There's no question that hunters play a major role in modern wildlife conservation and many species would be extinct, extirpated from traditional ranges or on the endangered species list today without their involvement. Even some animal rights groups have acknowledged the critical role hunters have played in saving threatened species from the brink. However, I was absolutely floored by the amount of stupidity, vitriol, and elitist snobbery included in the short opinion piece published in the Toronto Sun and written by John Snobelen, a former minister in the CONSERVATIVE government of Mike Harris. There's Red Tories and then there's this fvcking tool, -- who it would appear, is further left than Elizabeth May and her band of morons in the Green Party. Assuming he's representative of the Harris cabinet of the day, with such douchebags calling the shots, I'm surprised all hunting activities weren't unceremoniously prohibited at the time. #######################OPINIONBaring my soul about bear huntsJohn SnobelenThe Toronto Sun Friday, November 06, 2015, 7:00 PMA black bear pauses its hunt west of Turner Valley, Ab., on Wednesday June 3, 2015. Mike Drew/Postmedia Networkarticle#Back in 1999 my friend Jim Heird convinced me to go on a week-long ride along the Continental Divide.It wasn’t a hard sell for me to be on horseback for a week and the beautiful landscapes of Colorado are some of my favourite places.But I wasn’t keen on joining a group. Jim assured me the folks on this outing were at least semi-competent horsemen, so I loaded up and headed west. Turns out he was right. Sort of.Most gatherings include someone who knows everything about everything.We had a fellow like that. He was, in his own eyes, a master horseman and the only true outdoorsman in our group. Turns out he was also a dedicated hunter.For two days we avoided him like a bad smell. My luck ran out during a nature break. As I was standing beside my horse the genius parked beside me.“Where ya from?” he asked.“Ontario,” I replied.“Hey, some axxhole up there just canceled the spring bear hunt.”“I know. I’m the axxhole.”He sputtered and in a fit of rage yelled, “well, I hope the bears eat your children”. Pleasant fellow. For the next few days my friend Jim had a great time teasing me about being a tree hugger. Good thing he didn’t know I was just a small cog in the vast left-wing, anti-hunting conspiracy know as the Mike Harris Conservative government.I told Jim the, “I hope the bears eat your children” comment passed for scientific dialogue in some parts of the hunting community. I didn’t think much about bears before my stint at the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).My exposure to nuisance animals was limited to the skunks one of our dogs loved to hunt, the raccoons that had taken over the haymow and the coyotes who owned the county. A few years ago, when her puppy was killed in full daylight about ten feet from the barn, Sharon declared thermonuclear war on coyotes. It took a call to the MNR coyote biologist to convince her it was not possible to eradicate coyotes from the face of the earth.Revenge doesn’t make for good science, so we built a better kennel to protect our new puppy. There is more than a little emotion wrapped up in the debate over the spring bear hunt.The biology isn’t complicated.Ontario’s bear population is stable at about 100,000.It isn’t materially affected by hunting.Northern municipalities, plagued by bears which often work as unpaid trash sorters at local landfills, are not keen on accepting the responsibility, and cost, of dealing with the pests.The province doesn’t like paying for bear control either.In recent years the Bear Watch program has been scaled back considerably. Facing pressure to increase support for bear control as communities encroach further into bear territory, the Kathleen Wynne government has chosen instead to reinstate the spring bear hunt.That’s a bad idea.In Ontario we don’t hunt large game in the spring. We believe in fair chase and hunting for consumption. The best of our hunting traditions don’t include blasting away from a tree stand at hungry bears lured to bait. But, heck, we can sell a spring hunt to folks like my know-it-all hunter acquaintance from Colorado. Lucky us.— Snobelen was a cabinet minister in the Conservative government of Ontario premier Mike Harris from 1995 to 2002
Ontario "Conservatives" Attitude Towards Hunting?!?
- Thread starter X-man
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Wow.
Even if he was opposed to the bear hunt with some sort of rational reason I could listen; However, that OP was dripping with elitism from every pore. What a self righteous prick. No use for people like that in government.
Even if he was opposed to the bear hunt with some sort of rational reason I could listen; However, that OP was dripping with elitism from every pore. What a self righteous prick. No use for people like that in government.
There are also hunters out there that dont underatand conservation either. I dont know how much #####ing and whining i heard this year from people about the shortened moose season here in ontario. And the lessened number of tags. Then coming back through after the week saying they saw NOTHING. To me that says there arent enough moose up there and the season needs to be put on hiatus until the numbers return. NOT increasing the time to hunt or the number of tags issued.
Read his bio on Wikipedia, kinda interesting.
School drop out, became a successful businessman in the waste haulage business. Was made Minister of Education and Training where he created so much contreversy he was moved to Natural Resources. Helped push through the Harris government's "Lands For Life" program, which protected 24,000 km² of public land in parks and conservation reserves, making them off-limit to industrial activity. He cancelled the Spring Bear Hunt, a decision which was opposed by many Ontario hunters but supported by animal rights groups.
School drop out, became a successful businessman in the waste haulage business. Was made Minister of Education and Training where he created so much contreversy he was moved to Natural Resources. Helped push through the Harris government's "Lands For Life" program, which protected 24,000 km² of public land in parks and conservation reserves, making them off-limit to industrial activity. He cancelled the Spring Bear Hunt, a decision which was opposed by many Ontario hunters but supported by animal rights groups.
