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Outdoors caucus attracts 70 members; Rookie MP Mike Allen of
Tobique- Mactaquac says group could also help promote tourism

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There's nothing Garry Breitkreuz and John Pugh like more than to get into the woods to hunt or fish as they did growing up. Thousands of kilometres separate the two men, but they share much in common - their love of the outdoors, their desire to pass that on and their fear that their traditional outdoor pursuits are threatened.

Mr. Breitkreuz, 60, a Conservative MP and farmer from Yorkton, Saskatchewan, crusaded against the federal long-gun registry for years. A hunter and fisherman and former principal, he used to lead groups of young people from his hometown north on wilderness canoeing trips. "They'd tell me they wouldn't eat wild fish," he recalled. "By the end of the day, I couldn't clean enough fresh fish to keep them fed."

Mr. Pugh, a 38-year-old civil engineer from Fredericton, serves as president of the 4,000-member New Brunswick Wildlife Federation. He hunts, among other things, rabbits in a club that uses beagles to track them down; he cherishes his fly-fishing trips on the Miramichi and Restigouche rivers; he enrolled his 11-year-old daughter Holly in salmon fishing camp last summer. "My greatest experience is going to be being there to see her catch her first salmon," he said.

Both men hold high hopes that a new non-partisan coalition of parliamentarians called the outdoors caucus, which Mr. Breitkreuz has founded this spring, will promote and protect hunting, angling and trapping at the federal level, and become an influence that trickles down to the provinces. "When you have folks in Ottawa behind these kinds of activities, they can send a powerful message to the provinces," said Mr. Pugh.

Although it has yet to meet or elect a chair, the group is already 70 strong, making it one of the largest interest-based caucuses on Parliament Hill, said Mr. Breitkreuz.
With 48 Conservatives among its 61 MPs and nine senators, the group is heavily Tory, but also includes 14 Liberals and four each from the NDP and the Bloc QuTbTcois. They are from nine provinces and one territory.

Two group claims two New Brunswickers, but only Tobique-Mactaquac Conservative MP Mike Allen is named on the list produced by Mr. Breitkreuz's office. Some members, he said, have not granted him permission to release their names yet.

The group's draft mission statement is to "entrench in law fishing, hunting, trapping and shooting sports as acceptable, traditional, environmentally sustainable outdoor heritage activities." All those activities fall primarily under provincial jurisdiction, but Mr. Breitkreuz quickly pointed to federal initiatives that the caucus would be wise to scrutinize. "The feds have done things in the past to dampen this kind of activity," he said. "Look at species at risk legislation, the animal cruelty bill - some of these are things we'll need to keep an eye on." Animal rights activists, among others, lobby to get certain provisions in legislation that could restrict hunting and fishing, he said.

Of course, there's also the gun registry, which the Conservatives have pledged to abolish, removing a major irritant among hunters. Mr. Breitkreuz was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, along with Justice Minister Vic Toews and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, to recommend how to fulfill that pledge, given that it will require changes to the law in a minority Parliament where most parties support the gun registry.

Mr. Pugh hopes the caucus will make it easier to find a way to kill the gun registry, which he blames as one factor behind a decline in hunting in New Brunswick. He ventured that if such a caucus had existed years ago, hunters might not need to register their rifles and shotguns today. "There certainly would have been sympathetic ears to an organization such as ours," he said.

Apart from a watchdog role, the caucus could promote increased spending on restoring species such as Atlantic salmon in their traditional habitat, said Mr. Allen, who used to hunt and fish until a few years ago. He said it could also promote federal support for recreation-based tourism, including snowmobiling and four-wheeling. "Within an eight-hour drive of my riding, there's eight to 12 million people," he said. "The I-95 from the U.S. and the Trans-Canada from central Canada meet in Tobique-Mactaquac. There's a tremendous opportunity there."

The caucus's goals reflect the efforts of national hunting and angling groups to enshrine in law the right to hunt and fish, as long as they're done in accordance with the law. A similar federal bill co-sponsored by the federal Liberal outdoor caucus died when the election was called.

Nova Scotia and Ontario have enacted similar legislation. New Brunswick's wildlife federation presented the Lord government with a proposed bill in August, 2004, which would make it illegal for anyone to interfere with or disturb another person's lawful hunting or fishing. "There are people who don't see hunting and to a certain extent angling as a legitimate sport," said Mr. Pugh. "It's important we step up to protect our heritage."