It’s hard to imagine the sloppiness of Conservative staff. In the tight bubble around Stephen Harper every event is planned to the last detail... except for the announcement of $15 million to the Pacific Salmon Foundation. The first thing that struck me is that $15 million for the Pacific Salmon Foundation has been announced before – in 2014 and 2015. So we need to double check if this was a recycled announcement or something new.
The huge damage to Pacific Salmon under Harper’s watch starts with ignoring the report of the Cohen Commission on the decline of the sockeye (a commission Harper actually put in place, and then ignored). It ramps up with the gutting of the Fisheries Act, promoting toxic fish factories, the refusal to act on climate change, the loss of virtually all DFO’s habitat s staff in BC, and the suppression of science. Still any money for salmon restoration is welcome.
The sloppiness was in the photos. Harper’s Vancouver Island photo-op managed to violate Scouts Canada’s policy for non-partisanship, while misidentifying salmon in the CPC message machine. Scouts Canada issued an objection to the unauthorized use of young people in their uniforms in Conservative photos (one of which was on the cover of today’s Times Colonist). The other photo showed a salmon leaping upstream – only it was an Atlantic salmon. And the Atlantic salmon was not a Canadian Atlantic salmon. It was a UK photograph. Reminds me of the maple leaf they put on our new $20 bills – a Norwegian maple, not native to Canada.
I guess if you’ve seen one fish, you’ve seen them all. And heck, what’s violating Scouts Canada policy compared to getting the implied support. I may be wrong, but I think the Conservative spin machine is off its game. Not “good to go!”