Keeping it Real…

British Columbians are largely centrist by nature: voting patterns for decades have favoured provincial parties and politicians who rejected extreme ideologies and policies on both the left and the right.

Former Liberal cabinet minister Mike Bernier took the leadership of the new political party CentreBC, formed in April, 2025, aimed at voters who don’t like the current NDP government or the BC Conservative Party.

“CentreBC is focused on the things that bring together so many British Columbians, that can bring together a broad coalition of builders and doers, rather than excluding anyone who does not pass a purity test,” the Vancouver Sun quoted Bernier on Friday. “This is what we are building.” (Read the full story here: https://vancouversun.com/news/former-cabinet-minister-mike-bernier-named-centrebc-leader-positioning-party-between-ndp-and-conservatives.)

The party’s pedigree, so far, reflects the BC Liberals/BC United DNA.

CentreBC was formed and led by Karin Kirkpatrick,  the Liberal/United MLA for West Vancouver-Capilano, until she resigned the leadership in June.  

Bernier represented Peace River South from 2013 to 2024, as a B.C. Liberal, which then became B.C. United. He served as as Education Minister, Parliamentary Secretary for Energy, Literacy and Environment and, in Opposition, was the Finance and Housing critic.

He told the media Premier David Eby and the NDP have mismanaged the economy, health care and the affordability issue; and Kerry-Lynne Findlay has moved the BC Conservatives too far to the right.

“Bernier says he’s already getting phone calls from former B.C. Liberals, as well as current and former NDP and Conservative MLAs,” the CBC reported.

This should stir up BC politics even more!

On one hand, there is the traditional view that splitting the “free enterprise” vote could help the NDP retain power; on the other, there are already signs that Findlay’s policies/leanings may be too far right for most BC voters.

“Findlay hires far-right activist who promoted mass deportations of people based on ancestry: NDP” read the headline in the Indo-Canadian Voice last week. (Full story here: https://voiceonline.com/findlay-hires-far-right-activist-who-promoted-mass-deportations-of-people-based-on-ancestry-ndp/)

“B.C. Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay has hired former Juno News Editor Cosmin Dzsurdzsa as Director of Communications, despite the outlet’s record of promoting racist voices that have targeted South Asian Canadians, the BC NDP said on Wednesday,” the newspaper reported.

“Findlay’s first caucus shuffle rewards loyalty over unity,” read the headline in Business in Vancouver late last month. (Full story here: https://www.biv.com/news/commentary/rob-shaw-findlays-first-caucus-shuffle-rewards-loyalty-over-unity-12491916).

“Findlay narrowly won the May 30 leadership race with just 51 per cent of the vote on the fourth ballot. She could have tried to reconcile that narrow victory by elevating a few prominent supporters of rival candidates, particularly Milobar himself, and signal there was room for everybody inside the new leadership team,” wrote veteran political reporter/observer Rob Shaw.

My own observation: Where is she? Findlay became leader May 30: she should already be out there, meeting voters, holding press conferences, capturing headlines and pressing British Columbians’ buttons almost every day on the economy, health care, crime etc. … getting voters on her side.

When Mark Carney became Liberal Leader in March 2025, he had Canadians on his side within DAYS, denouncing the US as “no longer being a reliable partner”, saying “The old relationship we had with the US is over” , and “President Trump is trying to break us, so he can own us.”

Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives, who had led ALL polls until then, crashed and burned with the voters almost instantly!

Where is Findlay?

Meanwhile, CentreBC’s challenge will be establishing policies that appeal to the majority of voters, and finding candidates who do, indeed, bring together middle of the road free-enterprise voters, disgruntled NDP supporters and BC Conservatives who doubt the party, under Findlay, will be “centrist” enough to defeat Eby and his government.

Harv Oberfeld

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((Pictures from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad social media, Facebook, social media; Used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law …collated and reproduced in Times of Israel.)

They were Palestinian terrorist group members … killed in Gaza strikes by the Israeli Defence Forces many weeks ago … but only recently paid tribute to as heroes on Hamas and Islamic Jihad social media websites.

Why the delay?

Because when they were killed, they were ALL described by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as independent “journalists” slain by Israel … a story dutifully parroted by Western media at the time, without question or doubt.

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists said one of the “journalists” was killed had just returned home after “covering events” at a hospital.

“Abu Eisha was “polite, calm, and kind; someone who avoided conflict,” wrote CPJ, quoting the colleague. It noted his hard work pursuing stories and his recent completion of a PhD in Arabic, ” the Times of Israel reported.

Actually, he was a terrorist! And so were the others shown above, all described by Hamas, Islamic Jihad … and Western media … as “journalists”.

“Combo pictures clockwise from top left: Ahmed Abu Eisha in civilian attire and in Palestinian Islamic Jihad uniform. Mohamed Nased Abu Huwaidi with Press flak jacket and in Islamic Jihad uniform; Ahmed Abu al-Atta in football shirt and Palestinian Islamic Jihad uniform; Hussam al-Adlouni in civilian attire and in Hamas military wing uniform.,” the Times revealed.

The truth hidden … until weeks later, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad published their “martyr”s obits. (Read the full Times story here: https://www.timesofisrael.com/finally-naming-their-war-dead-gazan-terror-groups-admit-slain-journalists-were-fighters/)

But where were the corrections in the media? Where were the apologies to their readers? And to the IDF?

The truth is the media for quite some time have often been “played” by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah numerous times, identifying terrorists (and their family members killed alongside them) as innocent civilians, command centers as tailor shops etc. while hiding rockets/missiles in hospitals, mosques, schools.

That is not to say legitimate journalists have not been killed covering wars: far too many have (I have never forgotten Clark Todd of CTV killed in 1983 while covering the civil war in Lebanon), but increasingly these days, there are far too many one-sided propagandists, fake reporters, who insult real journalism and, frankly, endanger the lives of real correspondents .

But it’s not just the current widespread one-sided anti-Israel bias by far left, pro-Palestinian (even pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah) media activists that is damaging the industry’s credibility.

Readers, listeners and viewers across North America have become more skeptical and even incredulous about almost everything they are being served up as “news”.

“In Canada, as in other Western democracies, trust in the media is low. According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 39 percent of Canadians trust the media overall—down almost 20 percentage points from 2018.,” The Hub reported just last month.

A Pollara poll the same month put the overall trust level at 51%.

Either are horrible for a democracy where journalism used to be a trusted trade. (In the US, it’s even worse: only 25% reportedly trust the media”.)

“Trust in the news has fallen to an all-time low globally – the lowest since annual reports by the Reuters Institute began more than a decade ago,” the BBC reported in June. (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgq1py92eko).

“Public trust worldwide is at 37%, three points down on this time last year. In the UK, it has fallen by five points to 30% – 20 points lower than 10 years ago,” BBC said the research found.

How ironic!

I have repeatedly called out the BBC as one of the worst offenders: day after day, almost exclusively showing damage, victims and those displaced by Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon; while almost never showing damage, victims, or those in Israel displaced from their homes, businesses, farms, schools for months now by the hundreds of Hamas/Hezbollah rockets, drones and missiles still being launched their way.

And when Israelis are killed, do their families not hold funerals and mourn their losses? Where is that side of the war coverage?

Then, there’s the BBC’s directory of “experts” is clearly filled almost exclusively with pro-Palestinian voices or, in the few cases where Israelis are actually interviewed, heavily weighted with immediately discernable critics/opponents of Benjamin Netanyahu/Israeli policies.

It’s no wonder public trust in the BBC is so low!

Sadly, the CBC, CTV, Global national broadcasts are not any better.

Readers of this blog know how often I have railed against the loss of objectivity in too much of today’s “news”, with what I see as, not all, but too many news managers, producers and “reporters” pushing their own partisan agendas, rather than canvassing both or all sides of contentious issues.

Good to know I am not alone.

“It’s important to understand that activist journalists’ rejection of objectivity has occurred against a backdrop of plummeting revenues, collapsing business models, widespread outlet closures and layoffs, and a catastrophic decline in institutional resources, capacity, and training,” wrote Hub author Tara Henley. (Read her full analysis here: https://thehub.ca/2026/06/05/its-time-for-the-media-to-stop-rejecting-objectivity/)

Exactly!

“According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the majority of the global public—some 74 percent—prefer news that provides a wide range of views and allows audiences to make up their own minds,” she wrote.

” People would like us to deliver the facts, to the best of our ability, and leave the public to sort out the rest.”

Clearly, readers, listeners and viewers do not feel we are getting that these days.

Heed that CBC, CTV, Global!

Or keep losing more audience.

Harv Oberfeld

(Follow @harveyoberfeld.ca on “X” for FREE alerts to new postings on this blog. And please, don’t forget: Support Canadian workers. Check the labels! BUY CANADIAN! )

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