We have a ton of legacy links that include /?ref=tracking-goes-here. We need concile this, can the conical tag be used to fix this? How?

[FirePowered]

www.firehost.com/?ref=pressrelease

example - http://cl.ly/2O1d1x2m3b1b3K1K0h2J

[AdamThompson]

You could use canonical or 301 redirects.

[KeriMorgret]

Here are a couple of posts about using the canonical tag that should help you. If those don't answer the question for you, I suggest opening a new question with a few more details about your site, and you should get some more feedback.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/complete-guide-to-rel-canonical-how-to-and-why-not

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/duplicate-content-block-redirect-or-canonical