User:Will-o-the-west

Will-o-the-West is the user name for Bill Johnstone, a Canadian senior editor who served with British Columbia's Hansard from 1991 to 2005. Previously, Johnstone wrote and supported software applications for IBM and other employers in Ontario and British Columbia. A 40-year member of Amnesty International, he also published dozens of articles as a freelance writer.

William Mervyn Johnstone was born in Orillia, Ontario, on 1 November 1946, and through the 1950s was a Royal Canadian Air Force brat on bases from Gimli and Trenton to Bagotville and Miramichi. He took undergrad studies at the University of Waterloo until 1973, working part-time as a milk truck driver, chemical factory labourer and liquor store worker. As a full-time employee he worked in computer support for IBM and the university, then programmed computers for a Waterloo insurance company until 1975.

With wife Susan and daughter Melanie, Johnstone lived 1975-77 in Scotland and Spain, researching for an (unpublished) historical novel. Returning to Ontario, he worked as a construction labourer and surveyor, then did more computer support with Comshare, a computer-timesharing company.

In 1982 Johnstone moved with his family, now including son Scott, to Victoria, British Columbia. He continued computer support work with DWA Ltd. and taught technical writing at Camosun College. In the mid-1980s he joined the Periodical Writers Association of Canada and began writing magazine articles, first computer-related, then on scientific and multicultural topics.

Johnstone's 1988 article "New Worlds: a night with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope," for the Royal Ontario Museum's magazine Rotunda, was nominated for a National Magazine Award. His article described the process that led to the discovery of the first confirmed exoplanet. In 1989 he drove to El Salvador with 45 international activists and wrote several articles about its civil war for Monday Magazine. In 1990-91 Johnstone helped establish the Race Relations Council of Greater Victoria and began professional editing with British Columbia's Hansard.

Johnstone continued freelance writing and editing until 2012. With new spouse Penny Tennenhouse, whom he met through Amnesty International, he travelled in Mexico, Cuba, Scotland, Israel, Sardinia, Morocco, Ireland and Costa Rica. In 2021, Johnstone made a submission to the legislative committee reforming B.C.'s Police Act. He maintains a strong interest in fiction and on occasion still does pro bono editing and has letters published in the Times Colonist's "Comments" section.

Johnstone's editing contributions to Wikipedia, more than 1,000, can be found here: .