Swaddling the Tory base in muskrat fur
Canada’s environment minister Leona Aglukkaq must be a fan of bad ’70s soft rock, because she sure has an infectious case of what Captain & Tennille call muskrat love. Of course, the muskrats may not see it that way since what Ms. Aglukkaq wants is three of the furry critters dead on the head of each RCMP officer in Canada.
In a showy display this week, the minister who — at last check, has no supervisory powers over Canada’s national police force — ordered the Mounties to overturn a policy that would see wool tuques offered in place of the traditional furry flap hat. The policy was hatched by top Mountie brass after consultation and study. Officers were free to continue to sport the fur, but the wool substitute would be available to those who wanted it.
“I would like to assure Canadians that the minister of public safety has taken actions to ensure that the historic fur winter hats worn by the RCMP will not be discontinued, despite the efforts of radical animal rights activists,” Ms. Aglukkaq said in Parliament this week.
In spite of the minister’s churlish description of animal rights activists as “radicals,” it’s quite possible some of our men and women in red serge also might consider themselves people who would prefer to avoid needless animal suffering.
The Fur Institute of Canada applauded the minister’s action, pointing out that the livelihoods of many Canadians hinge on the fur trade. That may be true, but the livelihoods of tobacco farmers depend upon continued cigarette smoking, and that’s not a compelling reason for Canadians to light up.
Now, let’s be clear: It may well be that muskrats are pests, and if we stop trapping them for fur hats we may have to still trap them as public nuisances. I’m not going to man the barricades for a two-pound rat, but I do bridle when conservatives pretend that arguing against needless animal suffering or in support of sustainab i l ity makes one an enemy of the state.
The idea that all environmentalists are hectoring, anti- Capitalist, raw-food-eating hippies who like to set fire to car dealerships is a lazy caricature that makes it possible to shrug off any notion that we bear some responsibility to the environment that sustains us. This knee-jerk anti-green attitude reaches its apotheosis in the “rolling coal” movement, by which truck drivers retrofit their vehicles for a dirty burn that churns out plumes of smoke, which they call “Prius repellent.”
I also have a radio colleague in Montreal whose idea of Socratic reasoning on the animalrights file is to compel people to say whether they would run their car over a baby or a puppy. “Chose one!” he yells.
Only in the most Manichaean universe is environmental responsibility seen as a matter of prosperity versus
Just because PETA pissed you off isn’t reason enough to knock off furry creatures to make hats
poverty or veganism versus the ostentatious consumption of endangered fish and Kobe beef. Surely, it’s not unreasonable to argue against the needless killing of animals or the unnecessary despoiling of the environment. Just because PETA and David Suzuki piss you off isn’t reason enough to deliberately knock off furry creatures and gun the engine of your Hummer.
The RCMP determined a tuque was as good as a hat made out of muskrats. But for Canada’s Tories, that’s a high insult. You would think that being libertarians they’d be happy that Mounties now have a choice, but the smiles on the faces of animal rights activists was more than Ms. Aglukkaq could abide, so it’s fur hats for everyone. Sorry, muskrats.