The Canada-wide manhunt for two Port Alberni teens suspected in three deaths in northern British Columbia has thrust the small city located in the heart of Vancouver Island into an unwanted limelight.

Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky have been charged with second degree murder in the death of Leonard Dyck of Vancouver, whose body was found at a rest area on Highway 37 a couple of kilometres away from where the Port Alberni teens鈥� truck was found on fire last week. They are also implicated in the shooting deaths of international tourists Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese near Liard Hot Springs on July 15.

Barry Shep of Calgary was already down on Port Alberni after his truck was broken into while he was helping a fellow fisher, whose truck and boat trailer were stolen while he was fishing down the Alberni Inlet. 鈥淲ow, seems this town has its share of murders as well,鈥� he said.

Tom Shanahan from Pickering, Ontario wrote to the Alberni Valley News with his thoughts regarding the manhunt for two Port Alberni teens. 鈥淭his sad story disproves the idiotic theory that raising kids in a small town is better than raising kids in a big city,鈥� he said.

Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions said her city is not unique in the negative attention it has been receiving.

鈥淲e do get big media attention when it鈥檚 for something negative; I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e unique in that,鈥� she said.

Minions said she reached out to Gillam, Manitoba mayor Dwayne Forman, whose community has been inundated with SWAT team members, law enforcement members and international media because it was the last place McLeod and Schmegelsky were spotted.

鈥淭heir community is struggling with the same thing,鈥� she said.

City Councillor Cindy Solda, who has been a politician in Port Alberni for well over a decade, said the press attention has been difficult to take. 鈥淚 love press, but only for the right reasons,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his whole situation has affected a lot of communities and so many families, the relatives, the friends.

鈥淧eople are judging. What happened in our society to innocent until proven guilty? Of course, everyone鈥檚 talking about it. People are being judge and jury before these young adults even had a chance. We don鈥檛 know; we鈥檝e just heard bits and pieces and we鈥檙e judging.鈥�

Port Alberni has been labeled one of the worst places to live in Canada by Moneysense magazine for several years. The label spawned a spoof Facebook campaign called The Worst Place to Live, then a social media campaign called Heart of Vancouver Island to try and combat the bad reputation by highlighting positive things about the community.

鈥淚 do feel that Port Alberni unfortunately only gets international media attention when something bad happens,鈥� said Kama Jones, one of Vancouver鈥檚 top mom bloggers of 2018 who is from Port Alberni. Jones was part of the team that operated Heart of Vancouver Island blog from 2016鈥�2017.

鈥淲e started Heart of Vancouver Island as a direct response to Port Alberni鈥檚 notoriety as 鈥楾he Worst Place to Live in Canada鈥� by Moneysense Magazine,鈥� Jones said.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 agree with this label, and wanted to create a grassroots campaign to increase local pride about living in the community, which would ripple forward to all of our social networks.

鈥淓ven though the city stopped funding it and the page now lays stagnant, I鈥檝e been told it helped to change the story about why people love living in Port Alberni.鈥�