Rafe Mair - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
” “Rafe Mair is B.C.,” said Federal Reform Party leader Preston Manning of the CKNW openliner. Mair, trained as a lawyer forayed into Provincial politics as a Cabinet minister in Bill Bennett’s Socred government. After a mid-afternoon liquid lunch with the late Jack Webster, Rafe left politics and got an openline gig at Vancouver’s CJOR. After a stint there, he got over to Top Dog CKNW and in 1988 inherited the morning time slot where he dominates now. He recently published his memoirs entitled, Canada, Is Anyone Listening?, in which he tackled such subjects as his personal life, his career, his battle with depression and Canadian politics with his, ‘distinct candor seasoned with intellectual projectiles.’
Mair, 67, who makes “well into six figures,” began his political career as a Kamloops alderman and as a Liberal. In 1970 after Trudeau’s handling of the Quebec FLQ crisis, he turned to the Tories. He refused to leave B.C. for federal politics and soon won a seat in the B.C. legislature. The Rafe Mair Show, 8:35 to 11:00 AM weekdays on CKNW, is what he calls, “a town meeting of the air.” With the highest audience on ‘NW and the city for that matter, Mair conducts wide ranging topics from the federal government’s misappropriation of B.C. waters to the Glen Clark government’s incompetence. Among the hard hitting topics he bookends his shows with the requisite openline.
Rafe Mair is good. Simple as that, no one can make cabinet ministers shudder at the invitation to appear on his show. No one can expect a candid opinion and one that’s unafraid of any sort of repercussion. As the Vancouver Sun’s Barbara Yaffe said, “When Mair talks, there had better be someone listening.” Rafe’s book is Canada, Is Anyone Listening?, available at bookstores everywhere and his show is on weekdays 8:35-11:00 AM on CKNW. Check out his website at < www.rafeonline.com >
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