There's no question newsrooms are filled with "afflict the comfortable, comfort the afflicted." It's less to do with owners than persons attracted to the trade. It came to me naturally, seeing callousness all around me, coastal fishermen neighbours of subsistence living, woodlot owners either giving their wood or labour away to the foreign international corporations.

In my last year of high school in the capital of Halifax, when events were leading toward full-blown McCarthyism in the US, I came second in a city-wide essay competition with a defence of communism, not what it was but anticipated by starry-eyed idealists.The winner was the son of a spices manufacturer and president of the Lions Club which sponsored the competition.

My social studies teacher said later my 92 was only one less than the winner, "pretty good considering jingoism usually wins." Another lesson learned. There is a religious aspect to my affliction on publics, I won't deny. I felt its weight to ease burdens, all the while feeling and seeing conservative as an euphemism for selfishness. Generally. Lot of great conservatives.