When managing editor Stewart Salkeld knocked on the wall of my cubicle on Friday – my second day on the job – he told me he likes it when new employees write personal introductions for the newspaper.
I admit, I was less than thrilled with the assignment; I am not one who likes to bang his own drum, so to speak. But, since it is bad form to tell your boss what you really think of his ideas the first week on the job, here it goes.
I began my adventures in journalism in 1995 when I stepped into my first class at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). Two years later, I walked away with my diploma in journalism arts. A year after that, I landed my first newspaper gig after learning new journalists go to the jobs; they do not come to new journalists.
In 1998, I started at the now defunct Olds Gazette and Mountain View County News, only a few minutes – the way I used to drive back then – up the road from my hometown of Crossfield.
I owe a lot to the Olds Gazette and its editor Mary Jane Harper for helping to mould me –like an angry blacksmith forging a stubborn piece of metal – during those formative years.
I spent two years at the Gazette before moving down the road to the Carstairs Courier – before it was a member of the Great West Family – lured by the promise of a fancy editor’s title. I soon learned that just meant I was doing all the editing and all the reporting for slightly more money.
I stuck it out there for a little more than a year before turning my eyes north, to Canada’s last great frontier. At SAIT, I had looked at a lot of advertisements for journalism jobs in the Northwest Territories, always pausing at the higher salary posted. However, reading them was usually accompanied with hysterical laughter and a “no way in hell, “ muttered under my breath.
In 2002, I moved to Yellowknife to work for Northern News Services – a seven-paper, independently owned organization covering the NWT and Nunavut. From reporter to manager, I built a career there for 12 years – I stopped laughing and saying I was only there for a year around 2006.
Though I spent more than a decade in the north, Alberta has always been where my heart is. I am pleased to introduce myself as the new assistant editor of the St. Albert Gazette and look forward to sharing my passion for bringing quality local news to the community. I also look forward to becoming a member of the St. Albert community. I encourage readers to call with story ideas, or to share insights about the community in general.
