When this column, Local Angle, first hit the pages of The Reminder, I didn’t know what kind of reception it would receive.
Now 10 years and several hundred pieces later, I’ve learned that speaking your mind in such a public fashion can bring praise, scorn and even the dissolution of friendships.
Local Angle debuted in September 2005 as part of an overhaul of The Reminder. Published each Friday, the column helped anchor our then-new Editorial page, a feature we felt was long overdue.
I took both popular and unpopular positions. I argued that the Bombers deserved municipal sponsorship, that the city shouldn’t force you to have a water meter and that the global diversification of Hudbay is not necessarily a bad thing for our communities.
I criticized mineral exploration companies that may overhype their deposits, city councillors who voted themselves a raise in the middle of a recession and people who were chowing down on the Hapnot Collegiate graduation supper without buying a ticket (as was happening).
One of my more controversial pieces, published in the spring of 2007, likened Flin Flon to the Manitoba government’s redheaded stepchild, a northern afterthought behind Thompson and The Pas.
I was merely putting to words what many residents had thought and often said for years. So imagine my surprise when I was later told that one of the NDP faithful had sent the column directly to then-premier Gary Doer – not as a wake-up call for him, but as an apparent sign of my insubordination.
Until that column ran, I regularly received phone calls from a long-time reader – let’s call her Marge – who was so impressed with my work that she once made the outlandish suggestion that I run for city council.
But Marge, whom I had come to consider a friend, was a die-hard partisan, a cheerleader of the NDP. When I took aim at the provincial government, she was so offended that all of her phone calls stopped forever.
The note from our secretary informing me of Marge’s final call read something like this: “Jonathon: Some lady called and said people are going to stop reading the paper because you’re so mean.”
On the flip side, that same column generated a call from a local political leader who commended me. So I guess things balance out.
Another not-quite-universally-loved column last year, entitled “NDP Republicans,” blasted the province for mandating that private money help fund Flin Flon’s new ER and for refusing to disclose how taxpayer-funded mineral exploration grants were dispersed.
In the span of an hour the day of publication, I had one reader stop by to shake my hand over the column and another reader call to chastise me before hanging up, never to call again.
I wondered whether I had gone too far, but earlier this year the Manitoba Community Newspapers Association named “NDP Republicans” the province’s top 2014 editorial for all newspapers outside of Winnipeg and Brandon.
Other compliments have come from mayors who have called to privately thank me for saying aloud what they cannot say due to the diplomatic nature of their positions. It is always very humbling.
I was also pleased with the response to a 2014 column that urged residents worried about the future of Flin Flon’s public transit to make their voices heard, as the city’s busing contract was nearing expiration.
A group of residents soon formed to fight for the continuation of public transit, and one of its founders thanked me for getting the ball rolling.
But the best compliment I receive from Local Angle has been some variation of this: “I don’t always agree with you, but I like your column.”
That’s precisely the point of an editorial. If you and I agreed on everything, this whole business of meeting up every Friday in these pages would get old pretty fast.
I thank all readers who have read Local Angle for these last 10 years, whether they agree, disagree or, yes, even hang up on me. I’ll see you here next week, same time, same place.
Local Angle runs Fridays.
