Yes Rafe,

You are missed and the pablum offered in your stead is not stiff enough to hold a spoon.

Perhaps you have considered narrow-casting or web-casting your own items?

Set a regular time and you could even get 'live' callers to include in the web-casts.

Rafe, most of all I miss the times when you were away on holiday and Peter Warren would sit in.

Grump, you old bean-bag: CBC Radio (best in the world) does have Rafe on regularly, each Monday morning.

I'll take the BBC over the CBC anytime!

Anyways, one day a week is piss poor for the CBC, a self absorbed, over-rated outfit that needs to be completely over hauled.

Peter Warren was a rude, ignorant boor, who thought bad manners and poor English skills, were the making of good talk radio.

Get on with it! We are served a pablum of elitest, neocon nonsense by brand-x, with no chance of rebutal!

I am banned from brand-x, simply for the reason that I proved one of their guests and big advertising sponsors was lying. I forced appologies all around. But here's the rub - the producer would never admit that the information was false, except that there was a slight error, that's all and "we do not need your type on CORUS at all!"

So be it.

Now back to the CBC; it could be so more, but it isn't, just a lot of fuzzy goody-two shoes politically correct stuff to appease the nationalist in theis country. Blah, blah, blah!

I'll agree with you there.

Details, we need details...

Details, details, it was 3 years ago during the height of the RAV debate. If you want details, Charlie Smith of the Georgia Straight did a piece on it at the time, a story which compelled the appology. If you wish to research, it all there, I just choose to move on!

On another note, I was regularily interviewd by CBC radio on the same subject and the same outfit that was very ecconomic with the truth on brand-x, scared the s*** out of the CBC corporate lawyers with a never filed libel lawsuit (if you have him on again, we will file) over comments I made on air. It's called libel chill and when one is multi billion dollar outfit that has oodles of lawyers, they can scare the hell out of anyone. It's called libel chill! Never been interviewed by the CBC since.

Funny when brand-x was the old Griffith's familly owned top dog 98, the same outfit tried it first and guess what, the radio station told them to stuff it! Oh yes I did have all my facts and bad old government boys didn't. Ah well, second time lucky!

Welcome to the 21st century media in Canada, where might is right and corporate and government sponsors call the shots!!

I told you so!

Right on Rafe...!

It needs to be said, the salmon miss you, the wolves of B.C. miss you, and I miss you too dude. I do not think you can be replaced... Your sence of enviromental truth, thirst for justice and keen ability to expose that which needs to be exposed, is so needed today my friend.

Yes you are still around, and likely always will be (TG), but the earth needs everyone hearing your voice... Somehow you need to get back into the mainstream media. This has got to happen...

Peace Rafe,

RTB ;-)

I always enjoy Rafe on CBC. Commercial radio in Vancouver is a wasteland!! Same with TV. And the newspapers....

Thank goodness for the Tyee.

CBC radio is going down some odd paths these days. Do we really need another "national play-list"? Too much is sophomoric.

Nonetheless, I'm currently tuned into the noon slot, doing exactly what CBC ought to do -- reflecting OUR community (and Mark has being doing this so well for so many years). Early mornings on Saturdays and Sundays is another terrific example of public radio doing what private radio would never do: giving a voice to the artistic communities around this province. So long as CBC does "Dispatches" (now happily available as pod-casts) and "Ideas", it'll have a place on my dial.

I listened to Rafe - though not religiously. While he was a great talk show host, I think he lost it (including his message) when he wouldn't drop the fish farms.

I always appreciate environmental awareness, but he may have pushed it a little to far. Too little - message not heard - too much - message lost.

"Fish Farms" alarmed me at first, but it became little more than an automatic station changer.

Well said, grub.

I wish I could have hit the panic button too when I have heard of this meeting where Stockwell Day was meeting with Rumsfeld and likes in Banff.

Rafe: you have got the Net and it is far more powerful for stirring things up than a nostalgia bout.

RAFE
Here's something that is as outrageous as Charlottetown and nobody knows about it.
Bill 16 would prevent an election until 2009. It has all party support
Is the fix in?
http://www.canadianactionparty.ca/temp/articles/Say_NO_to_Bill_C-16.asp

I miss CBC. What is there now calling itself CBC is just, too often, CNN light. It has succumbed to the new Neocon World Order, which echoes to the strains of Amerika Rules The (Air) Waves. Though though the old "public" radio Canada I used to know still flickers briefly to life once in awhile, and in one or two still surviving programme manifestations

It is already though, too much, sounding North Amerikan Unionish for my tastes. NAU being but a euphormism for the US Empire conquest of Canada and Mexico.

Most of the time I'd rather listen to BBC or DW (Deutsche News) too. (At least they're over there and not breathing so threateningly down my bloody neck, attempting to force-feed me their view of the world, like these current friggin' Yanqui culture thugs).

Even on private radio, the old "populist libertarian right wingers" like Rafe were more tolerable. At least they seemed somewhat like our own. Though I never listened to Rafe, who was then more of a Social Credit apologist, hardly ever. Now they all just sound like Lou Dobbs on CNN-, the same "populist right wingers" style, only not our own anymore. Too goddamn Yankeefied.

Now they're all on the North Amerikan Union Kool-Aid.

Umm...you were fired. You didn't leave radio, radio left you.

Aw, c'mon now mcgee.

Getting fired by these bozos is a mark of honour. The list of presses and broadcasters who have sold out and knuckled under to the "keep the public in the dark and feed them bullshi t" crowd is long and getting longer.

As far as I can see, whatever your point of view if those truth haters don't want you around, I want to hear what you have to say.

Keep on talking, Mr. Mair. Lots of people still listening out here.

Keep on talking, Mr. Mair. Lots of people still listening out here.

Actually, ditto pour moi as well, Rafe. Though there is still much of the old you in your view of the world, the populist part of you is still infinitely preferable, almost refreshing, compared to the current Neocon Crew, who like Peter Sellers in that movie where he played the German scientist working for the US atomic agency, can scarecly keep from spontaneously "Seig Heiling" all the time.

You have progressed with age, some. :-) (Chuckling to self.)

And you are at least recognizably a Canadian, in the issues you raise. Not overly Lou Dobbsish. (Except for tiny distant echoes.) :-)

Keep on talking, brother. (Well, "brother" may be a tad over the top, but at least fellow Canadian. (We can argue the minutia later.) Cap, IAMC, Elliot and Gasworks I still have doubts about. They are probably Republicans in actual real life, living in one of the red states of anti-terruh Amerika, is my nagging suspicion.

Once again an interesting read from Nana. I have been reading Bill C-16, and then the Canada Elections Act, and that led to the frikin Constitution and BNA and some legal stuff. Not that I have anything but time on my hands after knee surgery to fix my summer soccer injury. Ultimately I believe that the the Canadian Action Party is bootstrapping Bill C-16 to the "North American Agenda." This fear of no election until 2009 is hogwash based upon the belief that the Harper Governmob will disregard the "confidence convention" and continue governing through all manner of confidence related defeats. There is nothing in the language of C-16 to indicate anything of the sort, and the logic used to make such a determination is seriously flawed unless they extend that belief to the Harper Gvm with the Elections Act as it stands unamended. This is from the opening of C-16:

In order for the Don Stephen Harper to remain at the helm following the loss of a confidence related vote he would have to ignore convention, unprecedented except for Pearson (I think) and that was due to an all party deal of some kind, and continue in power until 2009 and the next election. Naturally they will be governing using some form of enabling act by that point because the opposition would not have supported any budgets. The GG also has the "Reserve Power" and the ability of that Office to dissolve the House is specifically unaffected by the revisions. The PM's "advice" to the GG regarding the dissolution of the House is simply one of those (apparently) easily ignored conventions, so what would happen if two "conventions" were ignored? Would the ultimate theoretical authority of the GG be able to trump the mean spirited Harpercons by dissolving the Commons? Would the ineffectual mob of hacks in opposition hold their own election and we end up with a bizarre time of dueling Parliaments? We could have the PM and the Anti-PM, with any luck a third may appear at some point. I nominate Vancouver as the capital for the 1st anti-PM: we could setup the new Parliament in BC Place. Quebec City would make an expected location for another anti-PM, but I am hoping they build Ville Levesque in reclaimed Labrador and make it a Brasilia North.

Bill C-16 does not preclude the dissolution of the House following the loss of a confidence vote, nor change the progression from dissolution to general election. All the Bill does is close an open loop in the election cycle and it reduces the probability of the government du jour calling snap elections unless they engineer their own defeat and no other party or coalition can govern. I wonder how much the public would favour that action.

Bill C-16 has "all party support" because they believe this will result in a more certain electoral process for their financial concerns. No more fear of a Liberal Party flush with cash from the Federal Budget calling a snap election after the height of the NDP charity season and the CPC's Festival of Money Burning. I honestly do not see what the concerns are with fixed election dates given the wording of the legislation. Now, fixed election dates have the unfortunate association with the Excited States, but is that really a legitimate concern? I doubt most people realise that Sweden has fixed elections and yet, wonder or wonders, early dissolution of Parliament is possible! The case is the same in many other countries, some of which get more laudatory comments than others. The fact is that fixed election dates are not some bizarre method unique to the US, and the issues raised by the Canadian Action Party are actually pretty weak. Save your energy for when the real meat hits Parliament.

Most Beloved Rafe Mair,

I echo Coyte's sentiments, Mr. Mair. He has expressed himself precisely as I would have liked to have done.

Re: Capitalist's untimely statement in reference to your dire warnings about fish farms is another in a long line of ultimate ironies I have been reading of late (like Foley being co-chair of the House Committee for missing and exploited children and his possibly being prosecuted by a law he helped pen!). Today we have had the release of yet another report that more than conclusively proves the inanity/insanity of farming salmon within the migration routes and feeding grounds of wild salmon. Good work, Rafe!

Of course I was fired from 600AM as well as CKNW ,,, trhe question, which I don't bother asking because I know the answer, is "why". I think the answer lies in capitalist's intervention.

It's strange you would use the word ' capitalist's ' intervention. Maybe owners or entrepreneur, or boss?
You are still a rebel rouser, and we love you for it.

The trick is to reinvent yourself, Rafe, the way Webster did on the morning BCTV show. I'm not sure how you could do it, but I suspect it'll somehow be on the web and involve podcasts and/or Internet video. Give it a try.

Gerhardius

I hope I'm just being chicken little, but with NAU breathing down our necks, I'm not so sure. I worked to prevent the FTA, and I remember the lies from Mulroney's minions, but most of all I remember the passive support given by the NDP. The NDP riding associations were calling David Orchard's group for information because the NDP leadership secretly supported the FTA.Heck, they still support NAFTA.

I doubt the the BQ cares what happens to the rest of us, so I could see them all parties just coasting through until 2009 until we're gobbled up.

No elections=no election issues.

If we had an election before 09, we could at least bring it all out in the open.

Huh? That doesn't make sense. Unless you're on Radio Moscow just up the dial, the market plays a role.

Radio Moscow!!! Is that the new name for CKNW darcy?

It's nice to see that there is no panic to have an election any time soon.
I predict 2009. We can't have it the same year as the Americans do in 2008.
We all will need time to reflect.
It's certainly to be a Republican President and a split between the Senate and Congress.
We will need to live and learn from current events.

Rafe and the rest of the mob, guess what, a USA/Canada study just confirmed what Rafe was saying all along about sea lice, fish farms, etc. Again, Campbell and their crew are in denial.......you know, wrong science and we beg to differ, etc.

Rafe's firings were political, at NW, Rafes ratings were massive and at 600, they were climbing.

This province is so corrupt that the media has now become corrupt, CBC included. Unless things change and soon, this province will collapse into a have, drug dealing, elite into a loser, drug using, scum. No middle ground!

I miss your regular early editorials and programs. Except when you moved into the sandbox with Airhead and Schtick and started the un-understandable squabbling.
I moved the dial and started my weekend early.
Childe Good may be large in stature, but he'll never fill your shoes or earn the gong he's looking for.
Don't stop, your still a telling influence with me.

WE MISS YOU TOO, RAFE.

When one considers how truly uncontroversial your views were (in the grand scheme of things), it is really a testament to how conservative our media has become. If a free and democratic society is unable to have Rafe Mair as a radio host, it's no longer free nor democratic.

Keep up the work, Rafe, and I do hope you consider one of the suggestions above to begin a pod-cast!

Nana wrote

Gerhardius doubtless has some appropriate points. He typically does. :-)

But that said Nana, you get one bullseye point for the above quote concerning the role of the NDP-, and not only on the NAFTA issue. It's been a historical behaviour pattern of theirs-, which gets worse across the passing years.

It's that old attempting to be all things to all people thing, not wanting to jeopardize a single "Liberal" vote possibility, and satisfying no one. Instead of just being honest and fighting for the issues and causes important to your core constituency.

Ah welll, their race is likely just about run. And I say that with some regret for lost potential.

Exactly, Nana. Far too many are in a state of denial as to the real state of democracy in this country, both provincially and federally. There is much stalling and distracting going on from vital issues of importance while things of an Amerikan nature are being crazy-glued into place...things that later will be very hard to dislodge as the glue sets and hardens over time. ( think Canada's Afghanistan Misadventure) The idea is to keep the public sedated and slumbering, not excited or disturbed by questions that would be posed within a legislature... if we had one... or issues that would be raised, perhaps, inflamed by an election.

Meanwhile the mad architects behind these insane plans are very busy behind the scenes... checking that the foundation is firmly set, the supporting beams in place.... for their new crazy-glued together North Amerikan Union.

Look at the options...
Someone has to hold them accountable!

Bill Not-so-Good, just a liberal commercial. The afternoon mouth, who is full of bullsh_t and likes to huff n puff without seeing both sides of any story. Mikie Smithe, another liberal commercial, shilling their lies. No other station dares to go against the convicted druggie in charge of the province. Advertising revenues always will win. Fish farms now proven (conclusively) again to be detrimental to the survival of the wild stock. Gambling up, extortions on site at the casinos way up. O old people dying at an alarming rate. Hospitals rotting from lack of proper support from gordo’s minions. Where is Walls, where is Clark, Collins? How about all the train wrecks since the rail was sold. (yes gordo, sold) To many scoundrels to count. So many lies from the top down, spin doctors spinning the words. As bad as they claim the NDP were awful, these carpetbaggers and their rich friends top all the “bad” lists. A road to the biggest lie of all, to whistler, no toll. Olympic dreams, as long as there is money for that. Drug cases, influence peddling, money laundering, Largest homeless caseload in Canada. Yes Raif, you were fired, for all the wrong reasons. Hope to hear you back on the air, with your own show again.