Where to begin?
It doesn’t seem like it has been 35 years since I entered the New West Record newsroom to begin a five-week journalism practicum as part of the journalism program at Langara College. After concluding my practicum and a doing short stint at the then South Delta Today newspaper, I returned to the Record/Burnaby NOW newsroom in May 1991 — where I have worked ever since.
Are you going to work for The Vancouver Sun? The Province? That was a question many folks asked me for many years. Honestly, I never applied to work at a daily as my heart was in community newspapers; they had it all — city council, politics, education, fire and police departments, social issues, health, community events and organizations, business stories, and more.
What a trip it’s been.
It’s been an honour to have folks trust me to tell their stories: a mom whose daughter had been murdered shared her heart-wrenching grief; a manager of a local non-profit offered a compassionate glimpse into the life of an unhoused person who had died of an overdose; city hall employees shared why morale was plummeting and numerous staff were leaving their jobs in their department; a 90-year-old man explained why he continued to work at a local grocery store — partly because he enjoyed keeping busy, partly because he needed the extra money to pay the bills.
At our original office on Sixth Street in uptown New West, I frequently had to do “lobby duty” — hearing out the folks who wandered in the front door and wanted to speak to a reporter. A longshoreman who had suffered a brain injury in an on-the-job incident and was living in his van was a frequent visitor; I did a story on his plight, but mostly he just wanted to chat.
This job has allowed me to interview premiers and prime ministers (I tried not to fall on my face while interviewing Jean Chrétien as his campaign bus travelled between New West and Surrey), to go whitewater rafting down the Thompson River for B.C. Rivers Day, to spend a day on the water in a fire boat, and to accompany New West police officers on ride-alongs.
I’ve covered more council meetings than I could ever begin to tally, from contentious public hearings that stretched way past midnight to delegations of bathing-suit-clad kids chanting Save Our Pool on the steps of city hall.
A number of years back, the Record and Burnaby NOW reporters started blogging. My blog was called Only in New West, so named because it summed up some of those stories that help make New West, well, New West.
The blog is gone, but those quirky stories carry on.
It made my day to interview folks like the Sapperton fellow who grows a giant pumpkin every year and finds something unique to do with his giant gourd (one year he carved it, dressed up as a pirate, and sailed around in a pumpkin on Buntzen Lake) and a man who attracts Groundhog Day carollers when he inflates a giant groundhog in his front yard in the weeks leading up to Groundhog Day.
Mistakes? I’ve made a few.
Early in my career at the Record, I wrote a feature about a prominent businessman, and I quoted him as saying he had played “shitty” hockey on a recreational team when he arrived in New West in the 1940s. He called to admonish me: “I said I played shinny hockey — but we did play pretty shitty hockey.”
It has been a privilege to cover stories in the community where I was born and raised, raised my sons, and continue to call home.
Through the decades I’ve been blessed to work with some amazing colleagues. They have inspired me, challenged me, supported me, edited my wordy stories; I’ve been fortunate that some of them have become lifelong friends.
I’m so grateful that then-editor Pat Tracy agreed to let this timid reporter do her practicum at the Record in 1990 and later paved the way for my return to the New West and Burnaby newsroom. A true mentor, one of her messages about formulating our stories was always: “Who cares? Why should I read this?”
Sometimes those goals may have been sidelined by deadlines, lack of time or resources, laziness, or any number of things, but it’s safe to say we got it right at least some of the time.
I have been overwhelmed by the number of community members who have reached out to express their gratitude to the Record and Burnaby NOW. Some of you I know, some of you are strangers, but we are connected by our community — its stories, its people, its issues.
So, thank you.
Thank you for reading the Record. It has been an honour and a privilege to help keep you informed about our city and to share your stories. #localnewsmatters
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Follow Theresa McManus on X @TheresaMcManus
Email [email protected]
