Welcome back to the Long Back Cast
My name is Kevin Shackell and I live in Kanata , Ontario , a west-end suburb of Ottawa , Canada . I began my career as a newspaper reporter working for the Yukon News in 1980 following graduation from the Algonquin College Print and Broadcast Journalism Program . Weekly newspaper reporters in that era were lucky to make $1,000 a month. I started at $800, and received a $200 car allowance. It wasn't enough to make a living at so I only stayed in the news business for three years before moving into public relations and communications where I spent most of my career. Mary-Ann, my girl friend from college, followed me up the mostly gravel Alaska Highway in her old Datsun B210 . My newspaper job was first offered to her, which she declined in favour of a higher paying job at the City of Whitehorse for the princely sum of $15,000 per year. This beautiful and talented woman from journalism school, who had been hired by the Ottawa Citizen after interning there, quit th...