All this coming from a guy living in Brantford!
In the case of Ontario bears... your points are dead wrong. The bear population in Ontario is rising... not falling. And in the case of the cancelled spring hunt, it has been shown to have been purely underhanded political dealing. The decision to cancel the spring hunt was NOT based on biological data... it was a knee jerk reaction to a threat made in an election year, by a Peta type (RS), to campaign against the Ontario Conservative party in key ridings, if the government did not cancel the hunt. The next day John Snobolen annouced the closure... and this was after weeks of town hall meetings and the ministry's own biologists indicated that Ontario black bears were in a healthy sustainable condition, and recommended that hunting oportunities be EXPANDED. So now instead of an economic boost due to hunting tourism, in many areas that could desperately use it, the citizens of Ontario are spending millions of their tax dollars to control the ever rising population of bears, not to mention increased crop damage, negative encroachment in towns and neighborhoods and increased automotive collisions. The Ontario bear situation is a study in politics at its worst.
