I’ve had three stints in communications, all at different levels:

• one for the Yukon Liberal Caucus, following the premier and ministers along, taking their photos, managing scrums after Question Period, answering media, arranging interviews, and writing briefing notes;

• another for Carcross/Tagish First Nation, doing much of the above but for chief and council, focusing more on elevating the culture and the community;

• and thirdly for the Town of Peace River, where I’ve gained a new understanding of local daily services and seeing council from the other side, after spending so many years as a reporter.

My content skills haven’t slown down.

They played a large role in earning Marketer of the Year in 2026 in the Peace River & District Chamber of Commerce’s annual Davis Awards.

My social media management is on point after managing social media in every job I’ve had. I more than doubled Peace River’s numbers online, in many cases 10xing them.

Beautiful stories, photos, and videos will do that, but I’ve taken it to a new level in my professional development.

‘Strategic’ Communications

After nearly 20 years in the game, I finally understand what ‘strategy’ means. I understand reputation management well from my experience on both sides of the political field.

Nowadays, I spend more time thinking about what we don’t post than what we do post, and how things start rather than how they finish.

Before, I’d learn of a new initiative from leadership and ‘make it pretty’, and I did. I was so proud of my ‘make it pretty’ skills that I didn’t think about the wider strategic picture enough.

Now, I want to be involved early. In communications, you understand audiences better than most people in an organization. That’s for good reason: they’re focused on their expertise, as your are on yours. I’m interacting with them daily in various ways. I keenly know what hits and doesn’t, an understanding gained through social media and journalism experience over the years.

While the team’s excited about a new idea, I can say “Hey, these two businesses have been barking about this aspect of your initiative and are going to show up at the office if this goes through.”

Or, ”So many people want this need hit, can we include it in this?”

Or, more positively, ”This would be a massive success if you tagged in X demographic, connected it with this other similar program we have, or made this tweak.”

And it’s not just reactive in terms of being presented ideas and analyzing them, but in forecasting trends, needs, and feelings.

The Evacuation Alert

When we managed the near-flood in Peace River in 2026, I spent more than two hours debating the wording of an Alberta Emergency Alert we were going to send out. That debate ended up changing our approach and informing our framework on how we were approaching the situation.

At the time, we were coming out of a record-snowfall winter, which was its own public works communications campaign, and the threat of a flood during break-up was higher than normal.

We started a communications campaign that got in front of the possibility early, hitting everyone possible, from physical mail to targeted online ads, posts, website banners, signs by the river, you name it. We wanted to make sure everyone was aware, and we communicated updates regularly so everyone was part of the conversation. You couldn’t have lived in Peace River without knowing what was going on at this time.

The event culminated in an evacuation alert sent in the early evening one fateful Wednesday, as one of the rivers looked like it was going to flood during break-up. The whole time we were watching in the weeks leading up, the numbers put this scenario right on the edge, and it played out as such.

After an insane night, the risk had reduced and leadership felt ready to cancel or adjust the alert. The problem was that there was another, bigger river threat that still hadn’t moved and was expected to pop at any second. So, how do we communicate that the immediate Scenario A situation is no longer a threat, but Scenario B, which covers the same area and more, is increasingly moving to a crescendo (or, thankfully in the end, a whimper)? If that sounds like a simple decision, it’s not. And what you say is going to dictate what you do, because you’re in trouble if it doesn’t. We played through every word logically as a group, navigating to a clean and clear decision in the end.

Although I managed C/TFN communications during Covid-19, the 2026 break-up in Peace River was a much more intense crisis comms experience. We had everyone here: the province, cops, specialists, fire department, search and rescue. Media calling, socials on fire. As Information Officer, I was proud of our job, and so glad the flood didn’t end up hitting. I gained tremendous experience in a white-knuckle comms situation. It made me re-commit to one of my comms philosophies: don’t put anything out that doesn’t make 100% sense, from every possible word and angle. There are a lot of soft confusions you can miss in your first few drafts, if you don’t take the time to tease them out. We did that in cancelling that alert, under the fantastic direction of our Incident Commander Patrick Fisher. Writing is one way we understand things; a first draft will sell our thinking short.

Reputation and Customer Service

I believe organizations need a North Star, something every employee gets drilled into their head before they even sign on.

That could be something like, ‘Sacrificing to keep the customer’ or ‘Our job is making the lives of our community members better.’

From there, you take your direction in daily situations. I don’t have to answer our Town Facebook page at night or on weekends, but I usually do, especially if I don’t need a subject matter expert. I’m up at 9:30pm, and yup, the water park is open at 10am tomorrow!

I see my job as working for my audience. Sometimes that means I have to push internally, using my journalism background to find answers and get back to people. I want to impress people and get them a great answer to a difficult question. You can change a lot of minds like that.

People who might feel sour about an organization go, “Wow, I got something from this message. Maybe these guys aren’t so bad.” I’ve seen that change in their tone (or, when one person complained about a serice using Olde English, and we went on to have a back-and-forth in that writing style as their situation played out – making new friends).

Keeping social media comments on is one way I commit to serving the public. We all grew up in the internet age by now. People want to talk. If they’re not crossing a line, let ‘em tell us how they’re feeling. We can answer their questions as best as we can, showing that we’re just here to help. We’re normal people running this organization. We can have fun and engage with the audience on the same field. It’s good for engagement anyway, and you want to look like a successful online presence.

Communications, in its ultimate form, should help inform an organization’s entire direction. It is always going to be the most knowledgeable about the people who interact with your service or product. Customer service weaves into this, as that is a communications function under a different name. The Facebook pages and websites are just different windows.

Your organization should hold itself to a high standard. Communications has a central role in the audience experience.

One of my early core philosophies in social media was, “Don’t post bad stuff.” If content didn’t do numbers, I tried not to post that way again. I want the audience to expect something good from us, not junky shares and spam. That’s why I liked Tusaayaksat Magazine: all quality.

In 2026, you gotta know what’s cool and what’s not. I’ve often thought some of the best comms experience comes from a life on internet forums. That’s true for social media management, but it’s also something needed at the start of ideas.

Nowadays, I’m recommending you don’t post AI. We’ve all been making this mistake at times, but the audience is increasingly negative toward it.

I’d love to talk about all of this with you more. Get in touch!