David Sanderson

Dave Sanderson was born in Regina but please, don’t hold that against him. 

Dave studied journalism at Red River College. After completing that school’s Creative Communications course, he helped launch the late, great entertainment rag, Winnipeg Music Notes. He also covered the local music scene for Winnipeg Alive, a mid-80s tabloid that paid its writers precisely zilch.

In 2003, Dave submitted a story to the Free Press, back when the paper had an open column titled The View From Here. He was shocked when former Free Press editor Margo Goodhand called to say she enjoyed his piece and that he could expect to see it in print the following day.

Almost overnight, Dave became a regular contributor to The View From Here – to the degree other people hoping to get published complained to Goodhand, saying her “open” column wasn’t so open, after all. In February 2004, Goodhand told Dave one of her regular freelance writers was holidaying in Mexico for a month. She asked him if he would like to take that person’s place, while she was away. He has been writing for the Free Press on a weekly basis, ever since.

As a general feature writer for the 49.8 section – and the person responsible for the Sunday Free Press’s This City column – Dave is afforded the opportunity to write about anything under the sun. Check that: anything under a Canadian Prairie sun.

Since 2005, he has also handled the Free Press’s collectibles “beat,” an assignment that has allowed him to sit down with folks who collect everything from moustache cups to player pianos to airplane barf bags (unused).

If you want to reach Dave, you’ll have to knock on his door. He has never owned a cell phone in his life and his next text message will be his first. Worse still, the married father of one has yet to see an episode of The Simpsons, a personality quirk his long-time editor and chum, Jill Wilson, finds almost unforgivable.