Michael "Mike" Poole was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

film maker and author. He began his career as a copy runner for the ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

'' before becoming a reporter. He earned a journalism degree in the U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, started in the film business in the 1960s and went on to be a television producer for the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

for ten years. He then worked as a freelance filmmaker, spending two decades producing documentaries with the well-known Canadian environmentalist,

David Suzuki David Takayoshi Suzuki (born March 24, 1936) is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster, and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at th ...

. His books are ''

Romancing Mary Jane ''Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower '' is a non-fiction book, written by Canadian writer Michael Poole, first published in 1998 by Greystone Books. In the book, the author chronicles the regrettable consequen ...

: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower'', ''Ragged Islands: A Journey by Canoe Through the Inside Passage'' and ''Rain Before Morning'', a novel about Canadian draft dodgers during World War I. In his retirement Poole lived full-time on the

Sunshine Coast, British Columbia The Sunshine Coast is a geographic subregion of the British Columbia Coast that generally comprises the regional districts of qathet and Sunshine Coast. While populous and frequently visited by tourists, the Sunshine Coast can be reached only by ...

, Canada with his wife Carole and his two beloved Labradors. He won the

Edna Staebler Award The Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction is an annual literary award recognizing the previous year's best creative nonfiction book with a "Canadian locale and/or significance" that is a Canadian writer's "first or second published book of ...

, a Canadian literary award for creative nonfiction, in 1999 for ''Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower''. He died of prostate cancer at the age of 74 in 2010.

References

;Sources * * ;Citations Living people Canadian film producers Canadian non-fiction writers Year of birth missing (living people) Cannabis writers {{Canada-film-producer-stub