Dear Edmonton hiring decision maker(s):
Please consider me in your search for a Public Info Officer 1 (Job number 56344).
After completing my Education degree at the University of Alberta (while also serving as a writer/production editor for the Students’ Union, Gateway), I joined The University of Calgary as a Communications Officer II. In that position, I worked with university administrators to develop and implement strategic communications plans. As co-editor of the bi-weekly, Gazette, I proofed and edited the work of contributors and researched and wrote copy covering virtually all Faculties. I always sought to produce articles that would engage. My article, New ways to slice the mapping pie, and its accompanying commissioned illustration and my profile of new staff member, Beatrice Medicine, are two examples. I also supplied photography, illustration and design skills.
After five years at the U of C, I accepted a position as a Journalism Instructor at Grant MacEwan, teaching newswriting, photography, graphic design and mass media. Moving to Vancouver, I served as Western Editor for Canadian Forest Industries Magazine, providing copy on all aspects of the business including harvesting, safety and milling.
In Nanaimo, I freelanced as a weekly reporter for The Nanaimo Business Examiner, writing business-related articles and worked as a reporter for the Nanaimo Free Press.
In Campbell River, serving as the Marketing Manager for T-MAR Industries, I promoted the company’s logging industry products. I also conducted customer surveys; produced advertising copy, brochures and videos; purchased company swag and launched the company’s newsletter, The T-MAR Times. One highlight was organizing the company’s participation in DEMO 2000, a “live forestry” exhibition in the B.C. interior.
A downturn in the forest industry led to 10 years overseas teaching art and later, mathematics, in Libya, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, the UAE and Japan. Highlights of this period include videos, that I wrote and produced, that include: a student illustrated video of my children’s book, The Apple of Albert’s Eye, in Saudi Arabia; a short film, God is Love, made with my Emirati students in Al Ain, UAE; a documentary, Truck Logging in Africa, (which uses my voiceover skills) in Cameroon; the video introduction to a high school production of The Rocky Monster Show, in Jeddah and my video application for the position of Traveling Ambassador for Air Transat, in Dubai.
Returning to Canada in 2012, I relocated to Prince George, BC and launched my WordPress website to highlight my creative abilities in writing, photography, art, music and video production. In Prince George, I worked in a number of positions, including as a Community Support Worker, Licensed Property Manager and as a volunteer in the Salvation Army’s food recovery program.
Returning to my birth city, Edmonton, in April 2021, I secured summer employment at the Mustard Seed downtown church as a part-time, casual Janitor through Bissell Employment. That fall, I served as a Janitor at the Mustard Seed administered homeless shelters at Knox Evangelical and Strathcona Baptist churches. I then worked for Horizon North as an Industrial Janitor and Second Cook at camps in Conklin and Fort MacMurray.
After a medical leave for illness, I accepted a position as a Facilities Maintenance Worker for the Mustard Seed’s downtown shelter in December, 2023, where after a bout of bronchitis and, a few weeks later, pneumonia, I resigned over health concerns. That Christmas, I was a seasonal worker in the Best Buy warehouse/store.
Soon after, I experienced homelessness; living for several months at the Hope Mission downtown shelter. Part of my daily routine was to spend time browsing the internet at the Stanley Milner Library; indulging my ongoing interest in civic, national and international politics, with a special fascination for Trump’s US administration. As a meaningful aside, it’s important to me to acknowledge the downtown library for the vital service it provides to the city’s homeless.
Through my internet browsing, I became aware of Edmonton’s proposed by-law to limit the size of homeless shelters and felt that the city didn’t understand the dynamic of why people would choose sleeping under a tarp over a bed at the Herb Jamieson. This led me to speak to the issue at a city council meeting. It was also a factor in my decision to run for City Councilor in the O-day’min Ward. My campaign platform is still posted on my website.
The Bible says that “all things work together for good to them that love God” and there were many lessons I learned from this experience. Among them were the kindness and dedication of the Hope Mission staff and the generally respectful nature of my fellow residents. Navigating various levels of support services, I was finally offered accommodation through the Greater Edmonton Foundation and am sincerely grateful for having a roof over my head and to live in a country which cares about the well-being of its most vulnerable citizens. I’m excited at the federal government’s announcement of initiatives to tackle homelessness and hope to be reporting, should I be selected, on the city’s role.
My interest and belief in our fundamental spiritual nature is documented on a separate page of my election platform and has led me to be an active member of the city’s Sanctuary of Peace Church, which will soon move from its current home in the Bissell Centre East to a new location.
As an artist, my exploration of the spiritual is found in much of my work, including my Happy Face Series.
In October 2025, I joined Kitikmeot Camp Solutions as an Industrial Janitor at the B2Gold site in Goose Lake working shifts of 28 days in (alternating 12-hour days and nights) and 14 days out. After three months, I left as I found the balance between time off and work time too difficult for me.
My life has certainly been unconventional, but throughout, I’ve continued to explore my creative abilities as an artist, most recently using a 3D printer (which I was introduced to at the Milner) to develop, for example, my Box Set Series. I’ve also written extensively about human conflict by examining our tendency to search for and identify external “others” as the cause of our woes. Two relevant articles are: Assholes, Another Theory and Pure Love Comprehends All.
To sum up, I believe my work and life experience combine well to make me an ideal candidate for this position. Accordingly, let me suggest we meet to discuss the possibility of my filling the role of Public Info Officer 1.
Sincerely,
James Miller