Out: Huntley Addie
Those expecting to see the weekly column of Huntley Addie in the West Island Gazette last Thursday (you know, all four of you) might have been surprised to see someone else in that place: former Ste. Anne de Bellevue mayor Bill Tierney.
Tierney, who had been mayor of the city since 1994 (excluding the time it was a merged part of Montreal), lost the November election, apparently because citizens didn’t like his idea of having parking meters.
With all this free time on his hands now (tell me about it), he’s been invited to write a weekly column about West Island issues in the section of the Gazette distributed to subscribers in West Island and western off-island areas.
In: Bill Tierney
When asked what happened, Addie, a teacher at John Rennie High School in Pointe Claire, told me it sort of goes back to the Canwest creditor protection filing, which screwed him as much as it did every other freelancer. It made him realize that he’s doing far too much work for far too little pay (West Island Gazette columnists are paid $50 per 700-word piece, or about seven cents a word). So he kind of resigned, reluctantly. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that he gave up.
You can read Tierney’s first column here. His second column, published today, is about apathy in local politics.
Helluva way to make a living, $50 for a full day’s work.
Get Tierney to excerpt parts of his 30-years-ago novel.
Hey… all 4 of you reading… it was at least ten, and I can prove it!
Sorry to hear that Huntley, I agree with you that the whole debacle over publishing rights online and elsewhere is a HUGE scam that the publishers are pulling on us all. It’s bad enough that they pay absolutely NOTHING to begin with – but ti further insult by re-publishing for a wink and a snile – that’s just dirty! BTW – you remember me from JAC? We used to hang out at Cuzees between classes, and we were famous for our drunken Motown sing-a-longs in Human Relations class! Hope life is great! Write me at batlash@hotmail.com
I read Huntley Addie’s column on a weekly basis and found it to often be of nice, inspriring stories.
I, for one, rather enjoyed his columns. They were down to earth and honest. Good luck to you Huntley. You were robbed!
Bill Tierney? As in pub/ed of Montreal Review magazine?
I always enjoyed your articles Huntley and over the years, have heard many nice things (about your writing) from way more than 10 people. Keep on writing!!!