Candidate in crosshairs over grizzly hunt

Liberal hopeful’s company specializes in trophy hunts for wealthy foreigners

A commercial bear trophy hunter nominated for the Liberals in the riding of Mid Island-Pacific Rim is finding himself in the crosshairs of the B.C. environmental movement.

Darren DeLuca of Vancouver Island Guide Outfitters — a company that specializes in trophy hunts for wealthy foreigners — is running against NDP incumbent Scott Fraser.

DeLuca is a realtor and vice-president of the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C., an organization that last month received $60,000 from U.S.-based Safari Club International. The money was donated to help counter campaigns to end the widely unpopular grizzly trophy hunt.

DeLuca is a life member of Safari Club International, according to an auction website in which a trophy hunting trip with DeLuca and well-known U.S. military pilot Scott O’Grady sold for US$30,000 in 2014.

The B.C. Liberal Party is in favour of the grizzly trophy hunt, whereas the B.C. NDP has vowed to stop it.

The Guide Outfitters Association of B.C. made four separate contributions to the B.C. Liberal Party last year totalling $15,150.

There is no grizzly bear hunting on Vancouver Island, but Vancouver Island Guide Outfitters does sell trophy hunts of black bears, which is enough to put DeLuca on the radar of environmentalists.

“As a professional guide outfitter, Darren DeLuca has helped line the coffers of a U.S. political action group waging a global fight on behalf of trophy hunters,” Kai Nagata, spokesman for the Victoria-based voter lobby group Dogwood, said Monday.

The Vancouver Island Guide Outfitters website states the island is “synonymous with giant coastal black bears” and that the company offers guided hunts across more than “4,000 square miles of the most diverse and spectacular regions . . . . ” The company boasts “exciting spot and stalk hunting adventures,” including by four-by-four trucks, boats, ATVs and hiking.

DeLuca has served for six years on the Port Alberni Port Authority, and is a member-at-large of the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District Highway 4 Transportation Committee. He is a director of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs junior A hockey team, is married with three daughters and four grandchildren.

DeLuca could not immediately be reached to comment Monday.

In 2015, an Insights West online poll found that 91 per cent of British Columbians oppose sport trophy hunting.

Among the groups fighting the hunt is Coastal First nations, an alliance that includes the Wuikinuxv, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xaixais, Nuxalk, Gitga’at, Metlakatla, Old Massett, Skidegate and Council of the Haida Nation.