The trend of foreign environmental lobby groups meddling in Canadian affairs has been disturbing. The recent efforts of the Delaware based lobby group Avaaz (multi-million dollar company) in their campaign of misinformation about a project in Jasper national park was nothing less than repugnant in it’s venom and it’s complete lack of hesitation to use horsecrap to try and make their case.

Thankfully our federal government finally stepped in and approved the project pictured below for Jasper national park.

There is an existing parking lot in the parkway which will be utilized for this project. An incredible viewpoint will be created where people can look through a glass floor for a unique Rocky Mountain experience. Yes, a fee will be charged for a guided tour (welcome to the real world). Mountains of impact studies have been performed and it is clear that this project will have minimal environmental impact. It is just a bloody viewpoint folks.

The hyperbole, misinformation and hysteria from the environmentalists on this one was outstanding. I remember getting a message on facebook that warned of Harper privatizing our National Parks, how common people would not be able to afford to visit and how this was all being done by a nasty foreign company. All of the allegations were utter crap but sadly many people fall for shallow pap so the American lobby group indeed managed to get over 100k people to sign an online petition against the project.

I grew up in Banff. I attended high-school there and still often return to the area to visit. What really has me going on this one was the attempted demonization of Brewster Travel Canada. Brewster was portrayed as some evil company that was going to turn our national parks into some kind of fast food outlet.

Now let’s get some facts out there. The Brewster family and company has been operating in Canadian National Parks for well over 100 years! The Brewster family is still operating in the Bow Valley. The family and the company are a large part of the entire park history. To demonize and portray this group as a foreign monster is ludicrous. If any company should be moved to the head of the line in operations within Western National Parks is should indeed be Brewster.

Another fact: We already have to pay to enter national parks! There has been an admission fee for national parks for as long as I remember. The operations of companies within the park have nothing to do with this nor will their expansion of operations have any impact on park entry fees. This reality did not stop the environmentalists from spreading BS however.

Here is a fact: National parks are loaded with private businesses that make profits within the park!! Is fuel free in Banff? Are all of the hotels nationalized? Does the government mandate non-profit status for restaurants? Is it immoral to charge green fees on the golf courses? Commercial operations in national parks are nothing new at all. It is the services provided by private interests and the taxes that they pay that allow a broader number of people to experience the parks themselves. The environmentalist set tries to portray this as some sort of new trend of park privatization.

There is an extreme element out there that loathes humanity and feels that we have no place developing anything anywhere and they will oppose all development based on that principle. These groups will not hesitate to completely depart from reality and there are hundreds of millions of dollars to be made in the lobby groups that work for the environmentalist set. When we see a bunch insistent on spreading outright lies as we do with these environmentalists, I think it is pretty easy to decide which groups to disregard.

What are our national parks for if not to allow Canadians to experience them? Environmentally friendly viewpoints such as the one being built in Jasper are harmless and add to the experience of the park. Environmentalists like to pretend that there are only a few valleys in the entire Rocky Mountains and that humanity is impacting them all. Have a look at a road map of Western Canada. You will find that there are literally thousands of mountain valleys that are completely inaccessible. The highways that pass through the mountains are very few and utilize a tiny percentage of the undeveloped and protected lands of the mountains. Developments within national parks have increased scrutiny and environmental standards to be abided by.

Nobody wants to see ugly, uncontrolled and rampant development in our wilderness areas. That is why such development simply is not happening despite the fearmongering of extreme foreign environmentalist lobby groups.

Whether it is the Northern Gateway pipeline, or Castle area logging or small developments in national parks we seem to have a problem with environmentalists spreading BS and trying to stunt approval processes. Again, if deciding who to believe look to see who insists on breaking the rules and spreading the myths. You will find it generally is not the private business interests.

Thank you Harper for stepping in and getting the Jasper walkway going despite the hyperbolic opposition by environmental extremists. I hope you continue to cut through the crap and allow responsible development to continue in Canada.