I've been a reporter or editor for 30 years. I started at the Ottawa Citizen, then moved to Yellowknife where I lived for four years in the latter 1970s. I worked there as editor of a weekly called News of the North, then, freelanced and, finally, edited another weekly called Northern News Report. I travelled extensively throughout the North and covered most of the Berger hearings on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

From Yellowknife, I moved to Fort MacMurray where, with two partners, I launched and ran a successful weekly newspaper called the Express. Following that, I was in Edmonton, where I was legislature columnist and reporter for the Sun.

In 1984, I came back to Toronto for a year at United Press Canada. UPC was purchased by Canadian Press in 1985. I worked at CP mainly as environment reporter and Queen's Park bureau chief.

In 1989, I was hired by the Star as a business reporter. I switched to environment, then did a series of editing jobs culminating in three years as insight editor. For the past six years I have been a feature writer, covering a wide range of topics but with a heavy and increasing emphasis on environment issues.

I have also written several major stories for Canadian Geographic and have edited a couple of books. Over the years, I have won many accolades and a few awards, most notably a Canadian Forestry Service prize for a Canadian Geographic story, and a National Newspaper Award nomination for a Star feature on asbestos.

I am an avid canoeist and love being anywhere north. (Since leaving Yellowkinfe I have gone back to the NWT four times. most recently last June, when I spent two weeks in Yellowknife, Rae-Edzo and Tuktoyaktuk to research a series of stories for the Star.

I also do some painting -- mainly abstract -- and have taken courses at OCAD and the Toronto School of Art. I'm a native of Toronto and have a B.A. in political science from York University. I went to Carleton, in Ottawa, to continue my studies but was seduced by the student paper and never looked back.