Cole's Notes - The Sunday Journalist

The Evolution of a Digital Identity If you have followed my writing over the years across Cole’s Notes or The View from the Plateau Substack, you know that maintaining a clean, efficient digital workflow is a core focus of my work. As part of a broader mid-summer digital decluttering and workflow upgrade for 2026, I am officially making a major structural change to how I manage my online publications and reader communications. Effective August 1, 2026, I am retiring cole.cooper@gmail.com from its role as my public-facing blog and publishing contact for Cole's Notes.  Moving forward, all publishing, newsletter, and official media inquiries will be hosted directly under an new official email address:  thesundayjournalist@gmail.com . Alongside this technical shift, I am standardizing all public publishing under my long-standing pen name, Mark Coleman . For the time being - there will be two contributor profiles on the main Cole's Notes profile until I update the publishing sys...

Opinion: The slow death of Canadian local news A nation that stops producing and consuming its own media isn't just losing an industry. It's quietly outsourcing its own sense of self. Photo by Supplied photo / Postmedia Network By Mathew Embry The news that Corus is centralizing its Calgary and Edmonton news production in Toronto, cutting dozens of local jobs in the process, was disappointing but not surprising. I recall a Global News executive telling me, months ago, that CBC’s local Calgary TV newscast was pulling in ratings so low they were practically unmeasurable. I wasn’t surprised by that, either. What I’ve wondered since is how much longer Global News itself can survive without public support, given that its own ratings, while technically above zero, aren’t much healthier.  This follows Rogers’ closing of Fan 960 and, given current Canadian viewing habits, I doubt it will be the...

Hey everyone! If you’ve noticed things looking a little quieter around here lately, don't worry—I haven't gone anywhere! Behind the scenes, I’m taking a brief breather to do some much-needed mid-summer housekeeping. Right now, I’m in full spring-cleaning mode (a bit late in the season, I know!): revising and simplifying my setup across both the Cole’s Notes blog and The View from the Plateau Substack. Between clearing out a massive backlog of emails across multiple platforms and tidying up my social media contacts, I'm streamlining my digital life to make sharing stories easier, smoother, and more fun. While the original Cole’s Notes is on a short temporary pause, I'll be back very soon with fresh posts—including a full look at the new and improved systems! In the meantime, feel free to pop over and check out the site whenever you like: 👉 Cole's Notes 📬 Important Update: Changing My Email Address! As part of this digital decluttering, I am officially transition...

Shaping the Digital Clay Cole's Note: The Blog has been on Hiatus since December as I've been busy building the new version of Cole's Notes Blog and Substack using the new tools.  This article is the first of the new articles for the Substack under construction at : https://thesundayjournalist2653.substack.com/ By Mark Coleman For the modern solo publisher, the creative process often feels less like journalism and more like digital archaeology. Research is buried in Google Docs, high-resolution photos are trapped in an iPad camera roll, and final drafts are scattered across disparate drives. This fragmentation creates friction that stalls production and kills creative momentum. The goal of the "Single Pane of Glass" is to eliminate this chaos by creating a unified workspace where research, editing, and publishing coexist. By centralizing these functions, an independent journalist can move from being "scattered" to "streamlined," operating a sop...

Well, here I am again—wrestling with my inbox! I’m currently staring down about 2,700 emails spread across four different accounts, so it’s high time for a digital spring cleaning. To make things a whole lot simpler going forward, I’m streamlining how we stay in touch. If you’re reaching out about Cole’s Notes or my upcoming Substack pieces, you can find me right here at cole.cooper@gmail.com.

1. Introduction: The Crack in the Postcard For decades, the "Canadian Brand" has been our most successful export. It is a carefully curated postcard of stability—a polite myth of a "serious" country where public institutions are trustworthy, and governance is a delicate, virtuous balance. But of late, the postcard has begun to show deep, jagged cracks.There is a growing, uncomfortable gap between Canada’s self-image and its actual economic performance. This is the "Relatable Problem" of the modern era: an obvious decline in productivity and competitiveness that we are asked to treat as "compassion" or "good governance." To understand why the floor feels like it is giving way, we must look past the press releases and into the stark mathematical reality of the global technology race, the exodus of our best companies, and the geography trap that keeps us acting like a submissive resource colony. 2. The 1,000-to-1 Math: Why Our "Nation...

 Taking some time to refocus. You may have noticed that I'm not doing much with Cole's Notes.  The reason for that is I'm moving my systems to Linux Mint and cleaning up my mail services.  Check back soon.

COLE'S NOTE Canada is currently a G7 nation where ground beef is a marker of the elite and university degrees lead to "ghost jobs" rather than interviews. A synthesis of recent policy failures reveals a country where the "absorptive capacity" of our systems has finally hit its breaking point. This isn't just a period of high inflation—it’s a collision between ideological dogma and the hard realities of daily survival.  By Mark Coleman There was a time, not so long ago, when "beef taco night" was the unremarkable baseline of the Canadian Tuesday. It was the affordable, reliable solution for busy parents and hungry kids—a culinary shorthand for middle-class stability. Today, in a G7 nation theoretically defined by its "peace, order, and good government," that simple family meal has been re imagined as a luxury item. The social contract is being rewritten in the grocery checkout line. As we move through 2026, the promised "sophisticatio...

  1. Introduction: The Myth of the Linear Career Path In an era of hyper-specialization, modern professionals are often haunted by the pressure to "stay in one lane." Yet, the most resilient careers are rarely straight lines; they are case studies in institutional memory and technical adaptability. Consider Coleman (Cole) Cooper, a self-described "Miracle Worker" whose trajectory bridges the gap between the analog 1970s and the cutting edge of modern IT. From serving as the Chief Press Coordinator for the 1988 Calgary Olympics to leading national Voice over IP (VoIP) trials, Cole's career offers a blueprint for navigating high-stakes transitions. This post explores five unconventional lessons from a veteran who moved from journalism to IT governance and, eventually, to the curation of automotive history. It is a testament to the power of the high-impact generalist in an increasingly rigid world. 2. Takeaway 1: Why "Miracle Worker"...