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S T A T E M E N T

ST. JOHN'S - Electoral politics decides the Canadian federal government's seal hunt policy. Therefore, the only way to end the seal hunt is by using electoral politics.

Starting with the next federal election - and continuing in all subsequent elections - Animal Alliance of Canada (AAC) and its political arm, Environment Voters (EV), will campaign in the electoral districts of Ministers of Fisheries and Oceans. EV and AAC will campaign for the re election of Ministers who, during their term in cabinet, worked towards ending the seal hunt, and will campaign to defeat those who didn't. Other Members of Parliament, regardless of party affiliation, who advocate pro seal hunt policies, and who are electorally vulnerable, will also be considered for targeting.

Electorally, for governments of the day and those in waiting, a pro seal hunt policy is worth seven seats in Newfoundland and Labrador, and one in Quebec. The purpose of Animal Alliance and Environment Voters' political strategy is to make pro seal hunt policies cost more electorally than they are worth: a change in the political environment of federal politics that will likely encourage the government to discourage sealing.

Despite decades of intensive, well funded anti seal hunt protesting in Canada, the seal hunt is larger now than it was 30 years ago. Today, the seal hunt is also more cruel, and is managed with less regard for science, conservation, and the survival of harp and hooded seals. What this dismal record of failure proves is that all the strategies and tactics used in Canada in the past to end the seal hunt don't work.

In the history of the seal hunt protest, the only initiative that ever reduced the number of seals slaughtered was a European campaign in the early 1980s that resulted in the 1983 import ban on pelts from whitecoat harp seal pups and blueback hooded seal pups. The only reason the anti seal hunt community was able to secure the European seal import ban was electoral politics. Effective, highly targeted campaigns were waged during European Parliamentary elections, and in elections in Germany and the United Kingdom. For individual politicians in Europe, defending Canada and its seal hunt became an electoral liability. That electoral liability was the only reason the European seal import ban was passed. Stephen Best, a founding director of Environment Voters, was the senior strategist and manager of the European seal import ban campaign.

The efficacy of electoral politics was proved in Europe. Nevertheless, until now, no Canadian politician has ever been held accountable for the government's seal hunt policy. To the contrary, Canadian politicians use the seal hunt with electoral impunity to further their careers and the fortunes of their parties. Newfoundland's Brian Tobin, as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, perfected the use of an aggressive and irresponsible pro seal hunt policy as a career enhancing strategy. In positioning himself to become Premier of Newfoundland (a stepping stone to the Prime Minister's office, perhaps), Tobin implemented sealing policies that increased the number of seals slaughtered and landed in Canada from about 50,000 animals per year to over 250,000. The current Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Robert Thibault, learned well from Tobin. He too is using the "Tobin Tactic." However, not to be outdone by Tobin, Thibault abandoned three decades of quota management in 2002, and encouraged Canadian sealers to land more than 300,000 seals.

Campaigning in an electoral district for or against a Minster of Fisheries and Oceans, or other MPs, will likely not entail asking people to vote on a politician's seal hunt record. It is unlikely that an EV / AAC campaign will even mention the seal hunt. The purpose of an EV / AAC campaign is to elect or defeat a candidate, not to conduct a referendum on a candidate's seal hunt record. Affecting the outcome of an election, and a candidate's fortunes, is best achieved by relying on research based strategies. Voting histories, candidate and issue research, and polling determine if a positive or negative campaign would be most influential; help develop locally relevant messages; identify marginal or "swing" areas of an electoral district; and determine the best media for delivering the campaign's messages.

Environment Voters has proven and refined the effectiveness of these campaign techniques in seventeen elections since its founding in 1999. EV has won eleven and lost six of its campaigns. Of the six losses, three were anticipated: a campaign against David Anderson, Minister of the Environment, in Victoria in the 2000 federal election; a campaign to elect Bob Hunter, Liberal candidate and co founder of Greenpeace, in the 2001 Ontario by election in Beaches East York; and a token campaign targeting Mayor Glen Murray in the 2002 Winnipeg civic election. A fourth losing campaign, in the 2002 Ontario by election in Nipissing, was lost by only 19 votes.

As for Robert Thibault, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, in 1997 his margin of plurality was 8.68%. In 2000, Thibault's margin of victory dropped to 1.98%. Only 703 votes separated him from his Progressive Conservative challenger. In the 2000 federal election, Environment Voters campaigned in Edmonton West to re elect the Minister of Justice, Anne McLellan. EV's campaign made the difference between McLellan winning or losing. She won by 733 votes.

Public policy is rarely decided by what is right or wrong. Politics - particularly electoral politics - decides public policy. That's why passing tax cuts is more important to political parties and most politicians than sheltering the homeless or alleviating child poverty. Children and the homeless don't vote. The destructive effects of electoral politics is particularly true for environmental and animal welfare issues. Trees and seals don't vote. If good science - and right and wrong - decided environmental public policy, global warming wouldn't be a fact of life, and Canada wouldn't need endangered species legislation.

The history of the seal hunt - and the history of most other environmental issues in Canada and around the world - has shown that until individual politicians are held personally, electorally accountable for their environmental and animal welfare policies no progress can be made. Environment Voters and Animal Alliance's new political strategy to end the seal hunt deals effectively with this fact, and the realities of how public policy is actually made in Canada.

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