CCPFH - Results of All-Candidate Election Survey

Back to Issues, Campaigns and Projects

Effective Date: June 18, 2004

OTTAWA – The NDP, the Bloc Quebecois and the Green Party all clearly support keeping the inshore fishery in the hands of independent fishermen while the Liberals and Conservatives parties avoided taking a stand on the issue according to the results of an all-candidates survey released today by the country’s national fishermen’s organization.

The survey asked party leaders and candidates in all Atlantic coastal ridings whether they support keeping processing companies and other investors from owning inshore fishing licenses; giving retiring fish harvester fairer tax treatment and making it easier for young people to get loans to finance licence transfers.

“These are all very important issues in fishing communities especially the creeping corporate take-over of the inshore fleet which has become an election issue in several closely contested coastal ridings” said Earle McCurdy, President of the Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters.

According to McCurdy the survey was sent to party leaders and all candidates in 31 selected coastal ridings in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

“The inshore fishery received clear and positive support from NDP leader Jack Layton, Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe and Martin Willison, the Green Party’s fisheries critic; all of whom responded on behalf of all candidates in their parties. The response from the Liberals and Conservatives, however, was extremely disappointing,” McCurdy said

“Not one Liberal candidate responded to the survey. Instead we received a letter from the President of the Liberal Party of Canada stating the Liberals support the DFO’s process for dealing with these issues”, McCurdy said.

“Only two Conservative candidates (Loyola Hearn –St.John’s South and Merrill Strachan -Labrador) of 31 surveyed responded and both were supportive of the inshore fishery” McCurdy said.

The survey questions and individual candidate responses are available from the Council.

The Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters (CCPFH) is a non-profit organization formed in 1995 to represent the interests of professional fish harvesters throughout Canada in their relations with federal, provincial and territorial governments.