Capital Current introduces people who have had an impact on the city.
Who is he?
Dan Plouffe has spent more than 15 years covering and reporting on amateur sports in Ottawa, with a focus on youth athletics.
What’s his background?
The Ottawa native started by covering sports for his high school newspaper in Nepean.
While earning a diploma in journalism at Concordia University, Plouffe covered events for the Canadian Junior Golf Association and Volleyball Canada, getting the chance to travel to Brazil for the Pan AM Games in 2007. His first job in journalism was at the Orléans Star.
What is he known for in Ottawa?
Plouffe is the founder of ottawasportspages.ca and has helped create and lead the CAMPS (Connecting Athletes of All Means to Paths in Sport) initiative, which provides youth in Ottawa Community Housing opportunities in sport.
Ottawa Sports Pages began in 2011 and has now published more than 6,000 stories capturing local amateur sports.
What do people say about him?
“He’s tremendous to work with. He cares a lot about what he does and tries to get as much out there as possible,” Martin Cleary, a veteran columnist who’s written more than 600 stories for the sports pages, says. “He really takes the bull by the horns.”
“He’s [Plouffe] working on both ends of it. He’s helped young athletes get exposed to sports and he’s dealing with high-performance elite athletes and telling their stories,” said Cleary.
Another fact about Dan Plouffe
In 2022, Plouffe saw an article about a local woman who needed a liver transplant after a Hepatitis C needle pierced her hand in 1990. Pam Hopkins-Dargavel was a nurse at The Ottawa Hospital during the tainted blood tragedy. Plouffe got tested to see if he matched Hopkins-Dargavel and he did. He made the decision to donate part of his liver.
“He’s just an incredibly selfless and humble human being,” Hopkins-Dargavel said about Plouffe in an Ottawa Citizen article.
Plouffe says, “yes, I’m proud of myself for stepping up, but I’m mostly just grateful. I was fortunate to be in good enough health to donate.”
