Rafe Mair to speak at COTR

By GERRY WARNER

Cranbrook Daily Townman

May 26, 2008

One of the most legendary names in BC broadcasting and a former government cabinet minister is coming to the College of the Rockies June 12 to speak about the environmental impacts of the numerous private hydro power projects springing up around the province.

Rafe Mair, a cabinet minister in the Social Credit government of former Premier Bill Bennett, and a high-profile open-line talk host on radio stations CKNW, CJOR and others, was invited to speak by Columbia River – Revelstoke NDP MLA Norm Macdonald.

“Last month, hundreds of people all across the constituency attended Rivers at Risk meetings,” Macdonald said.  “It was obvious from their reactions that they care deeply about the fate of their rivers and the public power system.”

“Rafe Mair was very active in the fight against the Upper Pitt private power development and I thought that he would be interested in learning about the Howser/Glacier project here in the Kootenays.”

The Howser/Glacier project is located on howser Creek a few miles past the north end of Kootenay Lake.  Plans call for it and one of its tributaries to be damned with the power sent to the East Kootenay by tunnel and an overhead transmission line.

Macdonald said Mair is an outspoken critic of the BC Liberals energy plan and has pledged to take his fight around the province to tell people what’s really happening at private, run-of-the-river power projects.

“The environmental damage will be huge,” declared Mair.  “The rivers and streams do have fish values which will be severely impacted.  The power plants are large and ugly surrounded by barb-wire fences.  There will be dirt roads into what was once a pristine wilderness.”

“I don’t support any particular political party, but I’m suggesting to people that they demand of every candidate running in the election a commitment to protect the environment and out public power system.”

Mair will also attend a Rivers at Risk meeting at Invermere June 11.  A member of the Canadian Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Mair was also a health minister in the Bill Bennett government and always known for his strong environmental leanings.

He started out as a lawyer in Kamloops in the early 1970’s, served on kamloops City Council and the Hospital Board before making his jump to provincial politics in the late 1980’s and then moving on to radio in the mid 1980’s.

A fierce opponent of the fish farming industry on the West Coast, Mair is also an ardent fly fisherman, sports aficionado and is considered an expert on his political hero Winston Churchill.