During my interview for the position of reporter for The Bonnyville Nouvelle, I was told I would be reporting for a small town, northern newspaper. My response was that Bonnyville was anything but small or northern.
Prior to the Nouvelle, I spent the past year and a half working for The Northern Pioneer in La Crete, Alta., just short of the Northwest Territories. The hamlet is a small Mennonite community surrounded by a number of First Nation and Métis communities.
This is a place where Tim Hortons, Walmart, movie theatres and most chain restaurants are at least a four-hour drive. It's about a 10 hours to Edmonton, if the ice bridge or ferry is operating, and about the same distance to Yellowknife, N.W.T.
Before moving to northern Alberta, I was a born and raised Ontarian. I grew up in a small town with a population of about 500 people located in southern Ontario, between Toronto and Ottawa.
I studied journalism in Toronto, where I acquired a discomfort for large cities. I decided to move back to a small town, which is when I discovered my passion for rural reporting.
In La Crete, I grew to love mud bogs and local rodeos. The twang of country music blaring while cowboys kick up rodeo dirt or a truck mounted on huge tires tore through a thick bog were things all too foreign to my Ontario lifestyle. They were brought to light in Alberta and became hobbies I couldn't wait to do again.
Aside from Toronto, I have lived in Thunder Bay, Ont., Salt Spring Island, B.C.,Trenton, Ont., working for CFB Trenton as a summer student, as well as a number of other odd jobs and leading up to my journalism career.
Prior to The Northern Pioneer and The Bonnyville Nouvelle, I freelanced and interned at a number of media outlets and organizations, including CBC radio (Toronto), Canadian Musician magazine in St. Catherine's, Ont., a columnist and managing editor of FutuReale e-magazine, and wrote for a number of other small publications.
I started at The Bonnyville Nouvelle in early January, marking the beginning of a New Year and new career. I look forward to providing the Town and M.D. with informative, thought-provoking, controversial and investigative articles throughout the upcoming years.
