RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

OK TerryM and Turk man,

For once the North is being noticed. You guys talk about how you pay the bulk of the taxes and you should get priority at southern hospitals. As southerners, you drive up north to hunt. As northerners we drive down south to go to your hospitals. Would you drive to Timmins to goto a hospital that provides the same care one in Toronto would - nonsense right. Yes, the bulk of the tax base is in Southern Ontario, I hope you're not saying you don't benefit from that. You've seen our roads, maybe experienced a little of our eroding infrastructure or witnessed the lack of development here. YOUR POINT????
You are absolutely right - we do want to hunt in our backyard and we want the opportunity to hunt more than one week of the year if we don't fill our tag week one. Hence the reason I live in Northern Ontario - almost solely for that reason. We put up with crazy weather - weather I hate but fishing and hunting is my passion and I have made the choice to live here for that reason. Look at the lifestyle you live in Port Hope - not even comparable to that of us in the North. NO - you shouldn't have the same right as we do. I invite you to ask your wife and family to come live in Northern Ontario - would there even be a thought. I would be interested in listening to that discussion and the excuses why NOT to live here!!!!
You talk about the number of people in particular ridings - you just hit another sour cord with Northerners - we are clearly out numbered by you guys and for that reason alone - we have a very small voice in decisions made in this province. ie. spring bear hunt - no need to discuss this any further.
Look outside your own interest and try and pay some respect to your northern outdoorsman. The same people that volunteer to stock lakes, create spawing beds, keep the outdoors clean, enhance wildlife habitat so you can come up here once a week to hunt or fish.
I look forward to an ongoing discussion on this issue.
Your friendly NORTHERN MOOSE HUNTER.

RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

Northern Mose Hunter,
You don't get the point I am making at all. Hey I would love to live in Fort Frances and have a 2 month deer and moose season and a tag every year. What I am saying is the guy in the south is no better nor is the guy up north. Everybody is equal in this province. If you think that the south does not subsidize your crumbling roads up there then you don't understand the cost of capital investments and infrastructure. If there are less services up north (which nobody is disputing ) its because there is no population/tax base to pay for them. You choose to live up north for its recreational benefits thats your choice. I choose to live down south for the employment benefits, again thats my choice. Fishing and hunting is also my passion, one does not need to live up north for that. The majority of the people you bump into in the fall during the moose hunt are from Southern Ontario, its just basic math thats where the most people live. Just don't try and convince me or the rest of the southern hunters that a computer draw where everybody is equal is unfair. Of course more people down south draw tags, there's more people! By the way, I ironically would benefit from this stupid Liberal plan anyway, Both of my hunting partners live up north so we would likely always have a tag!! I still think it opens up a can of worms that creates Bias that will lead to no good. You guys get pissed off when the Natives start hunting in August now the metis in September so would you have everybody south of the fFrench river hunt 2 weeks after you guys. Don't try and pin the bear hunt on hunters who live in the south either. That was killed by non hunters not sportsmen. And last, no I did NOT say that we should get priority in southern hospitals, quite the contrary thats the point I am trying to make. Equal access to all the services and assets of the province regardless of where you live!

RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

Unfortunatly decesions like this make some people happy and others upset. What needs to be recognized is that all People that live in Ontario are not equal. Unfortunaltly people in Toronto, Ottawa and other heavily populated areas make decesions that affect the way we conduct our life styles ie spring bear hunt and numerous other anti hunting preasures that the government encounters. I think its pretty safe to say that its not a Northern family that makes under $15000 a year that needs to hunt and fish in order to survive. Terry Ill tell you a story........ my father first moved to the North in 1950 and built a house, the only one on the lake. My dad was a trapper and through many years of searching he found many areas in which to trap beavers and other animals back off the lake we live on. Trails were made to allow him access and beaver ponds were found and used by are family to hunt and trap for years. Because it is just me and my dad that hunt these areas (4 in paticular) we have been pushed out by people that stumble across these areas and decide to post 50 yards away from you on openening morning of moose season. There is no respect given, try and talk to thes people and they reply "I spend good money to stay here, i'll hunt where I please". I doubt that you would ever do that Terry but this is what we encounter time after time. You say that people litter the stream you fish on, well thats no comparison at all. Where you live on the opertunity to participate in outdoor activity is so limited to the very little area that you have, that you always will encounter this. If someone stands and cast over you I promise that its not some one from the North, and thats the difference. This tag discussion is not North and South its different cultures, and culture I mean that people still sustain themselves from the food they hunt and trap and I think that should be recognized.

RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

Spotlight,
I have hunted the north every year for almost 30 years from Cochrane to Dryden and quite frankly the people from the "North" drive the same pickups with the same ATVs in the back of them and in many cases have much nicer homes on much bigger properties than we could ever dream of down here. So I am not sure I go with the "We do it to feed our families". If someone truly needs a moose to feed his family then I am all for him just going out and getting one ( go ahead flame me ). There are plenty of hardship cases up north and I truly believe they should be allowed some lattitude. But those people are not the ones you meet in the bush. As a rule they don't have the money to burn chasing moose. My best buddy and hunting partner is a conservation officer up north and he has a list of poor families who he takes road kill and game seizure moose to all the time. They more than appreciate it and deserve the help. You say that we are not the same because I live down south, funny I didn't realize that a southern guy could not be a hunter. Northeners have valid complaints about the economy and politics and the hands they are dealt but what you are confusing here is hunters and the provincial government. Sound game management can not be mixed with politics, it does not work. The whole black bear closure was nothing but provincial politics and had nothing to do with sound game management or hunters wishes north or south. You say hunting is not part of my culture because I don't live up there but oddly enough I have had game in my freezer my whole life as did my father, grandfather and his father. So do my brother and sister. Trust me I eat game because it is in fact a part of what I am not because I have to. And the last time I drove through Ignace on my way moose hunting I had no problem buying groceries at my choice of multiple grocery stores.

RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

Terry: culture, I define as a way of life and not a sport or past time that one is involved in. Im sure you are a hunter and are for all the rights one has as such. What I am trying to get across to you is that (and I can only speak for the area of the North I'm from) is that we live different lives which make up our lifestyles. I have read the plan that Ramsey has put forth and I dont think it will affect the opertuntiy of non-local hunters. Again Terry if you have been coming up to the North for 30 years you should know that tourist camps accomodate people who don't even have to apply for the moose draw are still allocated specific adault tags, this has been "Grandfatherd" and accepted.

And another thing Terry you dont have to be poor to be on the road kill list, however I am glad you dont have a problem with giving us the scraps off the highway. I am all for sound game managment and conservation but you must understand that some of us eat game because we HAVE to not just because our families have been doing that way.

RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

Yeah, most people with computers and internet access are also subsistance hunters. I would suggest we agree to disagree. On that note, I hope you have a great hunting season or whatever is left of it for this year and enjoy the woods as I plan to. No offence intended, just my own opinions.

RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

I think this is quite funny

RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

What it means is: more tourist establishments will get tags.

RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

Actually I don't think the point I am trying to make is trying to split the pack up. Quite the contrary, I think we are all the same and should be treated the same. I have also got more information about the McGinty tag scheme. What they are going to do is withhold back 5% of all tags provincially and have a 4th special draw after the A) large group B) small group C) individuals. Yes thats right people who apply as an individual get the third kick at the can during the draw. Frankly that peanuts, and if northerners can be tricked and bought off with so few tags then I have no problem with that. In most cases it will not change anybodies odds of drawing a tag at all. It will still cause ill feelings and nothing will be gained but then again they are liberals and sticking it to gun owners is party policy.

RE: Ontario Moose Hunters!
 

It does not matter where you are from or anything else or who has a better chance at the draw. The new draw is set up so those northern hunters that do not get a tag after two years will be put into the second draw. The 5% of the total tags is not even taken off the total tags these are extra tags. Northern hunters have groups but some don't because they are so rural not enough friends to get a large enough group size to get a tag for sure.
The only thing that pisses me off and other northwestern hunters is that this is are backyard TAKE WHAT YOU BROUGHT. I was out hunting today in an area that was tented by southern hunters I am not going to say where but I talked to them and know where they are from. The campsite was left a mess, garbage, plastic, beer cans, burnt chairs, a BBQ, even the kitchen sink. I could not believe the kitchen sink. TAKE YOUR S*#T HOME IF YOU CAN'T KEEP IT CLEAN YOU SHOULD BE BAND FROM HUNTING UP HERE. I will take my garbage to your backyard and dump it out there so your kids can play in it. You southerners get it yet, leave it the way you found it. I am not going to clean up after you anymore I am going to slash tires while you are hunting that is how pissed I am.