ARICHAT - The Member of Parliament for Cape Breton-Canso is no stranger to the Telile Community Television headquarters in Arichat, particular since the station's participation in the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) program dovetails with Mike Kelloway's entire political career and covers nearly the same four-year period.
Originally chosen as the riding's Liberal candidate in 2019, Kelloway retained the seat held for the previous 19 years by Rodger Cuzner during the federal election held in the fall of that year. During that campaign, he participated in a televised debate held at the Telile studio, and he would return only four months later to become a guest for the first edition of TELILE 24/7 - the first of four shows hosted by LJI journalist Adam Cooke during his Telile tenure.
Today, whether he is speaking in-studio, on-location or by Zoom to Cooke for TELILE 24/7 or Roundtable, or making one of his regular surprise drop-ins to the Arichat station to speak with the station's general manager Becky Bourinot, Kelloway is grateful for Telile's presence in the community and its dedication to allowing elected officials and candidates a platform to share their views as opposed to the nature of traditional news media, which often reduces complex issues to a single headline or 15-second sound bite.
"Look at the programs that you put on Telile - they're informative," Kelloway told Bourinot during a conversation filmed at the Telile studio on July 19. "You build a sense of community here, and that's what we need to do more of."
During the same interview, Kelloway also stressed the importance of community media in contrast to the often-slanted perspectives provided by the current digital landscape.
"Local media is so important, and local communication is even more important," the two-term MP insisted.
"The minute we lose that - the minute people go to a particular site that just gives them what they want and solidifies their beliefs...As a politician, I should always be challenging my beliefs. I have meetings with people who are centre, centre-right, right, centre-left, left-left. I will always listen, because you need to be able to put yourself in the shoes of other people. But it doesn't mean you capitulate with their views. And your platform here is so, so important. You're getting people to talk to you and to answer your questions, but you give them a chance to provide an unfiltered viewpoint and updates, and to answer questions that are so important to people across this country."
Bourinot replied by reminding Kelloway that these values and principles have been a hallmark of Telile since the station was first established as a response to the downturn in the Atlantic fishery and its impact on Isle Madame in 1994.
"Telile has always been good at giving everybody a voice, and we will always continue to do that, because everybody has something important to say," Bourinot responded. "I like that the audience gets to hear people and not have to watch them on national television - I like that you guys can come in here and speak to them."
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About LJI
LJI Impact is the section of commediaportal.ca where the journalists and their organizations participating in CACTUS' Local Journalism Initiative can share their greatest successes.
Through the written stories, photos and videos you see in the LJI Impact section, you'll be able to read first hand accounts about how the presence of a community journalist is making a difference in communities across Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative and the Community Media Portal.
The Community Media Portal is a gateway to the audio-visual media created by community media centres across Canada. These include traditional community TV and radio stations, as well as online and new media production centres.
Community media are not-for-profit production hubs owned and operated by the communities they serve, established both to provide local content and reflection for their communities, as well as media training and access for ordinary citizens to the latest tools of media production, whether traditional TV and radio, social and online media, virtual reality, augmented reality or video games.
The Community Media Portal has been funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (the LJI) of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) in association with the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (the Fédération). Under the LJI, over 100 journalists have been placed in underserved communities and asked to produce civic content that underpins Canadian democratic life.
