BC Residents Don't Vote Conservative - No to Stephen Harper and Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood

British Columbia residents voted in high numbers against fish farms, more than 100,000 signing a petition to stop expansion, and to get fish farms out of out pristine ocean. See: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc.

The Conservatives, the Harper Government, did the opposite of what British Columbians want: they issued four more sites to fish farms in BC; they weakened the already weakened laws by bringing in new fish farm regs (See: my article on the recent Blacklock article: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1880129387856188740#editor/target=post;postID=3089477178877178483;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=6;src=postname; and they issued licences in BC for 9 years.

All of these actions are against what British Columbian voters want: we want DFO and the government to get on with saving wild Pacific salmon, and protecting the environment by putting fish farms on land.

Of the other federal parties, the Green Party has a specific policy against fish farms and will get them out of the water immediately after the election. See: https://www.greenparty.ca/en/policy/vision-green/economy/fisheries.

Please note that as of September 1, 2015, neither the Liberals nor NDP have stated policies to eliminate fish farms from BC waters. Those who support wild salmon, do not vote Liberal nor NDP.

In a province with 99.8% of all the wild salmon in Canada - some 73 million before fisheries in saltwater - salmon are an important issue, providing along with freshwater fishing $2.52 Billion, and with another $200 Million if the Georgia Strait chinook and coho stocks are brought back. In other words, $2.72 Billion. See my Pacific Salmon Foundation Salmon Steward editorial: http://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.ca/2015/05/pacific-salmon-foundation-psf-editorial.html. This post gives you links to all the references I used to derive these figures.

By comparison, fish farms, provide only $469 M revenue, or only 17 percent of what we receive from BC wild fish. Their sewage is a $10.4 Billion cost to BC taxpayers and voters. The Liberals and NDP need to get out in front of this issue by publicly stating policy to get fish farms out of the oceans.