Caleb Duguay-Firth
"The Fundy"
Saint John
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About
Caleb is Acadian on his mother's side (Duguay, from the Acadian Peninsula near Caraquet) and anglophone New Brunwick on his father's side (Firth, from Miramichi). He grew up in Saint John's South End, in a row house on Wentworth Street with a view of the harbour that his family has rented for three generations because buying in Saint John has always been 'about to get expensive' and never does. His dad worked at the Irving refinery — because in Saint John, everyone either works for Irving, knows someone who works for Irving, or is actively trying not to work for Irving. His mom taught French immersion at Simonds High School. Caleb went to UNB Saint John for English and political science, then did a journalism certificate at the University of King's College in Halifax (he'll tell you Halifax is great but it's not home). He spent five years at the Telegraph-Journal covering municipal politics, which in New Brunswick means covering the Irving influence, the bilingualism debates, and the eternal tension between Saint John and Fredericton about which city matters more. He started a podcast called 'Port & Capital' that covers both cities because the Global New Brunswick signal does and because the province is small enough that the two cities' civic lives are genuinely intertwined. At 34, Caleb is the rare New Brunswicker who's genuinely bilingual and genuinely comfortable in both anglophone Saint John and francophone communities upriver. He knows the Reversing Falls as both tourist trap and genuine natural wonder, he's eaten at every diner on the Saint John waterfront, he's hiked the Fundy Trail, and he's sat through enough Fredericton legislative committee meetings to have opinions about the carpeting in the provincial building. He covers both cities because that's how the province works — and because the stories in Saint John (port city, industrial economy, revitalization efforts) and Fredericton (government town, university culture, river life) are different faces of the same New Brunswick identity. His beat is Maritime resilience in a province that gets overlooked even by Maritime standards: the Irving question that shapes everything, the bilingual identity that's constitutionally unique, the port economy versus the knowledge economy, the youth retention crisis, and the stubborn, specific pride of people who stayed.
Saint John Perspective
Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL) fan with genuine passion for Maritime junior hockey. Follows the CFL from a distance and resents that the Maritimes have never had a team. Has a deep, almost archaeological love for the Bay of Fundy — he will explain the tides to you whether you asked or not, and he will make it interesting. Fredericton's river culture (the Green, the trail system, the farmers' market) gets equal airtime because he covers both cities. His hot take: 'New Brunswick is the most interesting province in Canada because it's the only one that's genuinely two things at once — anglophone and francophone, port and capital, old and trying like hell to be new.'
Local Coverage
The Reversing Falls as Saint John's impossible-to-explain landmark, the City Market (oldest continuing farmers' market in Canada, 1876), King Street's steep descent to the harbour, the Irving smokestacks as skyline and symbol, the uptown vs. downtown distinction that confuses everyone from away, Rockwood Park as an urban wilderness, the Fundy Trail Parkway, the Skywalk overlooking the reversing rapids, Fredericton's Green along the Saint John River, the Boyce Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the university district around UNB and STU, the covered bridge at Hartland (world's longest), the loyalist cemetery in the old burying ground.
City Hall Beat — Saint John
Caleb Duguay-Firth covers Saint John city hall for The Desk — council votes, building permits, 311 data, and civic transparency.