Join Rafe Mair and the President Elect of the White Rock South Surrey Chamber of Commerce for the GLBA Gay & Lesbian Business Association of British Columbia and its Business Networking Groups Forum Breakfast this Wednesday morning.  

To register, please call the office at 604-739-4522. Prepayment by credit card by calling the office is highly encouraged to help expedite registration the morning of the event.

Radio personality and former BC politician Rafe Mair is headline speaker and is joined by Janet Clouston, President-Elect of the White Rock South Surrey Chamber of Commerce. Rafe will speak on the broad topic of "Governance" and Janet will be speaking on "Success Through Networking - How to Build Your Business Through Networking and Referrals".

Janet Clouston's Biography: Janet moved from Banff, AB to Vancouver in 1990, when she starting her own marketing consulting business. She as spent the last 17 years working with several clients toward their success in business and has recently launched Brainstorm Consulting Group. Along with her partners, she provides services that assist good organizations to become great, from marketing consulting, strategic planning, web and print design and IT solutions. Her web site is: www.brainstormconsulting.ca.

She was the recipient of the 2003 Tourism Richmond Leadership Award for her work on the Richmond 2010 Task Force and received the 2006 White Rock South Surrey Independent Business Person of the Year Award. She is the Chairperson of Richmond’s Touchstone Family Association and is President-Elect of the White Rock South Surrey Chamber of Commerce.

Rafe Mair's biography: Mair was born in Vancouver, BC where he worked as a lawyer for many years.

His political career began in 1975, when he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the British Columbia Social Credit Party representing the riding of Kamloops. He held that seat until retiring from politics in 1981; the seat was taken over by Claude Richmond. Mair served as a cabinet minister in the government of Premier Bill Bennett under a variety of portfolios including health and education. During the patriation of the Constitution of Canada, he was BC's chief delegate on constitutional matters.

In 1981, he left government and has since served as a radio talk show host in Vancouver. In the early 1990s, he gained national notoriety and support alike for his role as an outspoken opponent of both the Meech Lake and Charlottetown constitutional accords.

Despite high ratings, his show was cancelled by CKNW in 2003, and he was subsequently hired at CKBD (600 AM), an oldies station, to start a morning talk show. This job ended in late 2005. In the fall of 2005 he became a regular commentary guest on OMNI Television's prime time current affairs program, The Standard (seen in Vancouver on CHNU-TV). Mair contributed three commentaries a week until January 2006 when the Commentary segment of the program was axed. However, he has continued his relationship with The Standard, guest-hosting the program from time to time. He remains active as a regular columnist for a chain of community newspapers, the online magazine The Tyee and often appears nationally as a political commentator for several outlets including CBC Radio.

He is an avid fisherman and he has become an outspoken critic of salmon farming in BC. This often puts him at odds with former political colleagues and makes him allies with former political enemies such as the New Democratic Party of BC.

Although he has traditionally been considered a political conservative, Mair's views have always been moderate on certain issues, notably the environment and social welfare. Disillusioned with the three mainstream Canadian parties, he has lately become a significant supporter of the Green Party urging people to vote for them in recent federal and provincial elections. Though he shies away from endorsing entire parties, he still supports individual candidates.

Please click on BNG1 to learn more about this exciting networking group hosting this event.

Members of BNG1 and the GLBA look forward to seeing you Feb 20, 2008.