I was interested to read about the Oak Bay all-candidates meeting in the Nov. 11 Oak Bay News. I was somewhat taken aback to see a separate quote by one of the two mayoral candidates featured on the front page, whereas the comments of the other candidates were within the article.
Since the Oak Bay News is a community newspaper, it seems to me that it should not really take sides, or seem to take sides, which the apparent preferential treatment of one candidate over the other would appear to imply. I also wonder why the two candidates’ advertisements are not printed in the same part of the paper, and must question why the candidate who benefited from front-page attention seems to have also received preferred treatment in the body of the newspaper.
For the newspaper to remain the non-partisan voice of Oak Bay, one would expect a high attention to detail in these journalistic matters. This would lead the reader to conclude that the paper is neutral, which is surely the way it wishes to be seen by the people of Oak Bay.
Andrew Cluff
Oak Bay