Mike Blanchfield joined Bluesky in 2022 as a consultant after more than three decades as a journalist for major Canadian news outlets.
Most recently, he spent 12 years as The Canadian Press’ international affairs writer. Based on Parliament Hill since 1998, he has covered politics, trade, international affairs and defence. His reporting has taken him across the world, covering the wars in Afghanistan, and Iraq and the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He has reported from across the United States, including the 2000 U.S. presidential election in several states, and the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. He’s had numerous reporting stints in the Washington bureau of the former Southam News (now Postmedia) anchoring the newspaper chain’s coverage during September 2001. He’s travelled with four Canadian prime ministers and has covered virtually every multilateral summit imaginable. He is the co-author (with Fen Osler Hampson) of The Two Michaels: Innocent Canadian Captives and High Stakes Espionage in the US-China Cyber War and the author of Swingback: Getting Along in the World with Harper and Trudeau.
He was the winner of the 2013 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship which allowed him to travel to Geneva and Laos to investigate the deadly, ongoing legacy of the U.S. cluster bombing of the south Asian country during the Vietnam War.
He has also taught reporting techniques at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, where he received his Master of Journalism.