Jeff Douglas and the lesson of renown.

I note Jeff Douglas has decamped for Hollywood. This would normally be about as newsworthy as paint drying. Actually it is as newsworthy as paint drying, but there is no accounting for the paucity of news in Canada in February.

The National Post, with increasingly desperate attempts to find readers and e-mail addresses, has turned Jeff's pilgrimage into a Web convergence strategy not unlike Stock Day (speaking of paint drying) of Doris Day fame.

You see, little Jeff Douglas is of the famous Molson commercial "My name is Joe, and I am Canadian."

You might recall Jeff getting worked up into a frenzy talking about peacekeeping, not policing, the beaver as a "noble" animal, (yep that's what it said) a toque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch, zeds not zees and of course the bit about being the "first nation of hockey" which it seems is wearing a little thin. All in aid of selling a little beer.

In any event, it turns out that before the royalties are dry Jeff is off to seek his fortune in what he believes to be the second best part of North

America where the beavers are a little less noble, a couch is a couch, policing is an everyday thing and your first right is to own a hand gun, not a puck.

Speaking of Canadians, we learn this week that Molson is thinking of selling the Canadiens to the Americans. My guess is they will be yanking the old "I am Canadian Commercial" pretty quickly if successful in unloading this money-losing Canadian institution, no matter what Jeff is doing.

So is there anything to learn for all of this?

Yea.

The first lesson of course is that business is business, and a professional sport is all business, and don't you forget it.

Molson doesn't care any more about Canada than the next commercial. Their mission is to sell beer. Beer is beer. We drink marketing, not taste. All the same, even though I thought the commercial was pathetic, I find it irksome that a company that would trade on our nationalistic sentiments one minute and contemplate selling the Canadiens hockey club to an American the next minute to be, well, hypocritical.

Molson will pay a price for the sale if they go through with it, but on the other hand, they might consider a new ad campaign across the border called I am from Rochester, and I am an American" - which of course would only mean something to real hockey fans.

But I digress.

Does any of this matter? Well yes.

The Jeff part.

Jeff, from Truro, N.S. is going to the big time.

He is ambitious.

He wants to succeed.

He is no different than most of the kids from Northern Ontario who head to Toronto or New York or Montreal to find their fortune and themselves. Some come home.

Most don't.

Getting annoyed at Jeff, notwithstanding his high profile, is like suggesting Shania Twain should still be singing in the bars in Timmins.

Our dear departed don't hate us. They want more. Often after they get more, they want to come home, but there isn't work.

The lesson in all of this is the imperative of excellence. If Northern Ontario is to pros per it must focus around centres of excellence.

In Sudbury, scientists come from around the world to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Our resource companies are world class and many of our resource supply companies are building international reputations. People come to them. Northern Ontario employs some of the smartest mining people in the world.

That is why we must find a way to set up a medical university in Northern Ontario. People are attracted to excellence. The fabulous lifestyle is a bonus, but often not the driving consideration. The real motivation is to compete, and to be part of a community of excellence.

Jeff has a lesson for us.

Notwithstanding our sentiments, we follow our personal dreams.

If we want a strong economy it must include companies and employers who are world class. The rest is easy.

So good luck Jeff. We wish you well. Pursuing your dream is fine with us up here in beer country. Just don't come back singing "America, America" or we'll kill ya.

There are limits.