I hunted moose in Ont from 1971 to 2013. The early years were simple, you bought a moose licence which came with a bear licence as a bonus as bear were considered a nuisance. You went moose hunting and shot what you came across. Then the folks at The MNR decided to change the system and there was a short period that it took two licence tags to tag a moose. Then the lottery came along. I remember the MNR saying at the time the lottery would only be instituted for 10 yrs and during they time it would double the moose population and then the lottery would be discontinued. Well many decades later we all know how that worked.
In my humble opinion and observations the moose are in decline in many areas for many reasons. Ticks and disease, wolves, poaching, gross over hunting by natives just because they can, and a lottery system that emphasised killing off the cows and calves. As we know human nature is opportunistic, we will by nature take advantage of and manipulate the circumstances to our favour. So as a result with the moose lottery was manipulated as best it could be by the citizenry and the natives took full advantage of their status by shooting what they wanted when they wanted.
My opinion is moose hunting in Ontario should be suspended/closed for a period of ten years to give the moose a hiatus. All the other factors will still be affecting their population which unfortunately includes native abuse as the government will never have guts to take them to task. But if enough of us ordinary tax payers say enough is enough on all fronts on these native issues perhaps they will. It has taken decades to put the moose population in this position and it will take decades to turn it around. The other issues is the economic impact to the province in lost licence fees and to tourist camps, neither of which wants to loose the money. But someone has to make the decision of do you want a healthy moose population for the future or do you want to carry on and have the money. This new lottery will solve nothing as to increasing the moose population. But it will keep the hunters somewhat happy and the economic benefits will still exist so I guess "money" has been chosen, which is no great surprise.
As to me I seen the writing on the wall years ago but stubbornly persisted, until I had enough aggravation with the system and plain just lack of moose. Over the years I created many great memories of moose hunting, so I am satisfied that I have had my time. It is most unfortunate that there will be several generations that will not have the same experiences that my generation did. I would say a grossly underfunded and incompetent MNR and completely spineless and politically correct politicians are to thank. I now only hunt on my own property for deer and bear and be made a fool of by sly wolves.