The first edition of the Lamont Leader was printed two decades ago, and this week’s paper marks the end of year 20.
The first Leader was on October 3, 2005. The newspaper is part of a small local chain called Caribou Publishing. The group already had two newspapers in Beaver County and one in Flagstaff County when the idea of a weekly paper in Lamont County came about in 2005.
“Our newspaper in Flagstaff County was opened in 1908,” said long-time publisher Kerry Anderson, who has owned every paper in the chain longer than any person in history.
“Flagstaff County consists of a number of small towns with none dominant, a major farming community, and a very strong county government.”
When it was pointed out to Anderson that Lamont County was very similar, he took a drive through the area.
“The only town I had ever been through before was Bruderheim, and when I drove through Lamont to Mundare, Chipman to Andrew, it reminded me of our situation in Flagstaff County.”
The first thing Anderson did was compare populations, decide on a location, set up a financial projection, and pick a name. Then he went to both the county meeting and had a sit-down with then Lamont Mayor, the late Fred Pewarchuk.
“Fred warned me that a weekly paper in Lamont County had been tried before, several times and failed.”
Anderson heeded the warning, while also discovering that there was a Redwater paper called the Farm and Friends claiming to be from Lamont, and a paper out of St. Michael called the Triangle.
Both were unhappy with the competition.
“Had I known there were already two papers claiming to cover the news of the area, I might not have started the Leader,” said Anderson. He explained that neither of those competing papers met the standards of the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association or the Canadian association, which was the main reasons he didn’t know they even existed.
“I had a young lady working for me in Viking as a student reporter who was quite exceptional and mature, winning a provincial award for her work at the Weekly Review while in high school – Sheryl Winczura. She was available after finishing school and agreed to commit a year to working in Lamont with the goal of establishing a weekly newspaper.”
It was a slow-go at first for the start-up publication.
“Sheryl did a good job finding interesting news, which we eventually found out was not unusual for the Lamont County area.”
The Hazco sulfer plant proposal was hitting its stride, with as many people opposing it as in favour of the controversial business for the area. Conflict erupted.
Then there was the Town of Lamont CAO incident.
“I got a call from the Toronto Star once the CAO was arrested for wrong-doings. The reporter asked me if corruption was common place in these small towns in Alberta.
“I had to straighten him out. I said the CAO wasn’t from the area, and small town councillors would be Lions Club members, or Legion members or Royal Purple members if they weren’t councillors. Sometimes they are both or all.
“These people are basically volunteers, they don’t get paid that much and they want to help out. Mostly they are community minded. Do-gooders, if you please.
“That was one of our first major stories,” said Anderson. “But many more were on the way.”
One of the first things the publisher noticed was how complimentary the people of the area were.
“We still weren’t getting much for revenue but if we had a dollar for all the compliments – things would have taken off sooner.”
Eventually Lamont County got on board with the Leader and agreed to take a full page every week. “Once the county began advertising with us, it was a saviour to be truthful. Council was cooperative and Al Harvey was the CAO and we got along very well.”
Anderson said the newspaper went through quite a few staff over the years including several reporters.
“Columnist Hazel Anaka began writing for us in the early days and remains a weekly writer even today. She has a different take on things than the rest of the writers and I like that ying-yang dynamic,” said Anderson.
In 2010 the Leader put together a 50th anniversay tribute section for the train-bus collision of 1960 that took 17 young lives. “We won a national award for our efforts.
“Super proud of that issue, it was so important to so many people. Another would be the 100th Anniversary issue of the Town of Lamont in 2007 I believe, where I worked with prominent locals and historians Kent Harrold and Jessie Saruk. We met many times and they supplied so much information to our cause; and I think it ended up being one of the most important things we had done at that point.”
Staff at the Leader include long time employees: Sylvia McDonald (since 2009) now part-time, office manager Crystal Moren (since 2017), reporter John Mather (since 2018), reporter Jana Semeniuk (since 2019) and Aileen Bilodeau, now in her mid-90s and still helps on mailing day.
“Melissa MacIntosh-Young is a contributor now also. She is a citizen reporter who helps cover events.”
In a 2024 reader survey, 92.9 percent of Leader readers thought coverage was fair from town to town to village to county. Almost 93 percent throught the Leader reported without fear or favour.
“I think when John and Jana came onboard that we really took off with regards to news and local politics,” said Anderson.
“It’s also nice when I am replacing Crystal on vacation, that customers are so quick to comment on her helpfulness and great service. That’s really true of everyone, from reporters at events to Sylvia delivering the papers.
“We have a great staff that cares about the community and the difficult job of reporting what is happening fairly and without bias.
“That’s hard to find these days.”
