B.C. voters need to know: which federal candidates have the backbone to stand up and protect wild salmon?
Alexandra Morton begins election education campaign
(Broughton Archipelago, B.C., April 05, 2011) Alexandra Morton has launched a “Vote Salmon” campaign. It is designed to help voters make a more informed decision on Election Day.
Beginning April 13th, Morton will visit numerous candidate campaign offices in British Columbia seeking the candidates who support – wild salmon. Her findings will be reported at www.Votesalmon.ca
The Questions:
1. Will you stake your reputation that these Norwegian aquaculture companies are not releasing foreign viruses into BC?
2. Will you work to build an innovative, land-based Canadian aquaculture industry to provide jobs to the 1,259 people directly employed by salmon feedlots?
3. Will you remove salmon feedlots from BC waters within 12 months of being elected?
“The questions were developed because British Columbia's wild salmon are dying of politics," said Alexandra Morton. She observed, "This election is critical. Our resources are being degraded by an out of control corporate economy. We are a rich province, but only as long as we remain ecologically intact. We are losing our rights to protect the places we call home. The people of British Columbia need to know who has the backbone to stand up for us before we go to the polls. Would you remove these polluting salmon feedlots from BC waters now? A simple yes or no, please!"
Alexandra Morton resisted efforts by the NDP to recruit her as a federal candidate. She will continue her non-partisan activities and this campaign was designed to give people the opportunity to keep their wild salmon
Backgrounder
Salmon feedlots are a provincial issue because BC rents the seafloor to the industry and it is federal because Morton won a BC Supreme Court challenge that ended unlawful provincial regulation. Gordon Campbell pretended to support the industry, but would not renew many of their land tenures. No one knows why. Stephen Harper failed to heed scientific warning that highly infectious viruses are moving with this industry and allowed millions of Atlantic eggs into BC in recent years.
Wild salmon feed over 190 BC wildlife species; they have fed people for 10,000 years. 85% of British Columbians call this fish an icon. Salmon are the bloodstream to the forests that make us oxygen, they are food security, we love them, they are a living symbol of democracy and we want them to be here for our children. Salmon are worth about $2 billion in revenue from wilderness tourism and fishing.
The corporate salmon feedlots are highly mechanized, shrouded in secrecy, in trouble everywhere they operate and recent testimony at the Cohen Inquiry suggests the Conservative government is covering up an apparent lethal salmon virus that has gone epidemic.
For more information go to www.wildsalmonpeople.ca
Alex will be heard on CBC Ideas 9 pm (PST) April 6
