Progressives must seize on organizing opportunity they've been handed.
by Ish Theilheimer
Canada's Prime Minister and Conservative government are known for crass power politics, but including the wholesale dumping of fish habitat protections in with a Budget bill may prove too clever by half.
The government probably hopes it can sneak its changes in with the Budget and that most Canadians won't notice. And they could be right, if the Opposition and citizen groups don't act on this.
The new rules would allow dumping of mine wastes in some lakes, exempt many smaller bodies of water from existing protection, and weaken protection for others. Although the government says the oil industry did not lobby for these changes, it is the obvious beneficiary, during a time when the government has openly declared itself to be pro-industry and against environmental science and scientists.
Most Canadians like to fish, swim, drink safe water, and know that someone is protecting their health and our fragile environment.
The government did manage to recruit the support of two of the most conservative outdoor sports groups, Ducks Unlimited (DU) and the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH), as well as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), to endorse the changes. (Some FCM people want to be able to clean up waterways and sewage canals without permits.) Beyond those three organizations, the reaction is universally negative, from environmentalists to Mulroney-era PC fisheries ministers John Fraser and Tom Siddon.
Unfortunately, most Canadians don't follow the intricacies of federal politics. And they may miss whatever little discussion of all the mass media offer. Most Canadians do, however, like to fish, swim, drink safe water, and know that someone is looking out to protect their health and our fragile environment. They know a clean and healthy environment is critical to their children's future as well as to present-day well-being. And they take these things seriously.
A key factor in the election of the Harper government and the devastation of the federal Liberals was the introduction of the long-gun registry by Jean Chrétien. Rural Conservative activists had a field day organizing against it. The issue propelled them through at least five election cycles.
Many of the same people who feared an intrusive government with a gun registry also think that healthy fish and safe water are worth fighting and voting for too. But they won't necessarily fight and vote on their own.
Environmental and progressive activists have been handed an organizing tool potentially as powerful, or more so, than pension and public service cuts. They must, however, do the same kind of community-level cultivation that right-wingers did around gun control.
For rural Conservatives, the gun registry has been the gift that kept on giving. It was poorly introduced and implemented, and the Jean Chrétien government failed to get the people most affected — hunters — onside.
Now, it's the time for progressives to hold the public meetings, stage the rallies, launch petitions, put stickers on every bumper, and generate all that coffee shop chatter the small- and large-C conservatives did and do against gun control. This is an issue with broad potential political appeal — if progressives can seize this dangerous opportunity.
About Ish Theilheimer
Ish Theilheimer is founder and president of Straight Goods News and has been Publisher of the leading, and oldest, independent Canadian online newsmagazine, StraightGoods.ca, since September 1999. He is also Managing Editor of PublicValues.ca. He lives wth his wife Kathy in Golden Lake, ON, in the Ottawa Valley.
eMail: ish@straightgoods.com
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