Why vote? My right to participate in the voting process is attributed to the awareness, determination, and action of Canadian women dating back to 1758*.

Suffrage: the right to vote in political elections

On June 12, 2014 over 50 per cent of the eligible demographic went out to cast their vote in the Ontario Provincial Election.

A few words: The Liberals won a majority, the leader of the PC party resigned and the Green party did not have a say at the leader’s debate. The NDP however, was present at the debate, and spoke about an alternative to choosing between “bad ethics” and “bad math”.

The morning of June 12 at work in Toronto I spoke with a young man who was voting for his first time. We were both pretty excited as we watched snippets of political information appear and disappear on the break room television screen as we prepared for a long day of anticipation before hitting the polls. A friend who recently became a citizen sent me a text exclaiming she was voting for the first time.

I used my social media accounts to promote pro-voting messages and discussed platforms, choices, and the electoral system at the office.

I understand the frustrated inclination behind the decline the ballot movement and though I think voting is important, I also believe it to be an inflated aspect of civic duty. Voting is a small component with a big impact, but I’m left wondering isn’t there more to participating as an engaged citizen?

Some quick and dirty tips I have discovered that have helped me participate beyond June 12 are:

• read
• listen
• ask questions
• jump in

I have very little formal education when it comes to civics but I have come to discover there are many resources to support informed participation.

In my place of work I receive daily political news updates directly to my inbox thanks to our Government Relations department. For approximately 3-4 hours a month I am committed to the Hamilton Engagement Committee that meets to discuss how to engage the community, specifically on how to improve dialogue between city service providers and recipients. I have attended Neighbourhood Team Planning meetings for The Sherman Hub and I have discovered online resources including the municipal  Citizens At City Hall (CATCH).

I do believe it is important to become educated and make informed choices when it comes to voting, but that is just the beginning.

Canadian citizens have the power and the responsibility to hold our leaders accountable, it is just a matter of figuring out how. I believe the first stage is inspiring political awareness by reading about the political arena and sharing these resources with others. By venturing into the public sphere one should feel confident to ask questions to those in the know and contribute by confirming facts and sharing information.

ThePRLens will now return to its regular scheduled program.

*A special thanks to:

Dr. Emily Howard-Stowe and Dr. Augusta Stowe-Gullen, Grace Annie Lockhart, Dr. Jennie Trout, Margaret Benedictsson, Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie, Nellie McClung, Carie Derick, Alice Jamieson, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney and Roberta MacAdams, Agnes MacPhail, Martha Black, Mary Ellen Smith, Irene Parlby,  Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise Crummy McKinney, Cairine Reay Wilson, Ellen Fairclough, and Hamilton’s Adelaide Hunter-Hoodless with special acknowledgement to Erland Lee.

Upon my first day in the Public Relations Graduate Certificate program at Mohawk College I was looking for a way to immerse myself in PR. I was new to Hamilton and didn’t know anyone, not to mention I didn’t know the first thing about public relations.

During that first week on campus both IABC and CPRS paid a visit to the class and spoke about the value of networking, pitching membership by promoting what each professional association had to offer. I immediately recognized this was the ticket and I signed up for both associations, taking advantage of the student rates.

When the opportunity to represent Mohawk on the CPRS Board of Directors was made available to student members I couldn’t resist applying. To my surprise I was selected along with a colleague in the class to be co-student representatives; promoting, planning, and evaluating all things CPRS had to offer to students.

Christina Jean-Pierre was acting Student Liaison that year in charge of running the Student Committee, she was my first contact on the board. The three of us worked together to put our budding PR skills into practice as we scouted locations, developed materials, communicated opportunities and evaluated our efforts.

Our first event took place at The Queen’s Head in Oakville where attendees broke the ice by taking a moment to compose our unique 30-second elevator pitch used to introduce ourselves to the group. This was a great opportunity to meet PR students from Sheridan and share what we were learning in our school programs. It was at this event that I first learned about VistaPrint, an excellent tip from a Sheridan student that I quickly acted on in preparation for the upcoming CPRS Hamilton annual Holiday Humbug event.

Our second event took place at Bean Bar in Hamilton with McMaster University student representation, and one attendee came all the way from Niagara College!

This was surprising because the event was nearly postponed as it happened to fall on one of the snowiest evenings of the season. Professionally minded student members didn’t mind, we were committed! We braved the snow and had a great discussion with new practitioner Margaret Lintott speaking about her experience as a recent graduate.

Volunteering as a student rep during my studies was worth the time invested and the price of membership. The role gave me a head start on establishing my professional network, allowed me to gain experience in addition to the opportunities offered through the program and, most importantly, it was a lot of fun!

It was at the CPRS Hamilton Annual General Meeting in May in 2013 where I accepted the offer to be the next Student Liaison.

Stop by next week to see what happened when I changed hats and took on the student committee.

Source*: The Content Factory, The 50 Best PR Quotes of All Time

What better way to introduce yourself to members of the community than by opening your doors and inviting them in.

We may say “merci” to France for it was there that the first Doors Open took place in 1984 according to the Doors Open Ontario website. Ontario opened its doors for the first time in Toronto in 2000 and by 2002 the Ontario Heritage Trust launched Doors Open Ontario celebrating heritage buildings across the province. Last weekend was Toronto’s 14th Doors Open weekend-long event.

This year was my first Doors Open experience where I was happy to discover heritage sites in my own backyard of Hamilton.

The adventure began on the mountain where some friends and I had fun learning about roller derby and cheering for The Hammer City Roller Girls.

Derby goers were provided with a pamphlet where the cover featured skaters, the website, and event information. Sponsors featured on the cover include Mill St. Brewery, local skate gear business Varnetta, and local printing shop Copy Dog. The pamphlet also communicated rules of the game, names of the skaters, and advertisements for local businesses.

The promotion aspect was echoed as the announcers provided commentary, directed attention to the score board and shared the names of sponsors for the event.

I not only learned that after 24 years I can finally call myself a sports fan, but also that my favourite locally born food truck,  Gorilla Cheese, is also involved in sponsoring the the team.

The next morning we headed out to Carnegie Gallery where a lovely volunteer answered our Doors Open questions and told us about the history of the area. Local artists were featured at the gallery and I was happy to support them by treating myself to a new bracelet.

Next we headed to the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre where we learned about the formation of Hamilton through labour movements, local artists, union development and community activists.

We were running out of steam during our exciting educational adventure so we took a detour and enjoyed what a friend claims to be “the best cappuccino around” at Pane Del Sole Bakery. It was pretty darn delicious.

We took our caffeine boost and some tasty pastries to the William Pring House, Hamilton’s first hostel/guest house, built in 1855 where we were able to meet the current owners and enjoy the unique features and the  architectural charm.

Upon signing up for the tour of Hamilton’s Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant, we had a quick tutorial of the Hamilton Museum of Steam & Technology at the national historic site next door.

At the Museum of Steam & Technology, we gazed upon the 45 foot high, 70 tonne steam engines as we learned about the powerful mechanisms that harnessed the power of gravity to deliver the city’s clean drinking water over a century ago.

Our last visit of the weekend was to Hamilton’s Water Filtration Building–Water Treatment Plant. This facility used the grant to restore the building to it’s original design and updated the inside to create a beautiful educational facility that is open to the public.

We heard about the history of the facility, saw the technological changes that were kept on display for reference and learned first hand about where our drinking water comes from.

Doors Open Hamilton featured 38 historical sites this year and I am happy to say I’ll be exploring more throughout the year and taking advantage of the event again next year.

The Canadian Public Relations Society of Hamilton‘s Annual General Meeting will be held this evening at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.

You’ve been quoted in my #Storify story “Adventures in Live-Tweeting” http://sfy.co/bfOd

Check out this week’s sweet PRThursday blog post created through Storify.

Oh this? No big thing, just taking a plane to work next week (for a four day conference).

I grew up in a small-town rural community in southwest Ontario, moving to St. Catharines to attend Brock [U] was my way of moving to the big city. Now I live what I affectionately refer to as –my double life– residing in Hamilton, my adopted home town, and working in downtown Toronto.

I am extremely glad for GO. I see the commuters parked on the highway inching along as we, the GO commuters, fly by (at a reasonable and legally accepted speed) in the luxury lane, a.k.a the carpool lane.

I get to catch a few more zZzs after my 6 AM media monitoring start, arriving at the office for 10. The train ride back reveals the cityscape beyond the Hamilton Harbour and I know I’m home.

Luck has a lot to do with it. I know I am one of 4,000 PR students across the country who graduated last year and is lucky enough to be working in the field. After almost a year at my current job (with the first half as an intern), I finally feel like I know what I’m doing.

I am so thrilled to have this opportunity to travel next week and I continually gain on the job experience in public relations.

The PR industry is exciting: whether you’re up to your elbows in adrenaline working in crisis communications or developing key messages and a communication plan for a not-for-profit.

Objectives are important.

An objective is a goal, something that is achieved after planning and action take place, in that order.
I had an objective for this blog in mind: to archive my industry experience.
I had a rough idea of a plan, to keep doing what I do and write about it once a week.
I found however, that without a solid plan, the action part began to slide and here we are today.

So much has happened in the past 2 months, a few highlights are:

• Attending the Katie Paine Luncheon and Workshop
• A Queen’s Park field trip for my first press gallery [listening] experience
• Checking out the Hamilton Media Guild event “Doing Media Differently”
• Crashing the Young Entrepreneur event
• Facilitating the CPRS-Hamilton “Tips and Tricks for Landing Your First PR Job” student event

And more. And the thing is, there is so much content from each of these events, the blog practically writes itself! Except you know, I actually have to put in the screen time.

So as I bashfully blog 60 minutes before –Earth Hour– reflecting on my energy consumption and output, I plan to unplug for the evening, press reset on my objective, and map out my plan prior to #PRThursday, the day my next [weekly] post gets published.

This past week I attended the Ontario Public Health Association Nutrition Resource Centre event titled “Food and Nutrition Policy Engagement Workshop,” and the CPRS Toronto event “The Mentors Circle–Clearing Your Path to Business Growth.”

Each event was informative and a pleasure to attend, and each event took place on the same day!

This post recounts the former and next week’s post will reveal details from the latter.

The OPHA  event took place at the YMCA of Greater Toronto and featured Sean Moore from the Advocacy School whose talk, called “How the System Works…and How to Work the System (The Art and Science of Public-Policy Engagement and Advocacy),” highlighted ways to participate in the government from an advocacy standpoint. Following Mr. Moore’s lead, attendees explored assumptions, definitions, and concepts relating to advocacy. We learned 4 things to improve individual advocacy (getting your ask right, strategic inquiry/aerobic listening, relationships and partnering, and do-it-yourself public policy). Principal Moore explained the value of failure, and provided examples of how to work with hearing “no” when it comes to moving your ask forward in government.

Moore also provided us with practical tools for application including An Advocacy School template for a Strategic Inquiry Briefing Note, and explained how one must consider the audience (e.g. the member of government), to understand and work with their constraints, schedules, and objectives.

This event also had Mike Balkwill, Provincial Organizer, speak about social justice, and the importance of understanding the meaning of those words; especially if you are in government using the term to gain voter support. Balkwill is actively coordinating the Put Food in the Budget campaign which “demands from government an immediate $100-a-month increase for every adult in Ontario receiving social assistance,” and “that the proposed Social Assistance Review Commission recommend social assistance rates at a level that ensured a life of health and dignity.”
This event had David Miller, Councillor in Brant County speaking about his role in government at a municipal level, and Soo Wong, Liberal MPP for the Scarborough-Agincourt area highlighted the importance of respecting other people’s time and emphasizing research be done before bringing issues to your provincial representative level.

Linda Stewart, Executive Director at the Association of Local Public Health Agencies shared the experience of working on the Ontario Childhood Healthy Weights Surveillance Committee, and Meredith Hayes, Student Nutrition and School Program Senior Manager, shared information about Food Share–an organization sharing healthy ideas.

This event provided a lot of great information supported by real life examples. The most important idea I took away from this event however, was that I need to understand more about how government works in Canada in order to participate responsibly as a citizen.

Participating with The Hamilton Engagement Committee was an introduction, and I’ll be continuing my education at the local level by attending my first Sherman Hub Community Planning Team meeting tomorrow to find out what is happening in my own neighbourhood. More to come on my political science/government education plan.

Your network in public relations is not limited to those who work within the industry. I am finding it increasingly important to understand the political language and landscape in order to succeed professionally.