From off-the-grid beginnings in Lund using an improvised internet connection made of beer bottles, copper wire and duct tape, a local writer’s unique viewpoints are now read around the world.
Now a signature contributor to online news aggregate the Huffington Post in Canada, Powell River’s Joseph McLean said his aim with his writing is to expose views the mainstream media is overlooking.
McLean is owner of a local computer business and said he only spends part of his time online as what he calls an “unpaid opinionater.”
Writing “from the forest’s edge” on his Huffington Post blog, McLean said his goal is to offer thoughtful and heartfelt commentary on global events.
McLean’s first post was published in the wake of the Ottawa shootings in October of last year.
“The media was writing about how Canada had lost its innocence,” said McLean. “I wanted to offer a rebuttal because I didn’t think it was true. Canada didn’t lose anything, nor were we that innocent.”
After posting a message on his public Facebook page, McLean said his words quickly went viral with many thousands of shares, ultimately coming to the attention of editors at the Huffington Post Canadian website.
“They sent me a message saying they really liked what I wrote,” said McLean. “Then they asked me if I wanted to become a blogger.”
Since then McLean has offered thoughtful words on pipeline protests on Burnaby Mountain and, more recently, the violent events in Paris.
“After the attacks in France, there was a lot of pushback that we shouldn’t be so supportive,” said McLean, “that we were hypocrites for mourning those in Paris and not Beirut.”
Wanting to start a discussion was the goal of his latest blog post entitled, “It is not wrong to mourn for Paris,” said McLean. He said he wanted to change the narrative around the event by discussing how standing with Paris is a starting point, not an end point, for compassion.
His words resonated as far as Las Vegas, where they were quoted in a hip-hop video posted on Youtube by recording artists Andrea Jones and Jered Tanner of the Mysteries Gone.
“They sent me a message saying they used my post,” said McLean. “I’m excited to have reached people so far away.”
McLean actually got his business start 20 years ago at Peak Publishing by saving the day with his technical know-how.
“The Peak was just new and their file sharing went down an hour to deadline,” he said. “They called me up and, although I had never solved a problem like that, I tried a few things and, ‘Voilà.’”
Publisher Joyce Carlson said she remembers McLean as a slim and serious young man in a black trench coat with long hair and even longer fingernails who worked in the late evening hours.
“Yep, that was what I call my ‘Highlander phase,’” agreed McLean, laughing. “I even had a column in the Peak writing about computer stuff.”
Often writing in the company of his two young sons, McLean said he’s going to continue reaching out with his viewpoints online. He also said he’d like to write a book one day.
“I’ll continue writing,” he said, “as long as there’s beer bottles and duct tape.”
