift of advertising dollars from print to online media is crippling American newspapers, north of the 49th parallel newspaper revenues are pretty stable overall due in part to "robust growth in online ad sales".

Last week, on the anniversary of the Old Grey Lady's makeover, Kamloops This Week and its parent Black Press provided a local example of how some Canadian newspapers are meeting the Internet challenge, by unveiling a variety of stylistic and content changes to the newspaper's web site instead of its paper manifestation. In this case, rather than signaling a concession to the marketplace, these incremental and ongoing changes instead demonstrate a wholesale commitment to becoming a different kind of news delivery vehicle.

The previous format of the KamloopsThisWeek.com / BCLocalNews.com web site (pictured below), was first introduced about a year ago. That presentation was very similar to the newspaper, but unfortunately that strength was also a weakness, as it boxed the highly visual, highly interactive potential of the Internet within the confines of a more traditional and static display.

In addition to a new layout and colour scheme, a variety of menu options have been introduced or expanded upon within the new design (below), including ticker tape news headlines, a community calendar (currently empty, but with a crowd-pleasing RSS feed), weather (complete with a global warming blog), horoscopes, lotteries, comics, and a renewed focus on Blogs written by Black Press staff.

Visitors are now treated to a much more visually-oriented experience, including the very nice touch of pictures within local obituaries. The "Videos from Around BC" tile on the home page is quite tactile, practically inviting the viewer to click and view (in this case, a short unannounced recording of fire fighting efforts in Dallas over the weekend, shot by Editor Christopher Foulds). Getting visitors to click is the trick; news and media web sites have some of the highest bounce rates among industries, so retaining visitors for a couple more page views (and ad impressions) is a solid good outcome.

My favorite feature? I can start a video, then continue to click n' browse on the home page while the video news item plays uninterrupted. Very nice!

The Black Press Internet platform appears to be managed corporately, rather than by any Kamloops-based developers. I personally like the results; the KTW news team is acquiring new skills (video reporting, near-time news delivery, etc.) which remain focused on the existing core competency, news. Meanwhile, the mother ship manages critical, but non-core functions like the technology platform.

These changes will undoubtedly help Kamloops This Week and Black Press retain and grow online revenues. But in some markets critics have expressed the concern that centralized corporate control could displace local editorial independence.

What do you think?

To share your thoughts about Kamloops This Week, Black Press, traditional media, media convergence, or anything else about this post with Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops readers, just click on "Comments" (below).

Where once witty blogger was, now feeling dumber is

 I should have known better.

Just a few hours ago I was patting myself on the back for penning my first post in more than a month.

The Kamloops News ran a story Saturday about councilor/blogger Arjun Singh's decision to out an anonymous commenter on his blog. I criticized the story for looking to a professional - albeit blogging - journalist (Sean Holman of the Public Eye Online) for his thoughts about Mr. Singh's decision, because I felt that it wasn't fair to assess the local blogger based upon journalistic principles that really aren't relevant to to him. Despite a lifetime of experience that has taught me the dangers of doing so, after wittily including a YouTube video of the Cookie Monster to really drive my point home, I indulged the urge to enjoy a moment of satisfaction with myself .

Then this evening, after returning from night out at the movies with my Dad and a buddy, I checked my voice mail.

There, along with several other messages, was a Friday morning request (I'm on my own this weekend, no spouse or kids around the house to blame for the missed messages) from Michele Young of the Kamloops News asking for my thoughts about the evolving story. She said she was looking for some perspective from a local blogger before going to press.

So Ms. Young, although I didn't name you as the author, please accept my sincere apologies for criticizing your story when in fact you did attempt to balance it with input from a local blogger. Where once witty blogger was, now feeling dumber is.

To share your thoughts about instant karma, balanced reporting, or anything else about this post with Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops readers, just click on "Comments" (below).

Arjunymous Blog

Things have been very busy over the past couple of months, with much travel for business, and a little for pleasure, keeping me occupied and apparently too worn down to even form an opinion. However I seldom find anything as motivating as a kick in the ass, which I received last Saturday morning courtesy of Michelle Young of the Kamloops Daily News.

Now, Ms. Young didn't deliver the kick in the ass so much as represent(!) it. While waiting for our respective children at a sports event we talked a little about her work, and I asked how many stories she writes in a day. Suffice to say that when council meets, it's a lot. It brought to mind a similar conversation with Dale Bass some time ago. Reflecting upon how these two veteran lady journalists turn out such a volume of stories with daily - or, every-other-daily - regularity as it were, rendered me a little sheepish for having avoided my own posts for so long.

Anyways, combine that with the stories these two ladies just wrote in their respective newspapers regarding Arjun Singh's semi-outing of an anonymous commenter, and suddenly I feel the compulsion to share.

Mr. Singh published a post on his "Your Kamloops" blog on Friday in which he drew a somewhat straight line between anonymous comments on his blog and the Kamloops law firm of Morelli Chertkow. While I have been generally impressed by Mr. Singh's ability to take criticism on the chin, this knee-jerk reaction strikes me as a little sensitive and more than a little targeted at veteran Councilor (and Morelli Chertkow lawyer) John O'Fee.

In a subsequent series of comments on the post, Mr. O'Fee challenged the propriety of the post given the blog's prior record on anonymous comments, to which Mr. Singh responded,

"...you should know that someone in your law firm is posting inflammatory comments during business hours. I personally think that is inappropriate, and is the main reason that I wrote about it. This outweighs, in my view, any right to anonymity.

For the record, I welcome critical comments on this blog. All the comments are still posted untouched. I reserve the right though to research where those comment come from and publicly talk about them.

Is it not a problem, for your perspective, that of the comments from Jake, JR, Big Betty, etc are being posted during office hours, from your law firm's computers.?

That doesn't wash, according to Mr. O'Fee's comments to Kamloops This Week, "I mean, come on, Arjun. You seem to be obsessed with tracking down your critic.”

I'm not sure I would call tracking IP addresses obsessive. It's actually rather common behaviour among technologists, whether or not they blog. I too have researched the people who have commented on Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops posts, typically in an attempt to better understand their perspectives, but also in an attempt to inform myself about the issues over which my commentators seem to have a stronger command. And that doesn't leave many stones unturned!

Now, on this blog identities have remained anonymous because I don't really see the point in outing them, although in some cases the people behind these anonymous comments have flaunted their identity to me in private while bearing their fangs at me (and others) anonymously in public. Poor manners? Check. S.N.A.F.U. on the Internet? Check.

It does seem rather disingenuous of Mr. Singh to excuse himself with concerns about his visitors' workplace activities; as an experienced technology commentator surely he is familiar with the enormous amount of personal Internet activity pursued during working hours. But if he is that concerned about workplace productivity, why hasn't he reported similar investigations on the regulars who frequently leave positive comments on his blog?

In the end however, just because I blog doesn't mean I am qualified to judge another blogger's practices; very few of us follow established codes of ethics. So why do some of the local media insist on holding Mr. Singh to their professional journalistic standards?

In its Saturday coverage of the story (persistence, please!), the Kamloops News quotes the publisher and editor Sean Holman of the Public Eye Online as saying (emphasis my own),

"As a journalist, I consider when people publish comments on my site, I consider those to be comments from off the record sources, almost. So I wouldn’t violate their privacy"

Interviewing another journalist about this story makes about as much sense as asking a real estate agent whether you should inoculate your child. The fact that Sean Holman runs one of the most popular blogs in BC may on the surface appear relevant, but the similarity is skin deep. Mr. Holman is a veteran and award-winning print journalist (now or previously with the Globe and Mail, the Wall Street Journal's Dow Jones News Service, the Victoria Times Colonist, the Vancouver Sun, and 24 Hours), radio personality, journalism instructor, and publisher. Mr. Singh is a technophile and a local politician. One of these things is not like the other.

I support Mr. Singh's independence as a blogger, but suspect that his broadside in Mr. O'Fee's direction has more to do with solidifying his own position as a political outsider in the run-up to the municipal election than anything else. Mr. Singh doesn't need to beat Mr. O'Fee (who is arguably our most effective local politician) in the polls, he just needs to finish in the top eight. And galvanizing his base by feeding their suspicions that the establishment is "out to get him", certainly won't hurt his chances at the polls.

To share your thoughts on ethics for bloggers, the differences and similarities between bloggers and journalists, anonymity, politicos, anything else about this post with Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops readers, just click on "Comments" (below).