BC broadcaster and former MLA Rafe Mair dead at 85

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – British Columbia has lost a huge name in broadcasting and politics this morning: former MLA Rafe Mair has died. He was 85.

A lawyer, Mair’s political career started as the Social Credit Party MLA for Kamloops, first elected to the legislature in 1975. He spent six years as the member, and it was that stint in politics that Mair says prepared him for a career as an outspoken political commentator.

In a 2013 interview with NEWS 1130, Mair says he never forgot that previous pundidts had held him accountable as an elected official.

“We didn’t like it when we were in government, but it kept us, I’ve got to say honest… it kept us on our toes. And I think it made for better government, I think it made for great radio. But for somehow that’s no longer fashionable, I’m not sure why it isn’t fashionable but it isn’t.”

Mair spent more than two decades as a broadcaster and commentator, and was inducted into the Canadian Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame in 2005.

A close friend of Mair’s says the legendary broadcaster will be missed. Documentary filmmaker George Orr says Mair had a way of speaking for the common person, even if that meant holding politicians’ feet to the fire.

“He was a good person. He wasn’t mean in what he did, he was just bloody-minded about getting to what he considered to be the truth.”

“The more goodhearted people we have in our country who really care and actually step up, don’t just complain but actually decide ‘I’m going to get involved and do stuff’, the more of those we have the better. And Rafe was one of those. And we’ve lot him and that’s very sad.”

Orr says Mair was always looking for a way to make British Columbia a better place.

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