Having lived, worked and served the community of the Comox Valley since 1969, I find the perspective of history useful to commentary but as in daily life, commentary is more palatable when served with the occasional soupcon of humour. Or a malt beverage. In hindsight, I have three significant mementos from writing; dodging two threatened libel suits as a result of columns written for local media and achieving the milestone of 250 monthly columns for a real estate industry national publication, REM Magazine.

George retired in 2015 from a 50-year career in journalism. His experience includes managing 28 newspapers across Canada as Vice President and COO of Thomson Newspapers, serving as the editorial director for a group of 20-plus non-daily newspapers on Vancouver Island and, most recently as President and Publisher of The Olympian in Olympia, WA. He has won numerous provincial, state and national awards for his reporting, columns and editorials in both Canada and the United States. He first moved to the Comox Valley in 1974.