23 Facts About Rafe Mair

Kenneth Rafe Mair was a Canadian lawyer, political commentator, radio personality and politician in British Columbia, Canada.

Rafe Mair served in the British Columbia Legislative Assembly as the member for Kamloops from 1975 to 1981 in the caucus of the Social Credit Party.

Rafe Mair served as the plaintiff of the historic Supreme Court of Canada decision Rafe Mair v Kari Simpson.

Rafe Mair was born in Vancouver and grew up in the neighbourhood of Kerrisdale.

Rafe Mair's mother was Frances Tyne, known as Frankie, and his father was Kenneth Frederick Robert Mair, a salesman born in Auckland, New Zealand, and his brother Leigh, in 1936.

Rafe Mair became an avid fisherman and developed an interest in public affairs from his mother's work at The Province newspaper.

Rafe Mair entered the University of British Columbia in 1949 and went on to law in 1953.

Rafe Mair worked for a lumber company and then in the oil industry in Edmonton before spending three years as a claims adjuster with an insurance company.

In 1960, Rafe Mair began articling with Vancouver lawyer Tom Griffiths.

Rafe Mair practiced law in Vancouver until 1968, when he moved to Kamloops to join the practice of his law school classmate Jarl Whist, a Liberal who had run twice unsuccessfully against Progressive Conservative MP E Davie Fulton.

Rafe Mair won the Social Credit nomination for Kamloops in May 1975, going on to defeat NDP incumbent Gerry Anderson in the December election by 14,639 votes to 10,975.

Rafe Mair held the seat until retiring from politics in 1981; the seat was taken over by Claude Richmond, of the Social Credit Party.

Rafe Mair served in Premier Bill Bennett's cabinet in a variety of portfolios, including health, environment, consumer services, and consumer and corporate affairs.

In 1981, Rafe Mair left government and served as a radio talk show host in Vancouver at CJOR.

Rafe Mair contributed three commentaries a week until January 2006 when the Commentary segment of the program was axed.

In 2009, Rafe Mair publicly stated that he voted NDP in that year's election.

Rafe Mair had written why he thought that Premier Gordon Campbell failed British Columbians; among the reasons he cited were that the BC Liberals were destroying the publicly owned utility, BC Hydro, and were giving away British Columbia's water rights to international corporate interests.

Rafe Mair was the spokesperson for Save Our Rivers, a group organized to fight private run-of-the-river hydroelectric developments.

Rafe Mair was a Type II diabetic and publicly announced his experiences with depression in 1995 while working as a broadcaster.

Rafe Mair authored several books on Canadian politics, including his memoirs, and was a regular columnist at the online newsmagazine The Tyee.

Rafe Mair was a principal contributor until his death to The Common Sense Canadian, a news and opinion site with a British Columbia focus.

Rafe Mair hosted a program called The Search with Rafe Mair on Joytv.

Rafe Mair died on 9 October 2017 in Vancouver at the age of 85.