The debacle known as bear management isn’t the most pressing problem facing Ontario these days but it’s certainly a shining example of crass politics voters love to hate as all three parties scramble to woo voters.
The Progressive Conservatives take the cake, though.
First, they criticized the NDP for pushing the recent creation of an all-party committee to deal with the rise of bear attacks across the province as a “toothless, non-binding motion they know is just window dressing to appear to be doing something when, in fact, it will do nothing.”
Then local PC candidate Randy Nickle weighed in on the announcement last Thursday by Natural Resources minister David Orazietti proposing a two-year pilot spring bear hunt, which would be open only to Ontario residents and restricted to wildlife management units near Thunder Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, and North Bay (which, surprise, surprise, are largely in Liberal-held ridings).
Calling it another sad delay tactic, Mr. Nickle slammed it as “another attempt to sidestep the economic and social issues facing the north.”
Both criticisms are valid. But it’s difficult to put much stock in the Tory rants considering they were the party that axed the spring bear hunt in the first place back in 1999 under then premier Mike Harris.
Or perhaps they’re hoping voters conveniently have forgotten that.
Attacking others for the consequences of your own decision? George Orwell would be so proud.
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Local News from Across the Rainy River District
