Minister Shea - proudly announces the sale of seal meat to China. Well and good. Europe is feeling the pain. Have you ever listened to the pain in Gus Etchegary's voice as he talks passionately about our fishery?
I think Gus put too much faith in Danny Williams when he expected him to do something real about it. Political expedience was Danny's mastery. He fought Ottawa under the Liberal regime and gained 2 billion from Martin. Unfortunately he did not invest that money into the Lower Churchill so we took a hit on the markets. We don't know what the net result of that was.
Then Danny lost the battle with Harper, Manning, and Hearn and we lost 10 billion dollars as Quebec's position remained enhanced. I do believe equalization should be renamed the Quebec federalist fund but anyway back to Gus.
Gus of course is right and we have been robbed - but Gus needs to turn to real Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to get the fight started. First we need to admit that the federal government lied. The fish have not come back and as a result we are down over 500 million a year and tens of thousands of citizens.
We must not be fooled by the overall value of our fishery by including all species - because by doing so we let the gross mismanagement go uncompensated for. It is time Newfoundlanders and Labradorians - who are really passionate - demand recovery of either the stock or cash.
Listen to Gus listen to his plea. Why do you think Gus does this? He's not looking to be elected - nor is he looking for a plum government job. He loves this place and her people. Do you believe that Gus knows more about the fishery than your MHA. You know he does. His advice is free and well meaning and above all he is right and you know it.
As parents we have a broader responsibility than putting a roof over their heads and food in their bellies - we have a responsibility to pass to them a province of renewable resources that we have protected and nurtured for them. If you turn your back on the fishery, fishers and the wonderful communities built on the resource - you really turn your back on your children and grandchildren.
Sometimes it is really hard to watch the apathy of our people while watching rural Newfoundland and Labrador's is decimation. We get more reaction to the Haitian crisis than when tens of thousands of our own citizens pack their bags, leave their homesteads, leave their elderly parents, uproot their children, and cry in a U-Haul while they await the Canadian ferry.
I have never been able to stop myself completely from wanting to protect this place - and as such continue to receive the ire and professional attacks from political zealots who do not see past 50 signatures. Sometimes I receive the most hateful of emails and barrages of personal slander from Tory or Liberal party hacks. The fact that I have reinstated this blog has caused the usual of "where are you running to now Dyer", "why don't you just shut-up and go away", or some of what Cabana was talking about today to the media.
Problem is - I don't need this - the same way you don't. What's the option? The option is - say nothing allow the plundering to continue and try to tell our grandchildren that "we did not know". That's what we were told. We do know - so do you want to say of our fishery and our beautiful communities "we knew but we did nothing - thought somebody else was looking after that".
Gus represents what is good about passion for the place he calls home. That readers is real passion - not the type that occasionally lowers a Canadian flag or cites the alphabet to punish Stephen Harper. Trust me when I tell you Canada nor the federal government cared a bit when the only punishment was Fabian losing a seat. I don't imagine Manning is suffering the same way in his Senate seat as the people from his own home who are bawling all the way out of their devastated community without a cent in their arse pocket. People who lived in a house that lost 80 percent of its value when a plant closed.
This October while we will not get political change whether it be Tory or Liberal - we can demand that for our vote certain things must be done. This will have to do until we place real passionate leadership in place - unencumbered by corporate lobbyists hailing from everywhere but here.
1 comment:
Welcome back Sue. While I love your passion for our province I feel your bent about any of our provincial leaders ability to control or do anything about the fishery is misplaced as we only control processing licences.
Since the fishery is a national/international common property resource and the majority of Canada's population lives either in ON/QU or Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver for all intensive purposes we have no say in how the fishery is managed or controlled. In fact I submit to you that all of the national parties use it as a bargaining chip to better the majority of the population through DFAIT.
Until we start electing Independent federal MP's nothing will change because it is essentially an
National/International Tragedy of our Commons at the hands of our
Tyranny of the majority political system
where by any and all of the national party MP's we elect to represent us on the federal stage will continue to toe their national party lines of doing what is in the best interest of the majority of the population to get their national party elected or re-elected.
We need a veto on fisheries issues in the national party cabinets,and NAFO. Even if we have to do it in conjunction with the maritime provinces.
Wanna make a bet that the 2013 UNLOS deadline will come and pass with the flemish cam being given away and or ownership and control since we already have custodial management being the adjacent state just we all of hte national parties choose not to act on it.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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