Look, I don’t object to the IKEA development. Sure I think the development and traffic plans are complete crap, but I’m generally happy the store is coming to town and I recognize that something of this size has to be built on the fringes.

However, claiming that a few extra shrubs will somehow green a project that’s g0ing to require 78 new lanes of traffic (give or take a dozen) is a bit ridiculous.

And the name is still stupid.

St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover calls the brouhaha that’s erupted over Waterbottlegate a “media tragedy.”

And she’s right. Her handling of media interest in the story has been tragically, horrifically bad. Which is a bit surprising considering Glover’s previous work as a spokesperson for the Winnipeg Police Service.

Offering Conservative-branded water bottles to school kids was certainly an error in judgment, but a relatively minor one. The smart thing would have been to just say “I wasn’t aware of the policy. I’m going to work with the school division to come up with an alternate incentive for students to study French.” And then get on the damn phone and sort the situation out quickly.

Instead, she went after the Free Press with service revolver a blazin’, accusing it of media exploitation. This just gave the story legs. Now Ray Simard has had a chance to chime in, dozens of comments have been left on the Freep website, and folks like me are blogging about it. And aside from a few Conservative fanboys who just love it when somebody tries to ’stick it’ to the media, the vast majority of public comment on the issue has been negative.

A simple PR lesson for politicians of all stripes and ages: sometimes the easiest way to make a bad story go away is to simply admit you screwed up, and then get on with your work.

Most voters don’t really care much about minor mistakes, we all make them. But they will definitely remember the time you looked like a complete ass in the newspaper.

I had thought that David Asper’s ‘Elms Collection’ was the most pretentiously named new development in recent Winnipeg history, but then I read this:

Fairweather Properties is hosting a sod-turning ceremony next Friday to mark the beginning of preliminary construction work on the Tuxedo Yards development, a 1.5 million square foot retail centre that is being developed at the southwest corner of Kenaston Boulevard and Sterling Lyon Parkway. The complex, which will feature Winnipeg’s first IKEA store, will be called Seasons of Tuxedo, according to a release issued today by Fairweather.

They can’t be serious. I doubt Fairweather’s own leasing agents will be able to say ‘Seasons of Tuxedo’ with a straight face. And everyone in the province will simply say they’re going to IKEA, or to the Outback Steakhouse or Pottery Barn next to IKEA anyway.

I shudder to think of what real estate developers might name their children.

Slightly bemused by coverage of the PC Manitoba convention on the weekend.

It seems the media is so desperate for a competitive election they’re willing to completely ignore reality and have suddenly cast the provincial Tories in the role of energetic party of renewal.

But the Sun’s Paul Rutherford takes the cake with this comment:

And McFadyen hit the nail on head describing the party’s future as one of “youth and dynamism.” His emphasis on using online tools such as Facebook, YouTube and Flickr to push the party’s message gives the party an Obama-like lustre.

Sweet Jesus. I have all those accounts too, do I have an Obama-like lustre? How about a musk?

None of Manitoba’s political parties are using social media, or even plain old websites, particularly well. And from scanning the various accounts, it certainly doesn’t appear the PCs hold any advantage over their rivals in adopting new communication tools.

• They’ve made pretty good use of Flickr, if you like photos of politicians talking.
• Only seven YouTube videos in the last year, the newest one being three months old. Contrast that with nine videos from the Manitoba NDP in the past two months.
• Only 135 Facebook fans for McFadyen vs. 180 for Goldie or 535 for Selinger.
• Zero activity on Twitter, despite the fact that it’s been linked off the PC Manitoba homepage since it launched. Meanwhile, Dr. Jon has tweeted 225 times in the past six months.
• No blog anywhere. Again, Dr. J takes the prize as he’s been blogging consistently since 2005.

Opening up a Twitter account doesn’t mean you’ve tapped into the zeitgeist. Having different coloured lawn signs from the sitting government doesn’t automatically make you a “party of change.” And handing out thundersticks at your annual convention…well that’s just lame.

City Hall will soon get its 2009 Christmas tree (which is somehow worthy of coverage in nearly all media, but whatever).

A suggestion for future years though, rather than placing the tree right in front of Sam’s Place, why not relocate it to Old Market Square?

It wouldn’t work this year due to continuing renos at the park, but I’d think the tree would be far more appreciated in the heart of the Exchange. Besides, aren’t they looking to transform Old Market Square into a skating rink in the winter? Skating rink + big Christmas tree…hmm…where have I seen that before?

Saskatchewan highways are better than Manitoba highways.

Alberta highways are better than Manitoba highways.

Two-lane mountain pass highways in BC that are already covered in snow are better than Manitoba highways.

The Calgary Sun is almost like a real newspaper.

Even the Regina Leader-Post is better designed than the Winnipeg Free Press.

Dear Saskatchewan, a few more distance signs wouldn’t kill you.

Despite the economic crisis, Western Canada’s tallest building is currently being built in downtown Calgary. When finished, The Bow will be the new corporate headquarters for Encana. The foot of the tower will feature two public art pieces by Jaume Plensa, who created the Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park, which is awesome.

Another fantastic public space is Prince’s Island Park in Calgary. The highlight: the number of people using it for running, walking, soccer, etc. on a weekday. I so wish Winnipeg had a legitimate park adjacent to downtown. Let’s put that on the rebuild list if we ever get wiped out by a big tornado.

Kelowna (metro population 166,000) has high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. People would seriously lose their shit if the City of Winnipeg ever attempted to do the same (even though it wouldn’t be a half-bad idea).

My grandfather was complaining about how the hospitals in Penticton get over-run by tourists in the summer. He recounted a tale of having to wait for 3.5 hours in the ER this past summer for his wife to get attention for a sore shoulder. I was thinking it might actually take less time to fly to Penticton for medical service than wait at HSC.

110 km/h speed limits are awesome. Sorry planet, they just are.

Regina has a Chili’s and an East Side Mario’s. Not only is its economy stronger, but Saskatchewan is even beating us in the chain restaurant race. [Sarcasm Alert!]

Speaking of which, how come our Starbucks aren’t serving those delightful little english muffin breakfast sandwiches?

And on a completely unrelated note:

Can we fire Mike Kelly now?

The WRHA’s handling of the H1N1 vaccinations would almost be amusing if it wasn’t a potential health crisis.

Apparently lineups at today’s clinics are so light that the WRHA has expanded its priority list and is publicly calling for more people to attend. Spokesperson Heidi Graham tells the CBC:

We really want to get the word out because we know there has been lots of media reports about long lineups and so people may be staying away because they fear long lineups.

Heidi, there weren’t just media reports of long lineups, there were actually some really damn long lineups! And I think the word of mouth about the situation was actually worse than the media reports. Seriously, how many times have you heard the words ridiculous, stupid or idiotic used to describe the clinic fiasco in the past week?

Which brings me to an observation about how short sighted the WRHA has been in this whole situation. In yesterday’s Freep, Dr. Sande Harlos said the health authority couldn’t have enforced priority lists during the first week of vaccinations because it would have required extra staff to do screenings.

Yet, the WRHA spends millions on PR staff like Ms. Graham, on its bimonthly magazine, and on trinkets like branded golf shirts and frisbees. This is done in an effort to create a positive image of the organization and foster goodwill with the public.

But all of that is easily undone when you force people to stand in four or five hour lineups (sometimes outside) with their children. Or when you tell them they’re a priority one week, but you might not have any vaccine for them the next. Or when you build up expectations that anyone can get vaccinated, only to backtrack a few days later.

You can spend all you want on PR, but unless you do your core job well then there’s not much point.

I don’t like to dump on the paper for making typos, because everyone is guilty of that from time to time. But I think it should at least try to use real words. From today’s Editor’s Bulletin email from the Freep:

Alumnist in space
Students at John Taylor get a chance to talk to astronaut and alumnist Dr. Bob Thirsk today, who is on the International Space Station.

Alumnist? The word does show up 56,800 times in Google, but mostly on message boards and blog posts, and not in any dictionaries I could find. In contrast, the word “alumnus” — the correct term in this case — shows up 4.2 million times.

Even the Freep’s own search engine only spits back one instance of “alumnist” versus 293 of alumnus and 104 of alumna.

Global’s Jeff Keele speaking to Dr. Sande Harlos of the WRHA last night.

Keele: Dr. Harlos, in hindsight was it a mistake not to screen people last week at the clinics?

Harlos: No I don’t think it was because at that time the vaccine supply was quite a bit higher than it is right now and our main goal was to get as much vaccine into people as quickly as we could.

Sorry Dr. Harlos, there’s spin and there’s bullshit, and that was a bullshit answer. Especially since Keele gave you the “in hindsight” save on the question.

This H1N1 fight might be unprecedented in terms of numbers and media hype, but that doesn’t excuse the poor decisions that have been made by health officials across the country. And blaming the feds or the vaccine supplier doesn’t help either.

The WRHA has had enough time to prepare plans for a dozen different contingencies. But rather than rolling out a well-conceived strategy to get the vaccine to those who need it most, it essentially went with the “come and get it!” approach.

Week one should have been restricted to those on the “Priority 1″ list. If you have vaccine left after that, then move to “Priority 2″, or open it to the general public following some sort of logical system — e.g. Monday for people with Jan-Mar birthdays, Tuesday for Apr-Jun, etc. — with even distribution of dosages for each day. By that point you’ve hopefully received enough additional vaccine that you can open it up completely.

That took me 30 seconds, and while it’s not a perfect plan, in hindsight it would have worked a hell of a lot better than what the WRHA came up with after months of work.

You screwed up folks. Now come clean and get on with the job.

————

In the WRHA’s defence, they’re not the only health authority to drop the needle on this one. While passing through Calgary the other day I noticed that headlines (and anger) there are nearly identical to those in Winnipeg.

And at least there’s no evidence in Winnipeg of professional athletes jumping the queue, or is there?

Just another indication of how much power has shifted from the political to the administrative side of the courtyard at City Hall:

For the second time in two working days, they (City Councillors) were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement before they attended the closed-door seminar with city officials. — Winnipeg Free Press

I understand that administration gets frustrated when Councillors blab the contents of closed-door discussions, but I’m wondering what authority the CAO has to force his own bosses to sign a confidentiality agreement? And what if some of them decided not to sign it? Would they be barred from the seminar?

While I think most Councillors would benefit from keeping their mouths shut a bit more, forcing a muzzle on them certainly doesn’t create the impression of a democratic and transparent government.