For more 16 years I wrote a weekly column for the Calgary Sun (Fridays or Saturdays - sometimes Sunday). It also occasionally appeared in the Winnipeg Sun and other papers. I have also written a regular column for the National Post's "Toronto" Saturday magazine, the London Free Press, the Winnipeg and the Toronto Sun. I have also done the occasional piece in the Toronto Star and once was extensively quoted (without payment) in the Globe and Mail as a "voice of the West", even though I live in Toronto.

This is how I looked when I wrote for the Post. I was there just long enough to get this hand-carved beauty done - then they decided to save a few bucks and get rid of the freelance columnists. Now I know why they call the picture at the top of a column a "headstone". I think the drawing captures my inner woodenness.

Speaking of which, one of my own columns appeared in "Chicken Soup for the Father & Son Soul" (May, 2008). Pretty appropriate, eh? I've already cashed my cheque and blown it on a tank of gas, so I'm not getting rich on sales, but I do like the article they picked (page 252 - thanks for asking). To date I've appeared in 5 different books in the Chicken Soup series.

If you click on a year to the right you will see a selection of the 50 or so columns written that year. Sorry they are still in an ugly old format from my previous website. There are more than 250 web pages of columns there, so I had the choice of inconveniencing me or you. Guess what? You lost.

The columns that seem to have tickled readers most are marked with this annoying thing so you can find them more easily if you just have a minute or two to look around. Have a favourite or looking for reprint permission? Let me know.

These columns may be slightly different than the ones that appeared in print or on the Canoe website. Occasionally they get "improved" as they pass through several hands on their way into print. The columns here are unedited and exactly as I wrote them, for better or worse. I hope you like them.

By the way, all the columns are © Stephen Lautens (me). Please don't reproduce without permission.

(The columns, I mean.)