“That’s something you don’t experience anywhere in Europe,” says the German-born journalist. “This region is full of nice stories people can connect to, so I do have stories right at my front door here.”
Michel, who graduated from Carleton University in 1995, moved to Jasper last summer after spending three years living and writing in Banff. Before that, he was at home in Germany working as a political correspondent.
“I did that for 10 years for one of the major papers in the German capital region. I did all the usual stuff. I travelled with ministers and chancellors and important people, and that was exciting at the very beginning, but after 10 years things started to repeat and I got kind of bored.
“So I decided that I needed to change and my decision was to work as a foreign correspondent in Canada.”
With 10 years experience in a newsroom and a recognizable name, Michel moved to Banff to begin a career as a freelance writer.
He says, although the first year was tough—“I had to explain to my customers why they should buy stories from Canada”—each year since then has been easier and more productive.
“I’m making a pretty good living, making the same amount of money as before I left [Germany].”
One of the challenges he faces working in Jasper, opposed to Banff, is the extra travel time it takes for him to get to major cities for his assignments.
To address that challenge, Michel has adjusted his travel schedules. So, now when he plans his trips to Vancouver or Toronto, he lines up numerous stories to work on from those locations. That means less travelling, but longer stays when he does travel.
Another recent change to his schedule is an attempt to limit his travel to winter, fall and spring, so he can spend the summer months enjoying Jasper’s backcountry. “There are so many places I have not visited yet,” he says. And as a freelancer, staying in the park doesn’t mean a season off work, it just means a season of Jasper focused stories, like the one he wrote for a newspaper last year about stargazing.
Moving to Canada and away from Berlin was Michel’s way of slowing life down so he can enjoy the sights and sounds of a simpler life.
“This is perfect,” he says of Jasper. “In town I don’t even need a car. I just walk and I have paradise on my doorstep.
“It would be really, really tough for me to move back into the city and imagine going into an office everyday from 9 to 5. Right now, this is the perfect lifestyle for me and I don’t intend to change it.”
