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B.C.’s prime political columnist was additionally the paper’s first rock critic
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In 1973, The Vancouver Solar was trying to rent 16 summer season interns.
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Vaughn Palmer utilized, however didn’t make the lower.
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“I used to be No. 17 on the record,” Palmer recounts with a chuckle. “It provides you an concept of how spectacular my credentials had been.”
However wait.
One of many 16 interns employed by the Solar was Gary Coull, who the rival Province needed to rent as certainly one of its interns.
“As I perceive it, they stated, ‘That’s our man, you may’t have him,’” stated Palmer. “And at The Solar, they stated: ‘Who’s subsequent on the record?’”
So he obtained employed.
5 a long time later, Palmer continues to be at it as The Solar’s B.C. legislature columnist.
It took Palmer awhile to get his bearings in Victoria when he turned a political columnist in 1984. However then Social Credit score premier Invoice Bennett resigned and was changed by Invoice Vander Zalm.
“Vander Zalm was God’s reward to B.C. political writers,” stated Palmer.
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“No matter you concentrate on what sort of premier he was, he generated staggering quantities of fabric and unbelievable storylines. After that, I used to be established as a columnist. And I’ve type of performed OK ever since.”
Certainly. Palmer has a lot institutional information of B.C. politics, he’s grow to be an establishment himself.
“It’s like working beside an encyclopedia of historical past and politics,” stated World TV’s Keith Baldrey, who has labored alongside Palmer since 1986.
“And never simply B.C. Vaughn likes to speak about historical past, and he devours non-fiction.”
Palmer has been working at The Solar since April 15, 1973, when he labored his first reporting shift on a Sunday.
This Saturday marks his fiftieth anniversary on the paper, which can make him the longest-serving worker in The Vancouver Solar’s 111-year historical past.
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Not dangerous for a man from the Gaspé in Quebec whose first brush with native fame was as The Solar’s rock critic.
Vaughn Wilson Palmer was born on Could 26, 1952 within the city of Gaspé and grew up in Wakeham, a tiny anglophone city close by. When he was 15, his household moved to Nanaimo, the place his dad turned a captain on B.C. Ferries.
“My dad labored on the Nice Lakes, he was a transport captain,” he relates.
“He obtained uninterested in leaving for work in March when the ice went out of the (St. Lawrence) Seaway, and if he was fortunate he was getting residence for Christmas. So he got here out to British Columbia and utilized for a job at B.C. Ferries. Expo 12 months, 1967.”
After highschool Palmer went to UBC, majoring in historical past. However his actual main was the coed newspaper, The Ubyssey.
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He didn’t got down to be a journalist, nonetheless.
“My dad obtained me a job on B.C. Ferries as a result of that’s what ferry captains used to do. I labored as a busboy (in the summertime). I used to be my second 12 months as a busboy and in a category I sat down and talked to Mike Sasges, who labored for (The Solar) for years.
“I used to be speaking about being a busboy on the ferries and (requested) what he’d performed and he stated he’d labored the summer season at Canadian Press, which sounded a hell of much more attention-grabbing than being a busboy.
“So I stated, ‘How do you try this?’ And he stated, ‘Properly you’re employed for The Ubyssey.’ And the remainder is historical past. We ended up as co-editors of The Ubyssey collectively.”
In 1974 The Solar employed him full-time. A 12 months later he turned the paper’s first rock critic, the place he championed native acts like Doug and the Slugs and Ferron.
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“One of many nice issues is there have been no selfies or cameras round in these days,” he stated.
“However sure, I had hair all the way down to my shoulders, there’s footage of that. And I tended to put on my favorite Daffy Duck T-shirts. I used to be having a hell of a superb time, the music beat was thrilling, and it was busy. You had been principally out working each evening.”
Quick ahead to 1980, when The Solar’s writer was Clark Davey, who was identified for pondering out of the field.
“He took Jamie Lamb, who was the film critic, and despatched him to Ottawa,” stated Palmer. “And he took me, who had been rock critic, and made me metropolis editor.”
The town editor principally runs the information facet of the newsroom.
“The most effective a part of the job was the large wealth of expertise on the reporting employees,” stated Palmer.
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“I’m not good at sports activities analogies, however with the reporters we had in these days, it was like being the coach of the Montreal Canadiens, again when that meant one thing.”
After two-and-a-half years he left for a journalism fellowship at Stanford College in California. Shortly after he returned to The Solar, Victoria columnist Marjorie Nichol went to Ottawa, and the paper posted the job for the B.C. political columnist.
“I utilized for it and amazingly sufficient they employed me, though I had by no means labored in Victoria,” he stated.
It was a steep studying curve. Palmer was mentored by certainly one of B.C.’s most legendary journalists, Bruce Hutchison.
“He’d began protecting B.C. politics in 1919,” explains Palmer.
“I’d go see him each two weeks at his home out in Saanich, and he would have somewhat pile of clippings by his desk. It might be, ‘You stated this’ and ‘You stated this, why did you say this?’ Generally he would say, ‘Properly, Marjorie wrote this, why did you disagree along with her?’
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“It was like journalism faculty. I used to be very fortunate. He helped one hell of loads, as a result of I’m undecided I’d have survived it with out him.”
Then the Zalm got here alongside, and Palmer discovered his groove. In 2006 he acquired the Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award on the Jack Webster Awards for his contribution to B.C. journalism.
His first main scoop was when he poured by freeway ministry experiences and located that building of the Coquihalla Freeway had value a lot, far more than what the federal government claimed.
“We didn’t have entry to info in these days,” he stated.
“However when you introduced out your pocket calculator and went by (the experiences), you possibly can present how they’d gone over price range on each single contract on the challenge. The tender value for the challenge was there within the highways report and what it was really costing was there.
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“When Vander Zalm turned premier, he ordered a public inquiry into the overrun on the Coquihalla (in 1987), which was marketed at $250 million and ended up costing a billion {dollars}. And that was actual cash.”
Former Solar copy editor Ron Rider dubbed the Coquihalla overrun scandal “the reward that retains on giving.” Palmer’s had a couple of of them through the years.
“It was true of the Coquihalla, it was true of the quick ferries, true of the commerce and conference centre, true of Web site C,” he stated. “However to my nice disappointment John Horgan killed the (latest Royal B.C.) museum makeover earlier than it become a kind of.”
He’s a wealth of bon mots about B.C. politics, lots of which have made it into columns. One in every of his favourites was the time a former cupboard minister in W.A.C. Bennett’s Socred authorities instructed Palmer his actual emotions about one other former cupboard minister.
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“‘That criminal! He’d steal Christ from the cross, and are available again for the nails,’” he recollects.
Palmer can be 71 in Could, and lives in Victoria’s Fairfield neighbourhood along with his spouse Dale. He just lately turned a grandfather when his daughter Elise had a son, Reid, along with her husband, Jordan Armstrong of World.
He intends to maintain going by the subsequent provincial election, then will assess whether or not he needs to proceed.
Baldrey jokes that Palmer’s workplace needs to be a heritage web site.
“It’s in all probability obtained extra paper per sq. inch than any room in B.C., together with libraries,” stated Baldrey. “He’s obtained tons of information, and solely he is aware of the place all the pieces is.”
The catch is Palmer and Baldrey have places of work within the 1894 Armoury constructing beside the legislature, which can fall down in an earthquake.
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“The constructing inspector got here by right here awhile in the past and he instructed me this was the least seismically secure constructing in British Columbia, in his opinion,” stated Palmer.
“It’s a brick constructing with roof beams the scale of prepare locomotives. Baldrey, by the way in which, is my earthquake warden. He jokes that his predominant job is to toe-tag my physique, since I’m not more likely to survive an earthquake on this constructing.”
Palmer is a fairly straightforward going fellow and will get together with a lot of the politicians he’s lined. For 20 years he did a well-liked cable TV present the place he interviewed politicians, which led to certainly one of his favorite tales.
“One of many cupboard ministers that was alleged to be on was Dale Lovick, who was Aboriginal affairs,” he recollects.
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“So he is available in and sits down on the set earlier than we began and he stated, ‘Palmer I’ve obtained to inform you, I obtained a name from a constituent final evening. The constituent stated, ‘How come you’re doing that asshole’s tv present?’
“Lovick stated, ‘I instructed him he’s solely an asshole in print.’ I stated, ‘Dale I’d prefer to put that on my enterprise card!’”
jmackie@postmedia.com
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