Although tv veteran Peter Mitchell has been in the running for Gemini Awards in the past, this year’s double nomination marks the first time he is up for his writing talent.

Mitchell started out writing for The Campbells and has since penned scripts for Street Legal, Black Stallion, Forever Knight, Lonesome Dove and The Rez. He also garnered a producer credit on Madison and pulls double duty on Traders.

This year he is being singled out for his work on two Traders scripts, ‘Four Mergers and a Funeral,’ about the traders making deals at a funeral, and ‘The Price You Pay,’ cowritten with Paul Aitken, which tackles the issue of a man sleeping with another man for the purpose of making a deal. Mitchell says both pull no punches.

With 14 years’ experience behind him, Mitchell has seen many Canadian shows come and go, and says shows like Traders, Due South and Madison turned the corner in Canadian television.

‘I think the shows are qualitatively better now than they were when I started out,’ he says, ‘not just in content but in execution and confidence. We just have to get some people to watch them.’

And how do we do that? ‘Rewrite our national psyche?’ he jokes.

When it comes to his writing career, Mitchell considers himself a lucky guy for always having been in a position of ultimate control over his work.

‘What I’ve learned, and I know writers hate to hear it, but, the script is the first draft, shooting is the second and cutting is the third,’ says Mitchell. ‘If you can get in a position where you have input on all drafts, it’s very satisfying to watch your script become a different thing than you imagined it.’