I'm pleased to introduce readers to two excellent journalists joining The Tyee full time. Andrew MacLeod is now The Tyee's legislative bureau chief in Victoria. Monte Paulsen is investigative editor, based in Vancouver.

The two of them didn't waste any time getting started. Wednesday, MacLeod's first piece as our point man at the Leg revealed the B.C. government's task force on pharmaceutical pricing is stacked with drug firm reps. On Thursday, Paulsen uncovered how the Vancouver mayor's non-profit society hides political donors, and followed on Friday with a report on B.C.'s suburban homeless.

You may recognize both bylines as regular contributors to The Tyee. For example, MacLeod, who until recently was a reporter at Monday Magazine in Victoria, has published in The Tyee an important series on the Campbell government's welfare law changes. And Paulsen, who first contributed to The Tyee as our Election Central 'Superblog' editor in 2005, has been holding governments' housing claims up to the light with his series 2010: More Homeless than Athletes?

At Monday Magazine, MacLeod's main focuses included poverty, land use and the environment. His work has been referred to in the B.C. legislature and the Canadian Senate. He won a 2006 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies award for news writing and was a finalist for a 2007 Western Magazine Award for best article in B.C. and the Yukon.

Paulsen's many exposés include infiltrating a hate group and outing a carcinogen-dealing British company. He shared a Pulitzer Prize at the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald and won a National Magazine Award for his Walrus piece on the search for habitable planets. He was a senior fellow at The Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit, non-partisan, research organization in Washington, D.C., before moving to Vancouver.

Adding these two seasoned pros signals The Tyee is growing and working hard to provide the substantive news reporting you seek. MacLeod and Paulsen join contributing editors Tom Barrett, Heather Ramsay, Tom Sandborn and our valued other regular contributors to make what certainly is one of the best political news reporting team in the province.

You can reach Andrew MacLeod at [email protected] and Monte Paulsen at [email protected].