Well, we had one of our Christmas wishes come true before Christmas. This, in our opinion, bodes well – particularly for the grizzly bears.
On our annual Christmas wish list was a request that the provincial government not allow grizzly bear hunting to move forward in any form for any amount of time.
This week, the B.C. government ended the hunt. To the estimated 15,000 grizzly bears in B.C., that’s one very big present.
Let’s hope our other wishes come true – if not in time for this Christmas, then perhaps in time for the next one.
Here they are:
1. Speaking of hunting. How about stopping the hunting of any birds or animals within 50 kilometres of provincial parks? There’s nothing that puts a damper on a camping trip with kids like the moment when the bird hunters start blasting away at dusk at wee ducks at the lake next to your camping spot. C’mon, folks – surely we can have a bit more separation between camping and killing.
2. Seismic upgrades –or, better yet, a whole new Richard McBride school. Yes, we know, we just keep harping about this. But, really, other districts seem to be getting seismic attention, and we’re beginning to feel like the good kids in class who keep getting ignored.
3. Social media manners. OK, we know it’s a jungle on the internet, but we need an Emily Post for social media. It’s not OK to call people names, to harass them and to trash them. Yes, we get that there’s a lot of charged feelings around politics nowadays, but calling each other names is not going to help anyone. Make our Christmas! Be nice to each other for at least one day.
4. On the nice side of the ledger, we also wish for more men to fess up to harassment before women have to come forward. A simple, “I get it, I apologize, and I pledge to hold other men accountable” will do.
5. May Day, May Day! Is it possible to recognize ancient traditions and still acknowledge that those old traditions are often based on who conquered who in an oppressive (and deadly) game of life and death? Maybe not. But we’re still hoping.
6. And like wishing for a pony under the tree, we hope Justin Trudeau has a visit from the ghost of climate change future and decides he must do something to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion before it’s too late.
Well, a pony under the tree may be more achievable.
