You can blame the blog on his youngest daughter, Sarah.
When Chief Supt. Dave Critchley took over as the top cop for the Burnaby RCMP on Aug. 2, he wasn't an unknown entity.
That's because his highly entertaining blog had been read by many of the people he would soon be leading.
With more than 30 years of RCMP experience ranging from Alberta to Ottawa and last year spent in Afghanistan, Critchley found out just how popular that blog was when he was picked up at the airport by Staff Sgt. Major John Buis.
"You don't look like a marshmallow in a bag of coal," Buis said to Critchley.
Critchley had to scratch his head a bit to remember that phrase, but that came from a Jan. 17 posting on his blog: My Year in Afghanistan, which you can access at http: //davecritchleyinafghan istan.blogspot.com/.
"The whole idea for the blog came from my youngest daughter, Sarah," said Critchley. "She was concerned about the unknown because, typically, the only news you get back from Afghanistan is the bad stuff.
"She told me, 'Dad, you should write a blog, and if you don't know how, I'll sit down with you know and help you with it.'"
So, in one of their last father-daughter moments before going off to Afghanistan, Critchley learned the ins and outs of blogging, posting pictures and writing for the most important audience of them all: his family.
"It wasn't always easy," Critchley said. "We'd spend the whole day working or out in the field, and I'd get back and try to write something entertaining. . It was a type of writing I hadn't done before. . For me to sit down and write about my day, that was my way of staying connected with my friends and family and allow them to see what life was like over there."
In Critchley's postings (see excerpts in sidebar story below), he talks about a whole range of meaningful events that happened to him in the last year. Everything from a love letter to his wife, to how he got the news of his daughter's engagement and how he referred to himself as a marshmallow in a bag of coal can be found in his amusing and self-deprecating blog.
"Maybe the hardest thing was I had trouble writing about myself because it's not about me, it's usually about the people I'm working with and the teams that I'm a part of."
That unselfish attitude is something Critchley continually comes back to, as he's had the good fortune of belonging to many quality teams.
In Alberta, he helped with the security at the 2002 G8 summit in Kananaskis. Just last year, he was part of the coordinated Olympic security team for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Critchley split his time during the Olympics between Ottawa and being onsite in British Columbia, and that whetted his appetite for a more permanent move back to his home province.
Critchley considers Kelowna his first home, having met his wife Debra there. But with the old RCMP regulations prohibiting newbies from being stationed in their home province, the family moved to Alberta. And through multiple postings over the years,
Burnaby was one of the first times Critchley could consider a return to B.C.
But first, a year in Afghanistan, where Critchley worked out of the Canadian embassy in Kabul as the senior Canadian police officer in the country.
"I'd always wanted to do an international mission, but the timing was never right," he said. "It certainly wasn't an easy conversation with my wife, but the thing with Debra is, I'm so incredibly blessed to have such an incredibly supportive wife. She knew it was something I wanted to do because I wanted to contribute and do my share for our efforts abroad."
Critchley said the tougher job probably fell to Debra because she still had to look after their Ottawa home.
"I couldn't be there to shovel the walk," he said. "She had to take care of our home and think about me in Afghanistan."
One of the highlights for Critchley was meeting up with his niece Bonnie.
"That was a really special moment," he said. "To be able to sit and talk with her and tell our family she was doing well, that meant a lot."
As the spring came to a close and Critchley looked for his next posting, Burnaby was something he wanted.
"This was a chance to come home to B.C.," he said. "This was a job I wanted."
After going through the interview process, Critchley used his blog to quietly tell his friends and family how he did.
In his May 30 posting, Critchley talks about attending a police conference in Kelowna before he matter-of-factly drops in this note.
"Following Kelowna, I was off to Burnaby B.C. for interview on my new job (which I was successful on . yeah!), and finally back to Kabul," wrote Critchley.
His enthusiasm was a bit more noticeable when he talked about what the future holds.
"I'm lucky in that I've known Rick Taylor as a friend and colleague," said Critchley, who said he did talk with Taylor prior to interviewing for his friend's job. "I asked him if he liked his job, and when he told me he did, it meant a lot to me.
"For me, this opportunity to get back into uniform policing, it really was an opportunity that I've been looking for."
Critchley said it's too early to say what his vision for policing in Burnaby is, simply because he wants a chance to meet everybody and see first-hand what the city is all about.
"My first impression is, I can't believe how much greenspace there is in the city," he said. "There are so many parks and open spaces, and we're talking about a large urban city. . It really is quite breathtaking."
Buis has been taking Critchley to each sector in the city, and the chief will have a pretty good knowledge base to build upon when the cold, fall days of September hit.
"I want to get to know all the players at the table," he said, "You have to be a part of the community to understand it."
