A beaver, or a polar bear? That is the question
Posted Oct 28, 2011 06:44:00 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – A Conservative senator doesn’t have any nice things to say about Canada’s official emblem.
Senator Nicole Eaton derides the beaver is a “19th century has-been” and a “dentally defective rat” who should be dumped as Canada’s national symbol in favour of the polar bear.
Eaton argues that the polar bear is Canada’s “most majestic and splendid mammal,” and a powerful symbol in the lives of aboriginal peoples in the North.
She believes the bears’ “strength, courage, resourcefulness and dignity” is an appropriate symbol for modern-day Canada.
Eaton does acknowledge the beaver’s involuntary role in founding Canada as the fashionable pelts that fuelled the fur trade.
But she says it’s now time for a change.
