Four More Great Reasons to Become a Tyee Builder

Last week, The Tyee launched a drive to sign up 600 new monthly Tyee Builders to support our reporting. So far, readers -- that's you -- have added over $13,091 to The Tyee's annual reporting budget. This is a massive win for independent media. Thank you!

These new pledges tell us Canadians are hungry for strong, independent journalism.

As our drive enters a second week, here are four more reasons to contribute: Andrew MacLeod, Katie Hyslop, Crawford Kilian and Jeremy Nuttall. They are part of The Tyee's core reporting roster, and they have many more stories to tell about the issues that matter to you. Your contribution will pay to produce stories from them and other journalists of their calibre in 2016 and beyond.

Become a Tyee Builder and support independent journalism for as little as $3 per month.

Andrew MacLeod began at The Tyee with a four-part series on changes to B.C.'s welfare system back in 2004, and has since written hundreds of articles on inequality, health care and government transparency as our legislative bureau chief.

His 10-part series Super Unequal BC last year formed the basis of his debut book, A Better Place on Earth: The Search for Fairness in Super Unequal British Columbia, which earned comparison to the work of famed economist Joseph Stiglitz in the Globe and Mail earlier this year.

"For me it reaffirmed that there's an audience hungry for thoughtful, well-researched, solutions-oriented reporting on challenging issues," says MacLeod. New monthly contributions will ensure Tyee reporters like Andrew can continue to spark discussion about the rise of inequality and what can be done to reverse the trend.

Katie Hyslop and Crawford Kilian make up The Tyee's ace education reporting team.

"We're not interested in school politics only as some kind of wrestling match between politicians and educators," explains Kilian. "We're interested in why it's a wrestling match, in what's motivating the adversaries, and in the immediate and long-term effects of both the conflicts and their resolutions."

Hyslop's dogged coverage of the 2014 teacher strike pushed beyond talking points and held claims under the microscope. When a government negotiator said teachers had no idea what their union was demanding, Hyslop headed to the picket lines to find out. "When we asked people, they were well aware and supported the union wholeheartedly," she recalls.

The pair bring historical understanding and a solutions lens to a beat that many newsrooms overlook.

Jeremy Nuttall is your 100-per-cent reader-funded Ottawa correspondent. During the recent election campaign he defied the daily news cycle and pushed to uncover ideas with impact.

He dug up Stephen Harper's contradictory thesis, detailed the anatomy of a leader photo-op, and debunked party spin on Canada's economy, job creation, immigration and security issues. "We told you about how the Conservatives were including temporary foreign workers in their job creation figures, and began to peel back the layers to expose the contempt many in Harper's own party had for him," adds Nuttall.

When you sign up as a Tyee Builder, you are directly supporting the work of talented journalists like these, who bring voices and ideas to the public conversation that you ordinarily wouldn't hear about. Sign up to be a Tyee Builder now.

As always, we're keen to hear from you, and Tyee Builders help inform our editorial direction. What are your hot-button issues? Electoral reform? Foreign policy? Labour issues? What should The Tyee's next chapter look like?

Tell us by becoming a Tyee Builder.

We are beyond grateful for the support of Tyee Builders. We couldn't do it without you.