John Ibbitson facts for kids

John Ibbitson (born in 1955) is a Canadian journalist. He is known for his writing about Canadian politics. Since 1999, he has been a political writer and columnist for The Globe and Mail, a major Canadian newspaper.

John Ibbitson's Writing Journey

John Ibbitson started his career in a creative way. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1979. After university, he became a playwright, writing plays for the stage.

From Plays to Young Adult Novels

One of his most famous plays was Mayonnaise, which first showed in Toronto in 1980. This play was even made into a TV show in 1983. In the mid-1980s, John Ibbitson began writing books for young adults. These included the science fiction novel Starcrosser (1990).

He also wrote two longer novels: 1812: Jeremy's War and The Night Hazel Came to Town. His book The Landing, published in 2008, won the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature. This is a very important award for children's books in Canada.

Awards and Recognition

John Ibbitson has been nominated for several awards for his writing. 1812 was nominated for a Governor General's Award. The Night Hazel Came to Town was nominated for the Trillium Book Award and the City of Toronto Book Award. His work as a journalist has also been recognized with a National Newspaper Award nomination.

John Ibbitson's Journalism Career

In 1987, John Ibbitson went to the University of Western Ontario to study journalism. After getting his master's degree in 1988, he joined the Ottawa Citizen newspaper. There, he worked as a city reporter and columnist.

Covering Canadian Politics

From 1995 to 2001, he focused on reporting about politics in Ontario. He worked for several newspapers, including the Ottawa Citizen, Southam News, the National Post, and The Globe and Mail.

In 2001, he became the Washington bureau chief for The Globe and Mail. This meant he led the newspaper's office in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. A year later, he returned to Canada to write columns about political affairs. He went back to Washington in 2007 and then returned to Ottawa in 2009 to be the bureau chief there. By 2010, he became the chief political writer for The Globe and Mail.

Political Analyst and Author

In his role as chief political writer, John Ibbitson often appeared on Canadian TV news shows. He shared his thoughts and analysis on political events. Since 2015, he has been a writer-at-large for the newspaper, meaning he writes on a wide range of topics.

In 2013, John Ibbitson co-wrote a book called The Big Shift with Darrell Bricker. This book explored big changes in Canadian politics, business, and culture. In 2014, he took a break from The Globe and Mail to work on a biography of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. This book was published in 2015 and won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing in 2016.

John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker also co-authored another book, Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline. This book was published in 2019 in several countries and translated into many languages.

John Ibbitson is married to Grant Burke.