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 the newspaper, and drove more than 5,000 kilometres across the country to support my Yukon dream, then passed up the job that gave me my start in journalism. A definite keeper, we were married in 1981 and have been together through thick and thin for more than 45 years.


Kusawa L. Y.T. 1981 

Those early years in Whitehorse provided us with the foundation for a prosperous partnership in life. We worked hard, brought two daughters into the world and bought our first home together. After nine wonderful years in Whitehorse we made the difficult decision to relocate to Ottawa where both our families lived. In 1990 our family was complete with the birth of our son.

Our children grew up, married, and each couple now has two kids.  It's pandemonium at our place when the whole family gets together, with three girls and three boys under the age of eight. There will be posts about family, the antics of children and the joys and tribulations of being grandparents. 

Though more than 35 years have passed since we left the Yukon, we still have a strong connection to this vast, mountainous territory in the northwest corner of Canada. There will be frequent posts in this blog about our Yukon experiences from the 1980's and trips that we have taken back to the Land of the Midnight Sun over the years. And there will be lots of posts about the outdoor experiences we have enjoyed in eastern Canada since returning to Ottawa.



2000 Back in Ottawa
   About 2018 I wrote a blog for a few years on Weebly. When I reached the 10MB     free storage limit, the gig (byte) was up so I stopped posting.  You can find my       previous posts at hookandsinker.weebly.com.

In addition to family stuff and the outdoors, there are posts about our cruise voyages, until Covid-19 changed the world forever. I contracted Covid while on the first voyage out of Vancouver following the cruise ship reopening. I was infected in Hawaii and my wife and I were forced to quarantine at a Richmond hotel for eight days before flying back to Ottawa. Miraculously, she never caught the horrible virus until two years later - thankfully not while travelling. I hope you enjoy the posts and check back for frequent updates.


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