Hello, bonjour, Kia ora koutou and Marhaba.

As the Stag bids farewell to long-time editor Jules Xavier, I am reminded new beginnings follow all endings. The Shilo Stag is my new beginning as its managing editor.

I embarked on this new journey leaving the coastal city of Prince Rupert in Northern BC, where I have been a multimedia journalist and editor for the past few years at the community newspaper.

I drove down Hwy 16, also well known as the Highway of Tears, across the north of the province, down through the majestic Rockies of Alberta, across the golden prairies of Saskatchewan to Manitoba’s Highway of Heroes on a road trip with my daughter. Those roads are paving the path to my next adventures in life — I’ve had a few already with my family travelling and living in England, Wales, the Caribbean, the United States, Fiji, New Zealand and the Middle East.

Much like a military child, I spent my youth moving from location to location around the globe. I started my media career as a news editor and radio announcer for an alternative rock station, branching out into newspaper and photography soon after graduating J-school — that’s industry slang for journalism college — in New Zealand.

Back in the day, when I returned to Canada, relocating to southwest Ontario to raise a family, I found radio wouldn’t have me because my Downunder accent was too thick. This, of course, is an attraction in the media today. I refocused my lens to capture the world through photography and the written word, where accents and the place you are from don’t matter.

I am proud to have been chosen to lead the Shilo Stag, as its strong history as a communication institution for more than 75 years is worthy of progression and forward momentum long into the future. I’m happy to re-build connections with the military, which my grandfather started in the Second World War, when he delivered correspondence by motorcycle around France, or my RAF bomber pilot father-in-law and my brother who served in the New Zealand Army.

Drop by the Stag’s office in CANEX to say hello and share your ideas with me. I’m looking forward to immersing myself in the CFB Shilo culture, becoming your neighbour, sharing the peak moments and the challenges we overcome, and of course, telling the stories which bring us all together as one community.