The Townships Sun shines on
In an era where the winds of change regularly blow down longstanding print publications, the Townships Sun has shown that it can hold on tight. Now published as a magazine nine times a year, the Sun began as a newspaper meant to offer English speaking Townshippers a positive outlook on life in the region. From its founding in the 1970s to the present day, the Lennoxville-based publication has survived all kinds of ups and downs in the pursuit of that mission.
In 2017 the people behind the Sun celebrated 45 years of its existence, sharing a fairly simple message of celebration on the Townships Sun Facebook page as well as on the back of its December edition to thank “all the people who have made this magazine possible.” Looking back over all the people who have been involved over the last four decades, the road eventually leads to Russell Pocock and Gary Caldwell, who explained that the paper began as an extension of the Eastern Townships Social Action Group (ETSAG), which they founded together in the early 70s.
“It was a time when a lot of English speaking families were leaving the area,” said Pocock. “As young people, we were told that we should count on leaving too.”
Now a resident of Compton, the Townshipper explained that the idea for the group came out of a sociology course on Quebec society at Bishop’s University that was being taught by Caldwell.
“Things looked bleak,” Pocock said, pointing to low bilingualism and rising nationalism in the province at the time as elements that fed what he referred to as a “media scare” pushing English speakers away.
Caldwell, who taught at Bishop’s from 1972 to 1979, said that he felt it was part of the role of the university to support the local English population and that the work he and Pocock did together with the social action group grew out of that idea.
“The Sun was an attempt to put out a different kind of message,” Pocock said. “We wanted to show people that there were good things happening here; that there was a future here.”
Caldwell described the paper as “an activist voice,” explaining that the hope was that people in the area would be inspired by the material in the publication to stand up and get involved in their community rather than run away from it.
“At a time when most newspapers were scaring the pants off of English speaking people, we were trying to put out a more positive message,” Pocock continued, explaining that the nonprofit newspaper went out free to all English speaking people in the region through the mail, arriving in the mailbox of more than 3,000 homes.
The second edition of the paper, the oldest copy available in the Sun’s archives, features extensive exploration of the issue of bilingual schooling, a call to action for local senior citizens, and a reflection on the challenges of farming among its main articles. In his editorial, managing editor Brian Olding underlined the need for community support in making the Sun a success and said that, “It is our earnest hope that the SUN may bridge this isolation by contributing towards building a strong and viable sense of community spirit.”
According to its founders, the Sun published as a non-profit enterprise for two to three years before the idea came up to try to make a commercial enterprise of it. When that happened most of the original team dropped out of the project, in order to remain focused on the work of the ETSAG. Eventually, he said, they backed away from that work as well as its mission was taken on by the Townshippers Association.
In its years as a commercial paper, The Sun saw involvement from local historian Bernard Epps as well as notable individuals like Bernard Saint Laurent and Charles Bury. The latter, in reflecting on his career just prior to his death, referred to The Sun as “a zany alternative / hippy newspaper” that nonetheless offered a legitimate alternative to The Townships Sun board members David Wright, Melanie Cutting, and Marion Greenlay with the December 2017 edition of the magazine and the second edition of the then newspaper from February 22,1974. Record at a time when this paper had essentially abandoned local reporting.
The Record’s archives highlight efforts to save the paper in the year 2000 as well as in 2007, one of which resulted in its transformation into the magazine it is today.
Although the modern-day Sun is more humble than it was in its younger years, reaching a subscriber base of only a few hundred, the magazine is similar in some ways to the way it all got started.
“I think we’re the only English nonprofit magazine in Quebec,” said David Wright, the current chair of the Sun’s Board of Directors, with a note of pride. Wright originally got involved with The Sun during its crisis in the year 2000, taking over editorial duties from Patricia Ball and bringing the paper back from the edge. Over the last 17 years, he said that the publication has seen a significant transformation in the way it is put together
“It was all done by hand, then brought to the Record for printing,” Wright said, reflection on the transition to a digital process that now means the magazine can be assembled remotely without any of the staff needing to be in the same place at the same time.
A team of seven, including Wright, guides the Sun today. Tom Standish is Publisher with Barbara Heath serving as editor. Melanie Cutting supervises layout and copy edits while the magazine’s most longstanding volunteer, Marion Greenlay, takes care of the accounting. Jennifer Brown handles advertising for the Sun and Janet Angrave also serves as a proofreader and copy editor.
“Things are very good, we’re doing very well,” the chair of the board said, emphasizing an ongoing effort to attract new subscribers and use the internet as a tool to boost readership. “It’s a real community effort.”
It is interesting to note that although the Townships Sun has now celebrated its 45th anniversary, there is some debate over how old the publication actually is. Neither Pocock nor Caldwell could remember, but that same second edition of the paper mentioned earlier makes reference both to the publication of the first paper in early February of 1974 and the founding of the ETSAG in May of 1973.
At 43 or 45, though, it is clear that the magazine’s legacy of serving as a positive voice for the people of the Eastern Townships is still alive in its work today.