Fingers were pointed in both directions a week ago when Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson at which he sicked his angry supporters on one of his most vocal critics, a local journalist. But only one person is to blame. Hamer-Jackson was wagging his finger in the face of Brett Mineer, the host of an afternoon opinion show on Radio NL.
He has not been shy about criticizing the mayor's performance on air. The mayor wanted Mineer gone from the event and he said so. It’s important to note that Hamer-Jackson , sending a series of late-night text messages to local journalists days earlier.
I got a text from the mayor at about 11:45 p.m. on July 11.
He said he wanted reporters at the scenic lookout on Columbia Street West at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 15, for an announcement regarding “resignation consideration.
” This is inherently newsy, especially coming a few months after city councillors took the unprecedented step of . Then, after a roller-coaster speech with his wife by his side, Hamer-Jackson stood there at the scenic lookout and said he’d “never really considered” stepping down at all. This was no press conference, where journalists are invited to ask questions so that information can be disseminated to the community.
It was nothing more than a political rally, replete with chanting supporters holding signs and a pledge from Hamer-Jackson that he would seek re-election in 2026 — potentially alongside a slate of likeminded city council candidates. The mayor wanted reporters there so bad that he lied to convince them to show up. Then he snapped on Mineer and attempted to kick him out, starting an exchange that left a dark cloud hanging over the whole bungled mess.
Mineer has been in Hamer-Jackson’s head for a while, so it wasn’t a surprise when the mayor repeatedly singled him out at the event. What was shocking was when he demanded Mineer leave, then whipped his already agitated supporters into a borderline frenzy chanting for him to go: “Brett go home, Brett go home.” It was nasty.
I was on holidays, watching the live stream on Castanet Kamloops, but two reporters were there representing our newsroom. They told me Hamer-Jackson's supporters appeared to be emboldened by the mayor's verbal attacks on Mineer, and that is certainly how it appeared to me watching online. “He’s got nothing to say nice, he’s very negative,” Hamer-Jackson said about Mineer, riling the two dozen supporters he had in attendance and prompting those chants.
"This is not the United States. This is Kamloops, B.C.
We have a beautiful community, and Brett Mineer does nothing but have negative stuff and try to create conflict.” Hamer-Jackson quickly backed down from his bully stance, but only after Castanet’s Kristen Holliday cut through the chanting to ask whether he was actually kicking a journalist out of a supposed press event. He said he wasn't, despite the display he had just put on.
If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favour and . Skip to about 14:10 if you only want to see the Mineer stuff. The mayor was right to invoke the United States’ fractured political environment at the July 15 circus, but not for the reason he thinks.
After that ugly moment with Mineer, anyone paying attention to Kamloops city hall who does not see the clear parallels between Hamer-Jackson and former U.S. president Donald Trump has to be blind.
Mineer was targeted because of his critical coverage of the mayor. It’s not hard to see why that’s problematic, unless you were one of the Hamer-Jackson supporters in attendance at the rally — one of those chanting for Mineer to leave or cluelessly heckling reporters while they asked legitimate questions of the city’s top elected official at a supposed press event he called himself. The blatant bullying Hamer-Jackson showed, singling out a radio host and inciting his agitated mob of supporters against him, is the Trumpiest move the mayor has pulled yet, and there have been a few.
Coun. Dale Bass pointed out another connection between the mayor's rally and the intense political division in the U.S.
The longtime journalist she thinks the anger Hamer-Jackson harnessed and directed at Mineer is a direct result of “happenings below the border [that] have given some people who feel put upon permission to express that anger." Whether the U.S.
is to blame or not, Bass is right about this alarming trend. It only seems to be intensifying in political discourse across Canada, from school boards and city halls right up to Ottawa. On either end of the spectrum and other places in between, an ever-increasing number of people think it’s OK to be an asshole while making a political point.
In the face of his own political adversity, that is the tactic our mayor has chosen — and it is objectively not working. How long before his supporters notice?.
