SALLY BARNES

Sally Barnes began writing for her hometown weekly newspaper in Napanee, Ontario, at age 14 and has never left the keyboard. She has enjoyed a long and successful career as a writer  and her first novel 'Laughed Till They Cried' was published by Boularderie Island Press in the fall of 2014. Two years later 'Unleashed' was published. 

As a journalist, she worked at the Kingston Whig Standard, The Ottawa Citizen, The Toronto Telegram, The Toronto Star and CITY TV. Sally was also a weekly columnist for The Toronto Sun and for several years was a regular political panelist on TVOntario.

While covering the Ontario Legislature for The Star, Sally became the first woman elected president of the Ontario Legislative Press Gallery and for seven years she was Press Secretary and Communications Advisor to Ontario Premier William G. Davis.   

She later served for two years as President of the Ontario Council on the Status of Women and was a founding partner in a successful, Toronto-based group of companies that specializes in government relations, communications and research.

A self-confessed political junkie, she has filled many roles in the playing of her favourite sport–—from pundit to speech writer, from campaign manager to candidate. She understands political backrooms and newsrooms and the joy of winning and the anguish of defeat.  

Sally attended Queen’s University and won a Southam Fellowship in Journalism at Massey College, University of Toronto.

In 1985 she edited and wrote the introduction to Bill, a collection of words and pictures highlighting the career of Ontario Premier William Davis (Deneau Publishers).

Sally lives in Kingston with her husband, Fred Ross, and their beloved border collie Babe.