How two bloggers became mayors

More than your average mayors, Nathan Pachal and Patrick Johnstone know what it means to be “on the record.”

All politicians carry some degree of baggage: words they said or wrote that they might regret today. Those who are somewhat self-aware must also wrestle with the knowledge that their earlier selves may have disagreed with their current work as politicians.

But few maintain publicly available searchable records of more than a decade of opinions, jokes, and everyday musings.

This article was written following a joint interview with Pachal and Johnstone. Current Insider members can find a link to watch the full discussion below. To become an Insider, join here.

A new voice

In the beginning—or at least relatively close to the beginning—there was Jordan Bateman.

Two decades ago, before Facebook or Twitter or many of today’s over-boiled social media apps, your options for online hell-raising were more limited. And yet, compared to a previous era, they seemed boundless thanks to the magic of blogs: self-started websites where anyone, for better or worse, could post an article, diatribe, theory, or rant.

In the Fraser Valley, one of the first to take advantage of the technology was a Langley duo who started a politics-oriented blog called Langley Politics in 2001 and published under pseudonyms. One of those writers was a reporter at the Langley Advance named Jordan Bateman.

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