Reply #68: I'm surprised no one answered. It's a good question. [View All]

The Liberal Party has just been removed from power after a long period of electoral dominance followed by a minority government plagued by scandals that had rotted the party's reputation to the core under the previous Prime Minister, Jean Chretien. Besides the new government being Conservative, meaning it is less prone to sympathy for Atlantic Canada but is in favor of economic development there, including seal hunting if it means fewer welfare cheques, the seal hunt policy has now spanned numerous fisheries ministers. Provinces do not really have responsibility for much when it comes to fishing; less so in the seal case because seals are protected on a federal level (and the hunt is an exception to that protection, not a free for all). However, due to political reasons, the various premiers (equivalent to US state governors) of economically hard-hit coastal provinces have generally been vocal advocates of the seal hunt. The federal fisheries ministry's studies on seals are widely known, and environmentalists feel justified in widely attacking them but nonetheless, they are accepted scientific wisdom in Canada and considered trustworthy by the government. The margins for error are wide enough that Canadians generally do not take seriously that the hunt, as it is today (which is a damned large disclaimer considering recent history), is not threatening the seal population as a whole.

So basically, almost the entirety of the provincial and federal leadership backs the seal hunt, it is both a national and provincial issue, though largely a national issue, and it is pointless to single out politicians because they are collectively, not individually, responsible for what is now an entrenched policy backed by what is believed to be sufficiently sound science and the outcry of suffering native and poor white communities in Atlantic Canada.

And that's why American activists are banging their heads against a wall in vain.