There weren't too many people living in Cochrane when Andy and Chris Marshall and family came here.

Now, 26,000 more people and 36 years later, they're heading to Calgary, after years of being active and vocal in the community, and being proud East Enders.

In that time, Andy, 77, worn many hats, all sharing the connection of encouraging people to explore, discuss, and debate ideas and ideology. He was a long-time daily reporter, publisher, author, former town councillor, and political assistant. He was one of the mainstays of Cochrane Ideas and Nakoda Cochrane Pickin' Party.

It was the opportunity to take over the Cochrane Times from then-publisher and owner Mary Maxie in late 1984 that brought The Marshalls back to southern Alberta from Edmonton.

He didn't publish many issues, closing shop in early 1985.

"Early in 1984, Jack Tennant started the Cochrane This Week, which to my mind made it impossible to think the two newspapers could survive, so my interest in the Cochrane Times really evaporated."

The Times was his second foray into weekly newspapers. He founded the Airdrie Echo in 1975 and sold that paper to Jack Tennant in 1980.

"Running the Airdrie Echo for five years was the most enjoyable job," he says. "I loved it. But at the same time, I kept thinking, if I get sick, it would be disastrous."

He was elected to Cochrane town council in the early 2000s, and promised Chris he would serve only one term.

During that term, he was given the name "Dr. No" by Cochrane Times editor Daryl Mills. 

"I did rotten things and I was a real villain because my first motion on council was to drop the pay," he says,  tongue-in-cheek. "I thought councillors had increased their pay too much."

He doesn't condemn Mills, rather praises him.

"At least he was doing his job, which is fine. He didn't mind challenging people."

Andy has never been afraid to express his views and isn't afraid to question conventional thinking. He's ruffled more than a few feathers with opinion pieces he has fired off over the years.

"Maybe I wasn't always kind or nice but I tried to be polite. Maybe I was a bit of a mean person like Daryl Mills said."

He doesn't believe anyone should be afraid to express their opinion and doesn't consider "politics" a dirty word.

"I'm curious about local government. I think local government is important. It's not a very glamourous part of our government but I think it's important. I don't think enough people pay attention

"People are inclined to throw up their hands and think they don't have any influence on local government, but I always tried to think that people did."

"That is part of the fun of living in a community," he continues. "People don't have to agree, and there is a good community of what I call dissidents in Cochrane."

"There's a conventional way of thinking that has distressed me a little bit," says Andy, who was active with the Alberta NDP, "but that's a political reality."

Raised just outside of London, England, he graduated with a degree in German, and spent 1 1/2 years in Germany to complete his studies.

"When I graduated,  I actually didn't know what I was going to do, so a way of postponing that decision was to get on a boat and come to Canada."

He landed in Alberta and first worked at the Burnsmead Ranch. The bunkhouse where he resided is now a historic site.

It was in Calgary that he met Chris.

He wanted to work in daily newspapers. Turned down in Calgary, he went to the Lethbridge Herald to cut his teeth. He went on to work three stints with the Calgary Herald, the first in 1968. He was union president when the unionized workers at the Herald, including reporters, went on strike from Nov. 1999 to July 2000. He left the paper afterward. He was also a reporter with The Albertans.

In 2016, he released an unauthorized biography on Rod Sykes, a Calgary mayor who was briefly the leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party. Marshall worked for Sykes when he was mayor and later in Edmonton when he took the reins of the Socred party.

“Thin Power” provides insight into a man who left a significant brand on Calgary and Alberta politics.

Sykes rejected the book. Upon receiving the first draft in 2012, Sykes disassociated himself from the project.

"He objected to the book. He thought it was too personal, but I thought was a pretty good tribute to him. It showed some of his warts and faults but it also showed the good things he did. but he objected to the book."

The two haven't communicated since.

It was one of their daughters who convinced them to move. while they are physically and mentally able to do. He says her suggestion left an impression on them.

"It will be hard. It will be a tug."

"I know when I started to think about it on one of my many walks through town, I got emotional. I felt tears welling up at the thought of leaving. But I think it's a sensible move, it's the right decision. We will miss it."

But he doesn't Disneyfy Cochrane.

"I know of a lot sadness in town, a lot of suffering. When you're in a smaller community you're perhaps more aware of that, but you also become more aware of the joys of what individuals and families are going through.

"You get the whole gamma of things. That's what life is, a whole vary of experiences, some not so good, and some that create a very rich picture."

The Marshalls held a yard sale last week, with all proceeds going to a family in the East End. He called it as much as a social occasion as a selling event.

That is one of the beauties of a small town, he says.

"There are a lot of people I have been able to shoot the breeze with."