Thread: Polar Bear as Canadian Emblem

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9_gbYRA9PE"]Duke Redbird Poem - YouTube[/ame]

Duke Redbird, Master Degree in Poltical Science, lineage from Tecumseh, Mentor at the College of Art Ontario, World Class Poet, Artist and Ojibway Elder clarified symbols and emeblems even more.

Take the Maple Leaf and the Maple Leaf For Ever, Beavers, one symbol an emblem chews glorious Maple trees down another symbol and emblem. We cannot have that... we have enough problems with the emblem of distinct nation of Quebec contantly chewing away at the country, mainly the Anglo who were victorious.

The Americans feel proud when they see the bold Eagle. How would they feel with the buck-tooth rodent daming the flow of the Mississippi River? Old Man River would become a lake, several lakes and ponds, stagnating. Something what socialists and liberals are known for, stagnate individualism and build Satitism. Of course, Old Man River is slightly large for the beaver, however, you get the point of freedom and free flowing thoughts and entrepreneurial spirits.

Generally, farmers despise beavers on their properties. As industrious as they are the rodents are also destructive.

The beaver — Tamsin McMahon, National Post

The Canadian beaver, unwittingly dragged into a fight to retain its place as the symbol of national pride, has a new enemy.

Last week, Senator Nicole Eaton called on the government to retire the beaver as Canada's national emblem, arguing the polar bear was a more appropriate image than a "dentally defective rat."

Now a group of nearly 100 Ottawa-area farmers has declared war on the beaver, whose population has exploded with the decline of trapping, leaving the critters to build dozens of dams that have destroyed trees, flooded farmland and are threatening farmers' wells, septic systems and roads.

"The beaver was the national symbol because of its value and because of the fur trade and the fact that it is a very industrious and hardworking creature," said farmer John Woodfine. "If left unchecked, it's just like anything else. It will just go right off the map and the water will come onto the map and that's what's happened here."

Mr. Woodfine has lost more than half his 57-acre sheep farm south of Ottawa to flooding caused by dozens of beaver dams along a 13kilometre stretch of the Kemptville Creek.

For his neighbour, Horace Roxborough, the issue finally came to a head last fall when a delivery truck got stuck in the mud near his barn and had to be pulled out with a tow truck.

"The fact is, over the past 30 years this area has slowly become a swamp, and it's directly attributed to the pesky little beavers," he said.

The farmers, along with local municipalities and the conservation authority, have pooled $5,000 to hire a lone trapper to breach the dams and trap beavers. But Mr. Roxborough said it's a losing battle.

"The only way to do it is to really annihilate these dams because they'll have it patched up again the next day," he said. "It's a war. It's really a war."

As an indication of how far the beaver has fallen since the days when its silken fur lured European traders to North America, trappers now earn five times as much to kill the animals for pest control than they do selling their fur.

The global market for beavers "is soft right now," said Bill Davies, president of the Canadian National Trappers Alliance. Beavers command as much as $125 apiece if killed as a pest, but as little as $20 at a fur auction. Trappers can capture only about four or five beavers a day and each one takes 90 minutes to skin and dry. Coupled with rising fuel costs, along with government royalties and auction fees, and beavers are no longer worth the trouble.

Sharon Brown, a biologist with advocacy organization Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife, said the rodent is misunderstood. Beaver dams create wetlands, one of the most efficient ecosystems in North America when it comes to filtering carbon emissions, silt and pesticides, and supporting diverse wildlife such as fish, deer and waterfowl.

An exchange between local government and a property owner about beavers and dams. I enjoy intelligent sarcasm but I haven't changed my opinion about the buck-tooth water-rodents.

http://climbingoutofthedark.blogspot...-or-polar.html

The irony is that Canada does host some dignified native creatures such as the Arctic wolf, the snow owl, the otter or the muskox. Yet the oversized gnawer is the king. Listening to CFRB 1010 recently and their passionate defence of the things they hold dear - like that gay pedophile football coach because he's a - teamplayer - made me think, how much dignity is there really left in Canada? I'd still take the Canadian radio over TV though, which unlike the latter (CBCs and such) does have a tendency to raise your IQ now and then.

I'd change the beaver too. And I am not sure I'd take animals as emblem.