rabble.ca is proud to announce our new news editor. Sharon Fraser, a well-known and respected Nova Scotia journalist, is taking over the reins of rabble’s news department.

Sharon has been a strong and persuasive voice for progressive politics and the perspective of ordinary people in the Maritimes for many years. She was also a remarkably left-wing voice on CBC Morningside’s political panel.

As rabble’s news editor, Sharon will continue to live and work in Halifax making our already virtual office even more so. She joins babble moderator Audra Estrones Williams in Halifax. Other rabble staff work from Montreal, Toronto and Smithers B.C. With the first article under her editorship on the crisis in the Atlantic fisheries, we are certain that Sharon will bring a fresh approach to Canadian politics to rabble.ca.

“I am delighted to be part of this innovative on-line publication and honoured to work with such a dedicated staff. They have reminded me that my reason for becoming a journalist was a desire to change the world — and I feel it no less now than I did in the beginning,” Sharon says.

Sharon also points out that living in the East gives her a time zone advantage over the rest of the country — with the exception of Newfoundland.

We get a head start on the news, she says, both covering it and making it.

Most recently, Sharon has written a column for the progressive newspaper Catholic New Times, and edits articles for Canadian Housing, a magazine that covers issues around social housing in Canada. She has been editor of Atlantic Fisherman (covering the commercial fishery in the four Atlantic provinces), Atlantic Insight (a general interest magazine), and Miramichi Leader (a prize-winning twice-weekly newspaper in New Brunswick.)

She has, at different times, been a regular or occasional contributor to regional and national publications, including This Magazine and The Canadian Forum, as well as Catholic New Times, writing about political, social and cultural issues.

rabble is sad to say good-bye to Lisa Rundle who held the position of news editor for one year. Lisa is leaving rabble to join the staff of the Walrus, a new Canadian magazine to be launched this fall. She promises that she will continue to contribute to her favourite web site.