Margaret Wente

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Margaret Wente (born 1950) is a columnist for Canada's largest national daily newspaper, The Globe and Mail. She is the only journalist to have received the National Newspaper Award for column-writing twice. Wente was briefly managing editor at the same paper but was forced to relinquish the post after a staff revolt.

Ms. Wente was born in Chicago. She moved to Toronto in 1964 and has since become a naturalized Canadian citizen. She holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan, and an MA in English from the University of Toronto.

Ms. Wente joined The Globe and Mail in 1986 and has been a full-time columnist since 1999. She is also the author of the book An Accidental Canadian: Reflections on My Home and (Not) Native Land (2004, HarperCollins, ISBN 0002007983).

Wente's column is from a moderately conservative standpoint and has regularly provoked controversy. In January 2005, when writing over a dispute between the federal government and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, she compared the Premier of the province to "a deadbeat brother-in-law" and called Newfoundland "the most vast and scenic welfare ghetto in the world". [1] The piece attracted much criticism, including from the premier. [2]

A vocal supporter of Canadian republicanism, Wente has commented often in her column about ending the Monarchy in Canada. In a Globe and Mail article in 2001, she said the monarchy "stands for much that has held Canada back... embodies the triumph of inheritance over merit, of blood over brains, of mindless ritual over innovation" and that "in Quebec, the Royals are regarded as an insult."^[1]