Eduardo Sousa: Sal Spirit Bear and the pawlitics of B.C.'s Great Bear Rainforest

By Eduardo Sousa

Think a bear can do a better job at running this province? At Greenpeace, we do. So earlier this month, we announced that we were running Sal Spirit Bear for the leadership of the B.C. Liberal Party and therefore B.C. Premier. While we didn’t pony up the $50,000 fee to formally run, Team Sal is running a vigorous shadow campaign for our dark horse (white bear?) candidate, pushing and poking from the political margins in a creative, satirical yet light-hearted way.

We did this for three reasons. One is to try and push the candidates to go on the public record as to whether they supported the historic Great Bear Rainforest Agreements, and if they did would they commit to getting the agreements back on track to full implementation. The second reason is to raise the bar on environmental discourse as it certainly wasn’t happening among the candidates over the course of the leadership race. And finally, we want to inject some needed spirit and environmental positioning into an otherwise light-green campaign.

We created an online presence for Sal that shows he is a pawlitical force to be reckoned with. On Facebook, Sal has garnered more fans than all but one of his rival candidates. He is active on Twitter, is busy blogging and sharing hundreds of images and videos on Flick’r. We’re hosting a website where people can vote for Sal by sending messages in support of the Great Bear Rainforest to other candidates. You could say Sal is smarter than the average bear. But then, he is well-motivated to put his home, the Great Bear Rainforest, back in the public eye as well as on the other candidates’ radar.

The Great Bear Rainforest is the largest remaining intact coastal temperate rainforest in the world. During the 1990s, large swathes of the Great Bear Rainforest were clear cut through industrial logging. Up until 2006, only seven percent of it was protected in parks. After years of protests, blockades and negotiations, in that critical year of 2006, First Nations, the province, environmental organizations and the forest industry forged a far-ranging accord that created a landmark conservation agreement with a scale and scope beyond anything else on the planet. A full 33 percent was permanently set aside from logging as protected areas and parks, with monies committed to kick-start a conservation economy for coastal communities. Another set of agreements reached in 2009 committed the provincial government and all parties to reach the two goals of setting aside 70 percent of old growth from logging as well as of making significant improvements to human well-being over a five-year period. These agreements are progressive and historic, but implementation has stalled over the past year. With new leadership coming in, Greenpeace felt it was important during this campaign to get the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements on to the candidates’ radar and to get public declarations from them to get the agreements back on track, no matter who wins.

Sal’s campaign succeeded in getting two of the four other candidates to make such public declarations. And the Sal campaign received significant media attention. But the most important part of Sal’s campaign has been the interaction with people through social media and at public appearances. These have had the most impact and arguably the most meaning. Appearances with a spirited Team Sal on the B.C. ferries, at the Victoria legislature, Granville Island, Critical Mass, trade shows, the Liberal convention, and B.C. Green-Liberal all-candidates townhall on the environment all engaged the public and the public engaged Sal. People began to call, looking for where he would be next. Friends told friends. They shared Sal’s campaign video. They liked not only his “6 Claw-Point Plan” but also what he and his team stood for—spirit, integrity, and the need to bring levity to the world of politics.

The new leader of the Liberal party cannot rest on the unfulfilled promises of the past when it comes to what they have called the greatest conservation achievement in B.C.’s history. The Great Bear Rainforest Agreements must be a priority for the new premier. To play on the immortal words of Robert Frost, our new leader has “promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

There are still miles to go before we in the Sal campaign sleep. Much work is left to be done to implement the agreements. Sal may go into hibernation now, but we suspect he and his vision for the Great Bear Rainforest will be back.

Eduardo Sousa is a Greenpeace forests campaigner.