The Big Intro

Hi there!

My name's Dale, and I figured it was time to start documenting my journey toward becoming an official member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. So far I've been freelancing for several years, working my way up to the big goal. I've been fortunate enough to interview some notable personalities in this town from Cabinet Ministers like Belinda Stronach (back in the day), to Opposition Leaders like Stéphane Dion, to Senators like Nancy Ruth (who, by the way, is a scream), to city councillors like Diane Holmes. I've also interviewed a few celebrities in my day for various non-political pieces. In fact, I just interviewed Mel C (aka Sporty Spice) regarding her cross-Canada solo tour--but you'll likely hear more about that in the coming days.

To date, I've worked a lot for the gay press in this country, both local (Capital Xtra) and national (Outlooks), but I've been moving more into the mainstream political press, with pieces in The Hill Times, The Ottawa Citizen and The Canadian Press. Along the way, I've also managed to become a rather accidental arts writer for local papers like Ottawa Xpress, which can be a nice diversion from the rest. Where links are available as I write articles, I'll post them here.

Also, I wanted a place where I can put some "extras" from the pieces that I have written that don't otherwise make it into print--things like interview questions that there wasn't space for in the final word count that were still interesting, or that went on tangents that weren't relevant to the piece but interesting nevertheless. Kind of like the "deleted scenes" on a DVD, as it were. Plus, I also wanted a place to post some things I've worked on that didn't make it to print for various reasons, when that comes about.

So welcome, and I hope you visit often.