Crecomm is coming to an end. Now what?
The end of the school year is approaching. Fast.
Last week, while standing in line at Tim Hortons with Dr. Petty, we both came to the conclusion that I only had two weeks left of CreComm.
It hit me.
Two weeks.
It’s the end of post-secondary education for me. Five years, a double major and a diploma later, I am done school. For now at least…I think I eventually want to get a Masters in journalism, but probably not for a few years.
So this is it for now. No more school.
I have the next two months of my life planned out. After these next two weeks, I head to Vancouver for a six week internship at Global National.
After that? I have no idea…
This is the first time in my life where I’ve had NO idea, absolutely no idea, where I am heading or what’s going to happen.
In two months, where will I be?
Will I have a job? If I do have a job, what will it be? An internship? Maybe I’ll be volunteering? Travelling?
Or maybe I’ll be working out and sleeping…or sitting at home unemployed watching soap operas?
I’m not scared of change….but it does make me a bit uneasy… I’d rather I knew what was going to happen…but the unknown is kind of wonderful too.
If you’d told me in September I’d be living in Vancouver for two months this summer, I’d have been shocked. Change can be so surprising and amazing…but I’ll admit it. I’m scared.
School has always been my security blanket. The one constant thing in my life. What am I going to do without it?
And I’ve realized, I’m really going to miss it.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Winnipeg's Great War, close to one hundred years later...
Last week, I finished reading a book called Winnipeg’s Great War: A City Comes of Age by Jim Blanchard.
It was filled with interesting details, information, stories, and anecdotes about people, businesses, and the history of Winnipeg during the First World War starting in 1914.
I decided to learn a little bit more about some of those organizations and places the book references.
One of the first places I visited was the Bank of Montreal building located at the corner of Main Street and Portage Avenue. This building, located at what is one of Canada’s windiest corners, was finished in 1913, right before the First World War began.
Today, it is still absolutely stunning, made from marble with high ceilings and beautiful architecture.
Caronline Torres, the senior customer service representative for the BMO branch, told me that most of the branch’s employees at the time of the war were male. They all lived on the third floor of the building in apartments. They had maid service, three hot meals a day, and laundry service. When the war broke out, the branch lost most of its employees as many went to fight in the war. In fact, the statue in the front of the building (still standing today) is of one of the employees who went off to war.
“Most of the bank’s employees at that time were men. As a result, when they all went off to war, that’s when we started hiring women to work at this branch,” she said. “That was the beginning of women working here.”
Torres also said that the branch was built in 1913 at the center of the city because (as Blanchard states in his book) Winnipeg was the third largest city in Canada and that its growth was imminent and booming. Branch owners thought by building the bank at the center of the city, it was a great way to be in the center of an economic boom.
But Torres said, after the war occurred, the bank went from being focused on Winnipeg’s economic growth and prosperity to farming.
“This branch became the center for farming,” she said. “After the war, the bank was now earning all its money from the farming community.”
This got me thinking more about Winnipeg’s Exchange District.
That’s why after the Bank of Montreal, I headed down Main Street and visited CentreVenture Development Corporation located at 492 Main Street. The senior development officer there Jeff Palmer showed me a large framed photograph taken of Winnipeg’s Exchange District, a national historic site, in 1911 (right before the war).
“This building was built in 1894 and is a designated building by the City of Winnipeg,” he said.
He directed me to the City of Winnipeg’s website, and I learned that the building was MacDonald Shoes for a really long time.
Thomas Ryan opened the store that year, a businessman who had confidence in Winnipeg’s boom. At that time, the building, with its four stories, cost close to $35,000 to make.
In 1900, Armine Banfield, a household furnishings dealer, took over the property. After a fire in 1903, he rebuilt the building. In 1933, after another disastrous fire, MacDonald Shoes took ownership of the property. Interestingly, T.J Ainslie MacDonald served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War One before settling in Winnipeg. Today, CentreVenture has been operating out of the building for a few years.
It’s interesting, as I read Winnipeg’s Great War as lifelong Winnipegger, how many names of businesses that I recognized, such as the Canadian Red Cross that’s still around today as well as the Winnipeg Free Press (although it has moved from its original location on Carlton Street downtown to its location on Mountain Avenue now).
The Hudson’s Bay Company, located on Portage Avenue, is also mentioned in the book and it’s still around close to 100 years later, but the Eaton’s building is not (although I do remember when Eaton’s closed when I was a kid).
Other newspapers mentioned in the book, The Winnipeg Tribune (1890-1980) and the Winnipeg Telegram (1907-1920), are also no longer in existence.
The Royal Alexandra Hotel is mentioned in the book and it is no longer around. Instead, a plaque where it used to be in Winnipeg’s Exchange District exists in its memory.
Lt. Colonel’s Thomson’s old home is now St. John’s Ravenscourt School, a private school in Winnipeg. My brother goes to that school and I can say, having visited many times, it is amazing to see how much it has changed from a home to a school over the years. It’s hard to recognize it as a home anymore.
I also found in my research that although the First World War took place close to 100 years ago and across an ocean, there are many memorials here in the city, even today, to pay tribute to all those who fought for our freedom. At Augustine United Church, located at 444 River Ave, a memorial stands outside the church to commemorate the soldiers who fought.
Outside the Bank of Montreal on Main Street that I visited, like I mentioned before, a 9 foot tall bronze statue with a marble base is of a World War One soldier to pay tribute to the 230 BMO employees who died in the war.
I learned a lot by reading this book and even more by doing some research about the places, businesses, and people Blanchard mentions in his book.
The thing I took away from this reading experience is that it is really nice to know that close to 100 years, in so many ways, in Winnipeg, the soldiers who sacrificed their lives have not been forgotten.
I also think it’s interesting to know how so many businesses in the Exchange District have been around for so many years….every day while I drive by these buildings to get to school, I never stop to think about how long the buildings have been around or what they were first used for. I will definitely do that in the future.
I definitely recommend Winnipeg’s Great War: A City Comes of Age to anyone interested in Winnipeg’s history.
Happy Reading!
It was filled with interesting details, information, stories, and anecdotes about people, businesses, and the history of Winnipeg during the First World War starting in 1914.
I decided to learn a little bit more about some of those organizations and places the book references.
One of the first places I visited was the Bank of Montreal building located at the corner of Main Street and Portage Avenue. This building, located at what is one of Canada’s windiest corners, was finished in 1913, right before the First World War began.
Today, it is still absolutely stunning, made from marble with high ceilings and beautiful architecture.
Caronline Torres, the senior customer service representative for the BMO branch, told me that most of the branch’s employees at the time of the war were male. They all lived on the third floor of the building in apartments. They had maid service, three hot meals a day, and laundry service. When the war broke out, the branch lost most of its employees as many went to fight in the war. In fact, the statue in the front of the building (still standing today) is of one of the employees who went off to war.
“Most of the bank’s employees at that time were men. As a result, when they all went off to war, that’s when we started hiring women to work at this branch,” she said. “That was the beginning of women working here.”
Torres also said that the branch was built in 1913 at the center of the city because (as Blanchard states in his book) Winnipeg was the third largest city in Canada and that its growth was imminent and booming. Branch owners thought by building the bank at the center of the city, it was a great way to be in the center of an economic boom.
But Torres said, after the war occurred, the bank went from being focused on Winnipeg’s economic growth and prosperity to farming.
“This branch became the center for farming,” she said. “After the war, the bank was now earning all its money from the farming community.”
This got me thinking more about Winnipeg’s Exchange District.
That’s why after the Bank of Montreal, I headed down Main Street and visited CentreVenture Development Corporation located at 492 Main Street. The senior development officer there Jeff Palmer showed me a large framed photograph taken of Winnipeg’s Exchange District, a national historic site, in 1911 (right before the war).
“This building was built in 1894 and is a designated building by the City of Winnipeg,” he said.
He directed me to the City of Winnipeg’s website, and I learned that the building was MacDonald Shoes for a really long time.
Thomas Ryan opened the store that year, a businessman who had confidence in Winnipeg’s boom. At that time, the building, with its four stories, cost close to $35,000 to make.
In 1900, Armine Banfield, a household furnishings dealer, took over the property. After a fire in 1903, he rebuilt the building. In 1933, after another disastrous fire, MacDonald Shoes took ownership of the property. Interestingly, T.J Ainslie MacDonald served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War One before settling in Winnipeg. Today, CentreVenture has been operating out of the building for a few years.
It’s interesting, as I read Winnipeg’s Great War as lifelong Winnipegger, how many names of businesses that I recognized, such as the Canadian Red Cross that’s still around today as well as the Winnipeg Free Press (although it has moved from its original location on Carlton Street downtown to its location on Mountain Avenue now).
The Hudson’s Bay Company, located on Portage Avenue, is also mentioned in the book and it’s still around close to 100 years later, but the Eaton’s building is not (although I do remember when Eaton’s closed when I was a kid).
Other newspapers mentioned in the book, The Winnipeg Tribune (1890-1980) and the Winnipeg Telegram (1907-1920), are also no longer in existence.
The Royal Alexandra Hotel is mentioned in the book and it is no longer around. Instead, a plaque where it used to be in Winnipeg’s Exchange District exists in its memory.
Lt. Colonel’s Thomson’s old home is now St. John’s Ravenscourt School, a private school in Winnipeg. My brother goes to that school and I can say, having visited many times, it is amazing to see how much it has changed from a home to a school over the years. It’s hard to recognize it as a home anymore.
I also found in my research that although the First World War took place close to 100 years ago and across an ocean, there are many memorials here in the city, even today, to pay tribute to all those who fought for our freedom. At Augustine United Church, located at 444 River Ave, a memorial stands outside the church to commemorate the soldiers who fought.
Outside the Bank of Montreal on Main Street that I visited, like I mentioned before, a 9 foot tall bronze statue with a marble base is of a World War One soldier to pay tribute to the 230 BMO employees who died in the war.
I learned a lot by reading this book and even more by doing some research about the places, businesses, and people Blanchard mentions in his book.
The thing I took away from this reading experience is that it is really nice to know that close to 100 years, in so many ways, in Winnipeg, the soldiers who sacrificed their lives have not been forgotten.
I also think it’s interesting to know how so many businesses in the Exchange District have been around for so many years….every day while I drive by these buildings to get to school, I never stop to think about how long the buildings have been around or what they were first used for. I will definitely do that in the future.
I definitely recommend Winnipeg’s Great War: A City Comes of Age to anyone interested in Winnipeg’s history.
Happy Reading!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Winnipeg’s Great War
I just finished reading Winnipeg’s Great War by Jim Blanchard.
I really enjoyed this book. I’ve always been interested in history, and this story was very detailed and intensely edited. The amount of information in it is absolutely remarkable.
The author, Jim Blanchard, came to our journalism class this week, and we had the privilege of asking him a few questions about his writing process.
He told us that he wrote the draft to this story by hand twice before ever sending it to an editor, and if you’ve read the book, that’s outstanding.
Moreover, like I mentioned before, the amount of research and information that went into this book is admirable.
The book is about the First World War starting in 1914 and basically goes over most of what happened in Winnipeg at that time.
I was particularly interested in this because, in my old job at Manitoba Film and Music, one of my tasks was to showcase the city to offshore producers who visited. Many producers saw Winnipeg as “the Chicago of the North” and I always told them that, at one time, Winnipeg was on the path to becoming as large and prosperous as Chicago.
I found this book to be very interesting, because it explained how Winnipeg went from being Canada’s third largest city in 1914 (“the Chicago of the North”) to the city it is today.
I was super interested in learning what exactly took place that changed the course of our city’s history, and I think Blanchard did a great job of explaining what happened.
My favourite topics in the book were women’s role in the war and how voting for women became legal. I also enjoyed reading about conscription and what events made enrolling as a soldier mandatory.
If you’d like to read more about how the First World War and Winnipeg in particular, pick up a copy of Winnipeg’s Great War at McNally Robinson.
I really enjoyed this book. I’ve always been interested in history, and this story was very detailed and intensely edited. The amount of information in it is absolutely remarkable.
The author, Jim Blanchard, came to our journalism class this week, and we had the privilege of asking him a few questions about his writing process.
He told us that he wrote the draft to this story by hand twice before ever sending it to an editor, and if you’ve read the book, that’s outstanding.
Moreover, like I mentioned before, the amount of research and information that went into this book is admirable.
The book is about the First World War starting in 1914 and basically goes over most of what happened in Winnipeg at that time.
I was particularly interested in this because, in my old job at Manitoba Film and Music, one of my tasks was to showcase the city to offshore producers who visited. Many producers saw Winnipeg as “the Chicago of the North” and I always told them that, at one time, Winnipeg was on the path to becoming as large and prosperous as Chicago.
I found this book to be very interesting, because it explained how Winnipeg went from being Canada’s third largest city in 1914 (“the Chicago of the North”) to the city it is today.
I was super interested in learning what exactly took place that changed the course of our city’s history, and I think Blanchard did a great job of explaining what happened.
My favourite topics in the book were women’s role in the war and how voting for women became legal. I also enjoyed reading about conscription and what events made enrolling as a soldier mandatory.
If you’d like to read more about how the First World War and Winnipeg in particular, pick up a copy of Winnipeg’s Great War at McNally Robinson.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Evidence based reporting
So this week, the journalism majors learned about evidence based reporting. Dr. Noralou Roos from the University of Manitoba visited our class and taught us about the Evidence Network. We learned that evidence reporting is essential for journalists in order to get the real story out. If one writes a story without adequate research or evidence, the story lacks depth, credibility, accuracy, and validity, especially for stories related to health care.
As an exercise, I took a health care related topic and searched articles about it written on the internet to see what I found. My topic was “patient financing of health care.”
I was astonished to find that in most of the journalistic articles I found, there was little evidence used as a reference or reported. Most of the stories were about the benefits of patients paying for their own health care (privatization in Canada).
Interestingly, by reading up about this topic through research from the Evidence Network, I found that in actuality, based on research and evidence done, it was found that for many patients, privatization is a bad thing.
Dr. Noralou Roos said that many patients are unaware of when they need to go to the doctor in the first place, when it’s really necessary, so when they do, if there is a user fee, it tends to discourage care for the people who really need it.
"In Saskatchewan, in a study done on user fees in health care, it has been found that people who need to be at the doctor’s office who avoid going because of user fees often end up even more sick and in the hospital because they didn’t go the doctor earlier as they could not afford the fees,” she said.
Roos said that it has been found through research that many people may not go to the doctor even if they need to because of the fees.
“Most people who are at the doctor’s office aren’t there because they enjoy being there,” she said. “People in the office are usually sick and need to be there. They need the care.”
I was shocked to see the results I found from the Evidence Network on this topic.
Through the search I did on patient financing of health care, it seemed that many people were in favour of patients’ paying because it would lead to better quality health care.
I see how for a journalist, it is essential to learn about your topic not just through stories and anecdotes or interviews, but to review research on your topic. Otherwise you could end up making a journalist’s biggest sin, not doing justice to the story.
As an exercise, I took a health care related topic and searched articles about it written on the internet to see what I found. My topic was “patient financing of health care.”
I was astonished to find that in most of the journalistic articles I found, there was little evidence used as a reference or reported. Most of the stories were about the benefits of patients paying for their own health care (privatization in Canada).
Interestingly, by reading up about this topic through research from the Evidence Network, I found that in actuality, based on research and evidence done, it was found that for many patients, privatization is a bad thing.
Dr. Noralou Roos said that many patients are unaware of when they need to go to the doctor in the first place, when it’s really necessary, so when they do, if there is a user fee, it tends to discourage care for the people who really need it.
"In Saskatchewan, in a study done on user fees in health care, it has been found that people who need to be at the doctor’s office who avoid going because of user fees often end up even more sick and in the hospital because they didn’t go the doctor earlier as they could not afford the fees,” she said.
Roos said that it has been found through research that many people may not go to the doctor even if they need to because of the fees.
“Most people who are at the doctor’s office aren’t there because they enjoy being there,” she said. “People in the office are usually sick and need to be there. They need the care.”
I was shocked to see the results I found from the Evidence Network on this topic.
Through the search I did on patient financing of health care, it seemed that many people were in favour of patients’ paying because it would lead to better quality health care.
I see how for a journalist, it is essential to learn about your topic not just through stories and anecdotes or interviews, but to review research on your topic. Otherwise you could end up making a journalist’s biggest sin, not doing justice to the story.
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