OT: replace Beaver with Polar Bear as Canada’s national emblem?

[Lyon_Wonder]

Does this mean CP will have to replace their beaver logo too with a white polar bear? Even though CP hasn’t put the Beaver on ES44ACs and recent repaints.

Anyways, a conservative Canadian politician thinks Canada should do away with the beaver as it’s national emblem and replace it with a white polar bear because she believes the beaver’s a “dentally defective rat”.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2011/10/27/north-polar-bear-emblem.html

[Kootenay_Central]

Thank You.

[tree68]

Well, Ben Franklin wanted the US national bird to be the turkey…

I could see it if the beaver was somehow not PC in today’s world, but the denigrations she tried to throw out could be applied in one form or another to just about any “noble” animal.

A friend of mine refers to whitetail deer as “wood goats.”

[zardoz]

Can’t use the Polar Bear, as global warming is driving them to extinction due to loss of Arctic ice. They are classified as a “vulnerable species”.

[Firelock76]

A beaver is a “mentally defective rat”? 'Scuse me? The beaver is one of the few animals besides man with the engineering skills to transform the enviornment it lives it. Damming produces lakes which eventually produce meadows and eventually woodlands. Pretty good for a “mentally defective rat”. Sheesh, why should it take an American to explain this to a Canadian? Looks like EVERYONES educational standards are slipping!

[Firelock76]

Oh, pardon me, the article said a “DENTALLY defective rat”. OK, time to clean the glasses. But I stand by what the rest of what I sad. Polar bears are majestic animals, but all THEY do is eat, sleep and make little polar bears. And by the way, I wouldn’t worry about p[olar bears going extinct. Wild animals are more intelligent and adaptable than most people give them credit for.

[Anonymous]

I used to go to a ‘Guest Ranch’ north of Durango that could only be reached by the narrow gauge. The owner was not fond of beavers, to put it mildly. Beavers would drop trees across horse trails he had laid out, and there was just no water close nor any way to get those trees close to water.

I’m sure Ross would agree beavers were more mentally defective than dentally defective and especially lousy engineers.

Art

[Murphy_Siding]

Oh, pardon me, the article said a “DENTALLY defective rat”. OK, time to clean the glasses. But I stand by what the rest of what I sad. Polar bears are majestic animals, but all THEY do is eat, sleep and make little polar bears. And by the way, I wouldn’t worry about p[olar bears going extinct. Wild animals are more intelligent and adaptable than most people give them credit for.

[(-D] Thanks. I got a good laugh out of that. I’m a good one for reading a newspaper headline wrong, then reading the whole article before I catch my mistake.

[gabeusmc]

And by the way, I wouldn’t worry about p[olar bears going extinct. Wild animals are more intelligent and adaptable than most people give them credit for.

I agree firelock. Also wouldn’t a polar bear make you think “barren winter wildernes” while a beaver conjurs up “wooded beauty”?

[Southwest_Chief]

I used to go to a ‘Guest Ranch’ north of Durango that could only be reached by the narrow gauge.

Ah Wilderness/Tall Timbers. Present location of Soaring (zip line).

[boct8418]

ROFLMAO!

[samfp1943]

Having had a family of beavers take up residence in the ‘crick’ at the back of the property here. The only complaint that I have; is that Polar Bears do not eat Beavers.

Lawyers are easier to get rid of than beavers, even after they’ve be declared to be nuisances. Beavers are Protected Species. They are cute only if they do not build a dam in your yard.

[Firelock76]

Actually, what a polar bear makes me think of is an incident that happened in New York City back in the '80s. A woman was mugged in Central Park, the police chased the bum, and he tried to escape by jumping over a stone wall. Problem was, the wall was around the polar bear enclosure in the Central Park Zoo! What happened? I’ll sum it up in one word: BURP! That was one full polar bear on the cover of the Daily News the next day!

[Anonymous]

I thought the maple leaf was the national emblem of Canada???

[Firelock76]

I thought the maple leaf was the national emblem of Canada???

Well, the maple leaf is a national symbol of Canada, and has been, I think, since the turn of the 19th Century. The beaver is an animal national symbol, as much of Canadian history began with the fur trade, and also with it’s contruction skills the beaver is emblematic of industry. But perhaps someone Canadian should weigh in on this one, I’m just a Yank on the outside looking in.

[AgentKid]

If you remember from your school days, each state and province and country has a state flower, animal, etc. I recall some standup comic once complaining about how the California State Flag has a California Brown Bear on it, and I think he said they were extinct. In Canada’s case, we have the Maple Leaf, the Beaver, and so on.

The problem here is, these things for the most part, including our national anthem, have only been voted in within the lifetime of the oldest politicians. If it was voted on once it can be voted on again. You have to consider the possibility that the politician in question might have received a political contribution from an outfit that runs tours to the North to see Polar Bears.

I will admit it can be more complicated than that, but the skeptic in me has been holding my tongue until now before posting on this thread.

Bruce