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 1993 to 2001. Previously, Johnstone wrote and supported software applications for IBM and other employers in Ontario and British Columbia. He also published dozens of articles as a freelance writer, and has been a member of Amnesty International for over 40 years.

William Mervyn Johnstone was born in Orillia, Ontario, on 1 November 1946, to parents Bessie Elma Newman, a registered nurse, and Mervyn Mawdsley Johnstone, a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron leader. Through the 1950s, with younger brother Jim and sister Jan, he was an air force brat on bases from Gimli and Trenton to Bagotville and Miramichi. Johnstone took undergrad studies at the University of Waterloo until 1973, working part-time as a milk truck driver, chemical factory labourer and liquor store attendant. 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 (née Chestnut) and preschool daughter Melanie, Johnstone lived 1975-77 in Scotland and Spain. He researched for an (unpublished) historical novel, which centred on the 16th century feud between Clan Johnstone and Clan Maxwell, including the Battle of Dryfe Sands. Almost all Johnstone's drafts and notes, in a suitcase, were stolen from his car roof in Barcelona. Returning to Ontario, he worked as a construction labourer and surveyor's assistant, then did more computer support with Comshare, a computer time-sharing 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 Professional 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, then 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, Greece, Israel, Sardinia, Morocco, Ireland and Costa Rica. In 2021, Johnstone made a submission to the legislative committee reforming B.C.'s Police Act; in 2025 he made another submission for the committee on democratic and electoral reform. He maintains a strong interest in fiction and on occasion has letters published in the Times Colonist's "Comments" section. Johnstone still does some pro bono editing for friends, including memoirs for Sid Tafler (Us and Them) and Catherine Lang (Embedded).

Johnstone's editing contributions to Wikipedia, more than 1,300, can be found here: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Will-o-the-west>.