Doug Speirs
Doug Speirs’ humour column, In the Doug House, appeared in the pages of the Winnipeg Free Press at least three times a week starting in 2006. No one is exactly sure why.
In his irreverent columns, Doug strived to focus on the vital issues of the day, but generally ended up writing about himself and his family, especially his two dogs, because he isn’t overly fond of getting out of bed or leaving the house.
He tried his hand at everything from rodeo barrel racing to playing Santa Claus for hundreds of screaming schoolchildren on a jumbo jet to performing with Canada’s top Elvis impersonators. He also bravely wrote about the weather every Saturday, pets every second Tuesday and pop culture history in Speiriscope, his weekly feature in Saturday’s 49.8 section.
He was a finalist at the 2008 National Newspaper Awards for column writing and in 2017 in the Project of the Year category for the Class of 2017, wherein he chronicled a single class of students from kindergarten to Grade 12 graduation.
He and his wife, She Who Must Not Be Named, have two children, neither of whom thinks he is the least bit funny. Doug retired at the end of October, 2021, but continued to write a weekly column for Saturday's paper throughout 2022. He is now focused on the most important phase of his life -- being a grandfather.