WSSBC - Large Carnivore ban

[caddisguy]

Done!

With regard to a "concerted attack now in place" against bears, wolf, cougar and elk hunting, are there any more specific details on the parties involved, efforts/measures being taken?

I have not been able to find anything online. I have absolutely no doubt of the validity, but I do believe that more details--if feasible--could be particularly useful.

I do believe the blueprint will be very similar to what we saw with the grizzly strategy with the main deviation of including a basket of animals to gather additional support--both provincial and international as we saw before--as some people are fond of bears, others are fond of wolves, etc. Anyone who has a "favourite animal" on the list will be in support.

Now remember, what we observed last time (with the grizzly ban) was our government simply set up an email address "to get feedback from BC residents". However, the feedback had nothing to do with residence. We had celebrities and anti hunting groups from all over the world encouraging people to send feedback, as well as setting up automated forms similar to what WSS has in place. The NDP then simply counted "emails in support" vs "emails against" and deemed the result to be "social acceptance", further admitting they will base policy/law off of social acceptance. There was no validation with regard to residency or even authenticity. And while such dirty pool tactics need to be called out as deception and an attack on sovereignty, the main message of course should still be that social acceptance (or "social media acceptance" if we call it what it is) should not even be a factor in conservation.

I am very pleased to see this circulating on sites such as CGN which are not localised to BC. We will need to see more of that. As mentioned, policy will be based on "number of emails for and against" with absolutely no consideration as to whether it is from BC resident, let alone an authenticate individual. Someone in the UK could create 100 gmail addresses, send their emails and our government would value that in policy making. No doubt that PETA, Miley Cyrus and Axl Rose will be engaging their Twitter flocks with call to action.

Going forward, hunters / conservationists need to band together on every issue regardless of the location. Joining efforts based on locality is for the most part no longer viable.

[scttcanuck]

To increase your influence, you can print, sign, and snail mail to your MLA.


It doesn’t take long. Probably 5 minutes.

[porthunter]

Sign it up everyone, dont skip it, just sign it and bump this when you do. Lets keep this at the top.

[5jackz]

Done . I don't check on here every evening . Little late .

[andrew5]

No word back from my personalized letter to my MLA. First time ever writing to one actually. Should I expect a reply, or is that a long shot?

[silveragent]

MLAs MPs will respond in order of priority to:

1. Face to face meeting - walk into the office and talk to a rep to get a meeting. They cannot ignore you. Of course not really possible now.
2. Phone call - you are talking to an actual human. Almost certainly their constituency office worker. Again, they can't ignore you and have to listen to what you have to say.
3. Letter mail - if you have taken the effort to write an actual personalized letter, a human then has to actually open the letter and at least skim it. Those letters get put on a desk and if there's a pile of them it makes an impression. Your letter then gets a tick in a column and if there is enough volume it may be brought up with the MLA and at least a response is drafted that may be applied to similar letters. Since we are in COVID times expect a big delay before your letter is even opened.
4. Email - a human may skim it but also easy - like spam - to filter - even automatically. Again I would expect a constituency worker to make a tick in a column on the issue (pro or against) and if there is enough volume to bring it to the attention of the MP / MLA.
5. Form email - a worker will know after the first few emails that these are generated by a form. It makes it even easier for them to filter by subject and less effort to filter. They won't even bother reading it. If there are hundreds there is no time in the day to do much more than that. Again, a tick in a column on a spreadsheet.

For letters, emails, all of these would elicit, at most, a form response that states the position of the MP / MLA that his workers can hit bulk reply to or stuff into a letter. The response may even be one drafted by the Party so that there is consistency of messaging from across the party. There will be no dialogue, no nuanced debate of issues. So what you have done in essence is just to get a tick in a column so that your local MP / MLA realizes that there is support for or against an issue.

Based upon your level of effort, you want to force your representative to know the depth of your feeling and to at least acknowledge there are issues that matter more than the issues the other side are pushing - which may be a simple and emotional message. And in the end they have to realize how much of a political cost it is to them.

The best result really is for the MP / MLA to realize there is a large enough group who are committed, emotional enough that they might cost them politically. If they are a decent representative, they may set up a meeting with a group of you - because they have no time for individual meetings - where you get to air out your views in a concise matter. With your few minutes you hammer at the most salient points and tell them these are the same points you will raise in the media and to the community and if they are on the other side of it, they will look foolish and it may cost them support in the next election.

I have spoken to the MP in my club's constituency three times in person and other times virtually. While the MP / MLA could ignore you, it could also cost them if they do if you can show they are ducking a committed group who have a legitimate issue. For them, even if their party mandate is against your issue, they still get some value out of a meeting because it shows they are willing to listen. They'll get to put something up on their Facebook showing - look I'm meeting with all sides. The one that represents my club's constituency, yes but again his party, the Liberals, are our obviously opposed to firearms. I do give him credit for actually making the effort to meet, however. My own MP in my own riding - Vancouver Center - has NEVER once responded to my letters. So your mileage may vary. Those of you who are in rural ridings, you will have a much better opportunity to get direct action.

[chilcotin hillbilly]

As Caddisguy stated above, resident hunting community did not show up for the "public engagement" on the government website during the grizzly hunt debate.
To this day it pisses me off to think out of 4500 responses only 15% of them where pro grizzly hunting . Do that math! pathetic and weak from our community. Horgan used those numbers 85-15 to claim that 85% of the public ere against the hunt.
We as a hunting community should have been able to crush that poll the other way. Pathetic when only 700 or so hunters even responded, I guess we are to stupid to see what was coming in the future.
In the end engaging your MLA's and MP's is important but I think it is more important to change the opinion of the non hunting population.

[Ron.C]

As Caddisguy stated above, resident hunting community did not show up for the "public engagement" on the government website during the grizzly hunt debate.
To this day it pisses me off to think out of 4500 responses only 15% of them where pro grizzly hunting . Do that math! pathetic and weak from our community. Horgan used those numbers 85-15 to claim that 85% of the public ere against the hunt.
We as a hunting community should have been able to crush that poll the other way. Pathetic when only 700 or so hunters even responded, I guess we are to stupid to see what was coming in the future.
In the end engaging your MLA's and MP's is important but I think it is more important to change the opinion of the non hunting population.

Absolutely correct! If resident hunters don't step up in numbers and make a case for ourselves, we are done.

[labguy]

As Caddisguy stated above, resident hunting community did not show up for the "public engagement" on the government website during the grizzly hunt debate.
To this day it pisses me off to think out of 4500 responses only 15% of them where pro grizzly hunting . Do that math! pathetic and weak from our community. Horgan used those numbers 85-15 to claim that 85% of the public ere against the hunt.
We as a hunting community should have been able to crush that poll the other way. Pathetic when only 700 or so hunters even responded, I guess we are to stupid to see what was coming in the future.
In the end engaging your MLA's and MP's is important but I think it is more important to change the opinion of the non hunting population.

Good post. Hunters have to be the slackest group on the planet when it comes to standing up and being counted. After sitting on their hands while everything they supposedly value goes south, will jump on the internet and bitch and moan ad nauseam. Pathetic really......

[porthunter]

To the top, lets go