In the mid 1990s, I found myself working as a combination reporter, columnist and copy editor with The Hill Times (the Canadian analog of Washington, D.C.'s Roll Call). That was followed by an offer from the publisher to establish a news section for The Ottawa X Press, an alternative weekly modeled after the Village Voice. Then I went solo, retaining duties as media columnist for the X Presss, and successfully paid the rent for more than a year as a freelance journalist in the Gallery. My former employers at the Citizen, The Hill Times and Northern News Services ran my work, as did Southam News and Hum magazine. I also secured a regular gig as parliamentary correspondent for Technology in Government magazine.

Those four years "on the Hill" supplied the equivalent of a degree in political science, and I developed a deep fascination with the mechanics of democracy. My experience there also included a year as the only columnist in the country covering Canada's senate. Inevitably, howver, I devoted most of my freelance work to ecological and scientific affairs .

My time on the Hill coincided with the rise of the Internet. I had an email account by the end of 1992, and my own website a year later. Soon, I had put both The Hill Times and The X Press on the web -- the first weekly publications in Canada to do so.

I also began working with David Wylynklo through his environmental communications consulting firm , West Hawk Associates, transforming our clients' printed materials into virtual publications. Thirteen years later, I remain a West Hawk associate, designing websites and annual reports, editing reports and writing speeches.

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