Gord Walsh returns

You can count on a lot of smiles and handshakes around the Toronto Sun newsroom Thursday when Gord Walsh returns to bolster the city desk.

With Dave Ellis, an assistant city editor, in hospital following a recent fall from his bicycle, and ACE Lisa Lisle leaving next Tuesday to become Sun Media's new national online editor, a call was made to the old newsroom pro.

"It was decided the desk needed depth on the desk - fast," a source told TSF.

Gord, who made his exit as managing editor on Feb. 2 after eight years on that job, agreed to return to the Sun newsroom to help out Kevin Hann while his city desk is short staffed.

He will be working with Kevin, ACE Jonathan Kingstone and Al Parker, an associate managing editor who helps out on city desk, which is still light for a city desk at a major daily newspaper.

A source said Gord, who got his start at the Sun in the 1980s as a reporter, agreed to a three-month contract, most likely because the Sun is still close to his heart.

Not Quebecor, just the newsroom and the people in it who were a big part of his life for two decades.

The old pros do it best and with Lou Clancy also returning to the roost (read Grant Robertson's Globe story), perhaps the focus of the Sun will change for the positive, back to solid news and investigative reporting and away from pages of Hollywood fluff and the Internet.

The thin newsroom staff, halved since Quebecor bought Sun Media in 1999, needs to feel positive these days and the old Clancy/Walsh one-two just might be the answer.

Meanwhile, a lot of colleagues, family and friends are wishing Dave Ellis a speedy recovery via the CarePages web site.

Dave is missed in the newsroom, so hurry back, is the word from fellow staffers.