Mike Lake is the Canadian member of parliament for Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont. He belongs to the Conservative Party of Stephen Harper.Lake is 38 years old and has a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Alberta. In other words, he is a university graduate.
Lake calls for bigfoot to be protected under Canada's Species at Risk Act [Bigfoot risks extinction, says Canadian MP]. It appears that Mike Lake has been persuaded to make a fool of himself by bigfoot "researcher" Todd Standing. This should not be a surprise since all Conservative MP's have already demonstrated a certain amount of detachment from reality.
Canadians will get a kick out of another press release [Bigfoot May Gain Protection by Canadian Parliament] where Mike Lake MP is identified as a member of the Canadian Mounted Police.
[Hat Tip: fellow Canadian James Hrynyshyn]
From the Yahoo! story:
ReplyDelete"'When I get species protection for them nationwide, I will make my findings public..." (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?) "...and I will take this out of the realm of mythology. Bigfoot is real,' ..."
"He said he has 12 seconds of video footage of Bigfoot roaming Canada's western Rocky Mountains included in a 30-minute documentary, but his detractors say it was staged with actors."
Only 12 seconds? I have dozens of sightings, plus a good, solid, easily distinguishable photo. So what? I know, and can demonstrate, that they are just tree and stump patterns.
And what's an Albertan doing blabbering about the Sasquatch, anyhow? It is OURS, an inhabitant of OUR coastal forests. BC. Not Alberta.
Sheesh!
It's somewhat entertaining, but not unexpected from a rural MP. The quality of MP's doesn't matter as much as one moves away from large population centres, because there's less of a chance that their constituents will call them on their stupidity. Heck, take Joe Comuzzi (former Liberal MP of Thunder Bay, who as a cabinet minister voted against same-sex marriage legislation put forward by the Liberals) or Carolyn Parish (former Liberal MP from Mississauga,famous for Bush doll stomping). So singling out Mr Lake because of his political affiliation is kind of a cheap shot, when stupid politicians can be found across partisan lines.
ReplyDeleteOh, and both Mr Comuzzi and Ms Parish are university graduates as well.
ReplyDeleteHo ho… Well you’re not the only one - from an article in last year’s London Sunday Times:
ReplyDelete“in the 1980s government officials prepared a contingency plan for what they would do following the discovery of the Loch Ness monster. Newly declassified files reveal a flurry of activity between government departments over the question of legal protection for the fabled creature. Civil servants eventually concluded that should Nessie surface, she (or he) would be entitled to protection from poachers under the provisions of the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act...”
And there is this delightful example of bureaucratic logic:
“J F Buckle, an official at the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, concluded: ‘Unfortunately Nessie is not a salmon and would not appear to qualify as a freshwater fish under the Salmon and Fisheries Protection (Scotland) Act 1951’..”
Lovely. I note there is now coverage in the UK, Australia, and in the US... including the NY Times' 'Lede' blog.
ReplyDeleteSadly, last I checked, you couldn't apply to a foreign government for asylum on the grounds of intense embarrassment.
Given the recent paper that talks about how Canada's Species At Risk Act (SARA) is biased against charismatic and economically-exploited megafauna, this seems somehow ironic.
ReplyDeleteWould BigFoot, as an unparalleled example of charismatic megafauna (with an obvious economic angle) gain protection, where the Polar Bear has not?
Mooers, AO, Prugh LR, Festa-Bianchet M, Hutchings JA. 2007. Biases in legal listing under Canadian endangered species legislation. Conservation Biology, OnlineEarly Articles 13-Apr-2007.
Well, he's almost right, in that it is almost extinct.
ReplyDeleteIf , for example, there were ten +/- ten of them left, that would be almost extinct and include the correct number of them alive, no?
Besides, if lots of people believe in something, there must be something to it.
You're right weeta, he should keep his imagination off of our cryptozoology. Shouldn't that be an 'uninhabitant' of our coastal forests, though?
Secret spy coin revealed:
ReplyDeleteIt's the poppy quarter!
Johnniecanuck;
ReplyDelete"Shouldn't that be an 'uninhabitant' of our coastal forests, though?"
You're right. My bad.
"Uninhabitant" it is. Never stays put long enough to acquire a fixed address. Must be a tourist.
That fits the data.