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WELCOME TO POLICY, STRATEGY…AND IDEAS

WELCOME TO POLICY, STRATEGY…AND IDEAS

I created this site as a place for sharing ideas and perspectives shaped by a 30-year career in policy, strategic planning, communications, association management, government, and politics.

I expect to post the occasional quick take on breaking news, but content will lean more toward in-depth opinion and analysis.  And while the news cycle will decide many of the issues covered, I intend to also focus on a small number of issues and policy areas of particular concern to me.

The state of our democracy and political system (particularly the impact of digital media) tops the list, with climate change and conservation a close second.  More narrowly, I will also examine how business interacts with government (and vice versa), aviation policy (a recent passion of mine), infrastructure funding and the evolving federal-municipal-provincial relationship.

And occasionally, I may share some thought on a book or two that have very little to do (or even nothing at all) with the weighty subjects referenced above.   

The vast majority of my posts will be current and exclusive to this site, I may however from time to time also share a column originally written for a mainstream outlet, as well as content from other contributors. In rummaging through my digital cartons, I also found a number of posts and op-eds written between 2011 and 2019 that I think might be of some relevance and interest today — those will be found in the archive section of this site.

If a search brought you here, I hope you found what you were looking for. If you stumbled on this page, I hope you find something of interest and stay a while,  but however you got here, welcome. 

To subscribe to this site, all you have to do is provide your email address using the form below. 

I look forward to the conversation! 

ONLINE CAMPAIGN BACKS HARVEY FRIESEN POSTHUMOUS INDUCTION INTO AVIATION HALL

ONLINE CAMPAIGN BACKS HARVEY FRIESEN POSTHUMOUS INDUCTION INTO AVIATION HALL

Northern Ontario aviation legend Harvey Friesen grew Bearskin Airlines into one of the leading regional carriers in Canada — he may be gone, but his legacy has not been forgotten.  A group of Canadian airline executives, current and retired, have initiated an online petition campaign to boost support for Harvey Friesen’s posthumous induction to Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame. 

An aviator and philanthropist

Harvey Friesen passed away suddenly on February 2, 2014, days after announcing he was stepping away from most of his professional responsibilities to embrace a well-deserved (partial) retirement.

Friesen was first and foremost a pilot, but he was also a visionary and a builder.He took Bearskin Lake Air Service, a small air charter operator serving remote First Nation communities in Northwestern Ontario and built it into one of the most successful regional carriers in Canada.

By the late 90s Bearskin Airlines was providing scheduled service to all the major northern Ontario communities and not long after, expanded operations to northern Manitoba.

As president and CEO of Bearskin Airlines from 1977 to 2011, he did not just help connect communities and families across the North and with the rest of Canada, but he opened new markets and created new job opportunities for thousands of Canadians.

He also built a sense of community and giving among all those around him that continues to this day.

His vision for Bearskin Airlines extended beyond its role as a good and reliable mover of people and goods, it involved also being a good and reliable corporate citizen. Not only was he personally heavily invested in the good works and activities of local service organizations, but he encouraged his employees to do the same in each of the communities they served.

Seven years after his passing, much of what Harvey Friesen built, from the Bearskin Airlines brand to charitable sporting events, to a generous sense of community stand as a reminder of his extraordinary achievements as an aviator, a business and community leader and as a philanthropist.

Now his many friends, former industry colleagues as well as people across Northern Ontario and Manitoba believe that his legacy should be recognized and given pride of place in Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame.

If you want to support Harvey Friesen’s posthumous induction into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame, please visit and sign the petition posted on Change.org by clicking here.

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLICING: REVOLUTION OR MISSED OPPORTUNITY?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLICING: REVOLUTION OR MISSED OPPORTUNITY?

Some of you will remember Social Media Revolution, the 2009 YouTube video by tech writer Erik Qualman. It became the most watched and shared video on YouTube that year thanks to its almost giddy pacing and fasten-your-seatbelts-and-enjoy-the-revolution take on social media.  Those were heady days for anyone who dipped their toes in the fast-moving waters of digital media — it was no different for me.

In 2010 I rode the prevailing winds of digital optimism writing that social media could transform policing at a cultural level, causing police organizations to embrace “…a new way of thinking about how they  relate to their community” – in effect changing the policing paradigm.

With the role that social media plays in society  and how it conditions civic interactions being questioned across the globe, I thought it appropriate to revisit the role that it plays in law enforcement.

Ten years ago I argued that it could revolutionize policing. Was  I wrong? Was I right? Or, as I suspect, is the answer more complex than that?

Now, I’ve asked a couple of the early champions of social media and policing, Lauri Stevens of SMILE Conference fame, and former Toronto Police Service constable Scott Mills (also known by his Twitter handle  @GraffitiBMXCop) to give me their impressions on whether social media ushered in a revolution in policing, amounted to a missed opportunity or something in between. And more importantly, what its future role and place in law enforcement might be.

Look for that story and the verdict here, next week. In the meantime, I invite you to read my earlier article and tell me what YOU think.