The voice of a community
Most newspapers - especially the big ones - have editorial boards. Comprised of the editorial page editor and a handful of writers, it is that board’s responsibility to guide a newspaper’s stance or opinion on the issues of the day or its very approach to the world around it. The board will meet regularly, decide on a topic and, ultimately, galvanize the publication’s stance. Just one of the writers may put pen to paper, but, in the end, the idea is that what’s written represents the board. For many years with The Citizen, this was not the case. It is now, but for decades there were just two initials beside the editorials printed on this page, communicating The Citizen’s stance on the issues of the day: KR.
Aside from his reporting, for years, the only place the community had to turn to hear from Keith Roulston, who passed away at the age of 79 in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, was this page. Editorial writing, by nature, is impersonal. The word “I”, for example, is not to appear on editorial pages - that kind of writing is reserved for the Op-Ed page (look to your right). For much of The Citizen’s life, Keith didn’t have a column. And yet, week after week, year after year, Keith was the voice of this community on this page. He educated us. He told us stories we hadn’t heard. He shone a light in the darkest corners of this area. He stuck up for us. He praised us when we excelled. He castigated us when we deserved it. He celebrated with us and he mourned alongside us. He was always there for us when we needed him most and, like so many of those relationships, we likely took him for granted. But that didn’t matter, because he never sought praise.
Because his was a weekly newspaper, he understood its limitations. He would try to write his editorials as close to press time as he could, to ensure optimal timeliness - or at least as close as he could get. He tried to adhere to a handful of simple principles: three editorials per week, one local, one provincial or national, one international. From there, his goal was to take a news story that readers likely knew, but not always, and give them a different way of looking at it, of thinking about it - seeing the issue in a different light.
Readers may not have always agreed with him on a week-to-week basis, but Keith would argue that that’s the point. Certainly the views he espoused on this page were a bit left-leaning for some readers and there were specific issues on which he and some were never going to find common ground, but, stimulating that conversation and, in some cases, through letters to the editor, that discourse, was always healthy. Keith always felt that an echo chamber was one of the most dangerous places to be. That has shown to be true, especially in recent years.
Among all of the awards The Citizen has won over the years, Keith being honoured both provincially and nationally for his editorial writing stands near to the tallest. When the man running a small, do-it-yourself, reader-supported newspaper is recognized as the top voice in Canadian editorials, the community is shown how lucky it is.
When he handed the reins to us - Publisher Deb Sholdice, Editor Shawn Loughlin and reporter Scott Stephenson (and Denny Scott before him) - his advice was simple: he instilled those aforementioned principles and he said it was important for us to now be the voice of the community. The people who are on the streets, gathering news and interviewing folks and in the office working on The Citizen day in and day out should be the ones writing editorials. He feared that through being at home, semi-retired, he was out of touch with the community and he didn’t want to outstay his welcome. We assured him this could never be the case, but he was resolute. And then, over time, this would be the page he would most closely scrutinize because he knew of its importance. And we do too.
Keith and his wife Jill - standing on the shoulders of dozens of you who bought shares, advertised and bought subscriptions - founded this newspaper 41 years ago and its impact on the community and the culture - then, now and forever - is immeasurable. Readers have been truly enriched by the words above Keith’s initials on this page for decades and we can’t thank Keith enough. Farewell KR. – SL