The Jasper Local October15 2015 Issue 59

a lt e r n a t i v e + l o c a l + i n d e p e n d e n t //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

thejasperlocal.com

thursday, October 15, 2015 // issue 59

Grizzly bear numbers up after 10 years: study Grizzly bear populations just outside of Jasper National Park have gone up by an estimated seven percent annually in the last 10 years, according to recently released data from the Foothills Research Institute (fRI).

SUZY WHITTY AND VAL BARTZIOKAS LEAD A GROUP OF TRAIL TROOPERS OCTOBER 13. BARTZIOKAS CELEBRATED HER 1,000TH KM OF THE YEAR ON THE RUN. // BOB COVEY

A population study conducted last year in Bear Management Area Three (BMA3), a 10,000 square kilometre area east of JNP and south of Highway 16, determined that there were approximately 74 bears in 2014, up from 36 bears in 2004. “[This] is higher than commonly seen in most interior grizzly bear populations in North America,” the study reads.

Moreover, researchers estimate there are

approximately 54 bears in a 7,000 square kilometre area of South Jasper National Park.

Assuming bear density is the same as it was when the northern half of the park was studied in 2008, the authors of the report estimate there are 113 grizzly bears in JNP in total.

Last summer, field crews collected grizzly bear hair samples from over 250 sites in the study area, using DNA from the hair to estimate the population size.

Up-to-date, accurate information is critical to making good recovery plans and evaluating progress in managing this species, said one of the report’s author, Gord Stenhouse.

“Grizzly bears have been listed as a threatened species in Alberta since 2010. Recovery plans benefit from good data on how many bears there are

and where they live.”

bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

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editorial //

page A2 // the jasper local // issue 59 // october 15, 2015

Local Vocal Practicing journalism in a small town is always challenging, but occasionally it can be down right daunting, as our colleagues at Jasper’s weekly paper, The Fitzhugh, were reminded recently.

The editorial staff was under fire for publishing an uncomfortable story about a local hotel’s bedbug infestation, after Alberta Health Services ordered the hotel to shut down several of its rooms.

Soon after the story appeared online, a barrage of criticism was hurled at the paper for “shaming” the hotel and jeopardizing Jasper’s reputation amongst travellers.

Fellow business owners, friends of the family and former staff members piled on, suggesting the story was sensationalist— some kind of low-blow that unfairly singled out one business’ bad day. Some folks urged the Fitzhugh to take the story down from their website and forgo publishing it in the paper edition.

Let’s get one thing clear: the media didn’t create this story. Rather, just as if they were broadcasting a court decision, an RCMP warning or a public health order of any other kind, the Fitzhugh was reporting this information in the public’s interest. They weren’t doing so out of malice or to fill a hole in the paper, but to inform the public what the provincial health authority determined to be an unacceptable risk to the public’s wellbeing. They were compelled to do it because that is the role a weekly newspaper serves in a community. Furthermore, their report was balanced, accurate and fair.

Tourist town or not, community journalism isn’t all kittens and rainbows. The Fitzhugh staff should be commended for sticking to their principles and not bowing to threats and bullying. Folks who were advocating the suppression of this information should ask themselves whose needs would have being served by burying this incident under the rug. Certainly not the public’s.

As for the hotel in question, this incident will pass, so long as they focus on the mess, rather than the messenger. bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

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The Jasper Local //

Jasper’s independent alternative newspaper 780.852.9474 • thejasperlocal.com • po box 2046, jasper ab, t0e 1e0

Published on the 1st and 15th of each month Editor / Publisher

Bob Covey..........................................................................................bob@thejasperlocal.com

Art Director

Nicole Gaboury........................................................................nicole@thejasperlocal.com

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Local opinion//

thursday, October 15, 2015 // issue 59 // the jasper local// page A3

FISH STICKS // AQUATIC BIOLOGISTS CONDUCTING FISH SURVEYS IN JASPER WERE ON THE ATHABASCA RIVER OCTOBER 6. EMITTING AN ELECTRICAL CURRENT THROUGH THE WATER, THEY STUNNED WHITEFISH, BULL TROUT, SUCKERS AND OTHER SPECIES, THEN CREATED A POPULATION ESTIMATE BASED ON WHAT CAME UP. // BOB COVEY

Progressives should vote strategic means that many Canadians Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but it have to get strategic if they

pains me to think that two of the main political parties can’t figure out the basic math to give progressive voters better representation in parliament.

When are the Liberals and the NDP going to learn from the Conservatives and admit that what differences they have are far less significant than what they have in common?

The Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives decided years ago to put their egos aside and merge to form the Conservative Party of Canada. What happened?

The party won two minority governments after the 2006 federal election and a majority in 2011.

Meanwhile, the Liberals and the NDP fight for the same left-of-centre turf, wasting time and energy barking up two different trees when most constituents would be much more interested in seeing some kind of olive branch being offered.

Our broken, first-past-the-post electoral system, plus the progressive parties’ refusal to play in the same sandbox,

want their values to be represented in parliament.

Voting strategically might seem like a bit of a cop-out to one’s true leanings, but on election day, politics is about numbers, not niceties. Get your guy or gal in, then you can start splitting hairs about immigration policy or child care benefits.

Here in Yellowhead, we haven’t been pegged as a swing riding, but I think that’s only because the landslide Conservative victories for the past 30 years have put us off the radar for the nation’s major media outlets. The 2014 by-election, wherein the Grits got 20 per cent of the vote, make Yellowhead a more interesting riding than most pollsters would predict.

It’s with that factor in mind, plus the idea that the NDP honeymoon in Alberta is waning, that we’re advocating a strategic vote for the Liberals’ Ryan Maguhn.

Maguhn has proven to be on point with his answers at the all-candidates forums, he’s able to connect local issues

to national debates and he seems to understand that the job of MP is something you earn, rather than inherit.

He’s likeable: he is tuned-in on social media, yet he’s got an old-fashioned earnestness that gives you confidence he’d work on your behalf. Most importantly, however, he’s got the best chance to unseat the incumbent—who, it should be said, is akin to the uncle you see at Thanksgiving: nice to visit with, but far off when it comes to political priorities.

The Jasper Local is proud of our local candidate, the NDP’s Ken Kuzminski, for putting his name forward.

Kuzminski is well-versed in the national issues and has a solid track record as a community builder, but Maguhn has a more robust team and more experience as a politician. If progressive Yellowhead voters—whether orange, red or green—cast their ballot strategically, there will be a better chance that the values they share will be represented. And if voters can learn to compromise, perhaps politicians will be next. bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

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page B1 // the jasper local // issue 59 // Thursday, october 15, 2015

Local politics //

Michael Saretzky (above) is Liberal Candidate Ryan Maguhn’s official agent; Conservative Nancy Eglinski has politics in her blood; and Courtenay Davidson is running NDp Ken Kuzminski’s social media campaign. All are crucial, behind-the-scenes supporters of Yellowhead federal election candidates’ campaigns. // Bob covey

The stable managers of the political horserace Behind every candidate there is a support team, and behind every support team there is a story.

At least that’s what The Jasper Local was hoping when we concocted the idea of speaking to the campaign teams of Yellowhead’s main political parties, rather than the candidates themselves.

When it comes to speaking to the media, political candidates, perhaps understandably, are always guarded, often boring. To ameliorate the drudgery, and with apologies to the Green Party and the Libertarian candidates, whose supporters we didn’t speak to, we decided to profile the stable managers, rather than the thoroughbreds, in our local horserace. It was our hope that by learning about the official agents, social media managers and significant others behind the scenes, we’d get a sense of the campaign behind the campaigner.

Lessons in real life

Dressed in a black shirt, striped tie and sporting a red Liberal button, Michael Saretzky stands to the right of his friend and fellow teacher in Hinton, Liberal candidate Ryan Maguhn. On his left is a sharply-dressed young woman, also wearing a red button. What all three have in common, besides who they’ll vote for come October 19, is that they have all discussed politics at length at Hinton’s Gerard Redmond Community Catholic School—Saretzky and Maguhn as teachers, Laura Thomasson as a student.

“It was the social studies curriculum that really

started to pique my interest,” Saretzky said.

To make the class more interesting, Saretzky created simulations which had the students take up different political positions. He didn’t know it at the time, but it was research for another important job he’d become involved with: Maguhn’s official agent.

“I’ve always been one for research,” he said.

“I liked looking at the different platforms and figuring out which ones I believed in.”

Once he realized he identified as a Grit, it was a no-brainer when Maguhn asked Saretzky to manage the the finances for his November 2014 by-election campaign.

“It was a quick decision,” Saretzky said.

At that time, the federal party had more resources for the Yellowhead Liberals. After all, there were only two campaigns being run in

“It feels good. I hadn’t been super involved in politics up until this point.” the country. However, even though the support is more spread out during this current election, “there’s a ton of training available,” Saretzky said.

Perhaps where he’s learned the most is on the doorsteps of voters while campaigning with Maguhn. While at first he found it intimidating, Saretzky said his confidence in Maguhn helped him battle his nerves.

“Whenever Ryan has the opportunity to talk to people we always get positive feedback,” he said.

Eglinski’s secret weapon

Long before she met her husband Jim, Nancy Eglinski had politics in her blood.

“My dad would drive us to the polling stations to watch him vote when we were five or six years old,” she said. “By the time we were old enough, we were just aching to vote.”

Even before she could legally cast a ballot, however, Eglinski (nee Chuilli) worked for her local MLA in B.C.’s Peace River Region. Eglinski learned a lot under So-Cred Dean Smith, who would eventually become speaker of the B.C. Assembly from 1975-1978. After Smith’s retirement Eglinski took a short break from politics, but got back into the game when federal minister of forestry, Frank Oberle, sitting under Brian Mulroney’s PC government, asked her to join his team.

“It was a natural progression, since my dad was so involved in politics,” she said.

The progression continued after she met her husband Jim while working at North Cariboo Airlines. Jim Eglinksi was a career RCMP officer whose work with local Lions and Rotary Clubs primed him for a shot at municipal office in Fort St. John. Nancy helped him get there, managing his campaigns for council and eventually mayor, where he sat for one term before moving to his home province of Alberta.

“When we moved to Edson we more or less thought we would retire, but neither one of us was ready to settle,” Nancy said.

Instead, while working for the forestry centre, Eglinski began volunteering for then Yellowhead MP Rob Merrifield. Her husband, who had worked for the Conservatives in B.C., became Continued on next page

the colours come alive in the fryatt valley in the fall. //n.Gaboury

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Local politics//

thursday, october 15, 2015 // issue 59 //the jasper local// page B2

Start your engines// Wendy Hall counts down Participants of the Freewheel Biathlon. 70 athletes took part during the race’s 30th anniversary. // bob covey

Making connections, learning the ropes Continued from previous page

riding president. When Merrifield resigned, Jim was asked to step forward. Despite criticism that he was parachuted in, Nancy maintains the Eglinskis earned every vote.

“He didn’t inherit that job, we busted our ass,” Nancy said about earning the Conservative nomination. “We went from one end of the riding to the other.”

And now the team is doing it again. Between campaigning and driving to Edmonton to catch the flight to Ottawa, they’ve put close to 60,000 km on their truck in the past year.

“That’s the hardest part of the job, the travel,” Nancy said.

Despite the long hours, and despite being longer in the tooth than the other candidates, Nancy says she still loves politics.

“I’m a people person,” she said. “I enjoy meeting people, making connections and making friends.”

Putting a Facebook to the name

She has been. Kuzminski’s online presence was kicked into high gear October 1 once Davidson came on board.

“It feels good,” she said. “I hadn’t been super involved in politics up until this point.”

A graphic designer by trade, Davidson knows about the power of media and the importance of effective imagery.

“It’s really important for a candidate to be online,” she said. “It’s the quickest, cheapest way to get your message across.”

But the internet is also a way to spread half-

If Ken Kuzminksi, NDP has been popping up in your Facebook newsfeed lately, you can thank Courtenay Davidson for that.

Davidson, 30, is Kuzminski’s social media manager. She’s been posting and tweeting and otherwise using a variety of social media tools to get the word out that the NDP’s Yellowhead candidate wants to go to work for Canadians.

Bob Covey //bob@thejasperlocal.com Having met Kuzminski at the Jasper Legion, and having had something of a political awakening after working PR jobs for the energy industry in Calgary, Davidson said she was ready to support the local carpenter’s campaign.

“I asked him if I could help,” she said.

truths. Part of Davidson’s duties include factchecking what the other candidates put online.

“You’ve got a responsibility to pull apart that information,” she said. “And so you’ve really got to know the party platforms and stay on your toes.”

In the meantime, it’s not so much the toes that Davidson is worrying about.

“The goal is to put a face to the NDP in this region,” she said. “That’s Ken.” Bob Covey //bob@thejasperlocal.com

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page b3+B4 // the jasper local // issue 59 // thursday, october 15, 2015

LOCAL FEATURE //DOWN & DIRTY//

Celebrating the Local Harv

// fern yip

A SQUEAL OF DELIGHT ERUPTS FROM MONIKA SCHAEFER AS HER HAND TOUCHES A HARD, COOL LUMP IN THE DARK DIRT. Her hand emerges victorious clutching a dirt speckled, red fleshed potato. Frenzied digging ensues to look for more treasure. It’s harvest time in Jasper, when gardeners reap the last rewards of what they planted in the Spring.

Schaefer is proud to harvest food that improves local food security, what she calls ‘northern climate food;’ root vegetables keep well throughout the winter. “Food is the basic stuff of life…we have to know how to feed ourselves,” Schaefer says.

Like many other Jasper gardeners who lack garden space at their own homes, Schaefer has made arrangements to garden in the backyards of friends where there is sufficient space and sun. After arriving at her garden with kitchen compost today, she’ll leave with a bucketful of potatoes and carrots that will end up in a Thanksgiving dinner.

Like Schaefer, James McCormick is also busy in the garden at this time of year with a final harvest. In between shovel stomps of carrots and dirt he pauses to comment on the growing season. “Talk about an all season Thanksgiving! I’ve been able to share vegetables from my garden with friends all summer. Then I get invites for tasty dinners.” In addition to eating well, McCormick continues to garden because

// fern yip

// bob covey

of the therapeutic benefits growing vegetables has: “At the end of the day, the garden simply puts things in perspective.”

Harvest time for local garlic farmer Paula Klassen happened a few weeks ago at a small plot she has been keeping on her uncle’s land in Morinville, just North of Edmonton.

The event is an annual ritual and family affair, bringing together three generations of harvesters to pull up two thousand heads of garlic. Growing up, Klassen participated in gardening with her family every Sunday on the same land, and sees the garlic harvest as a way of planting the seeds for the next generation of gardeners. In this sixth year of growing garlic, Klassen is amazed and grateful for the resiliency of the earth to produce a bounty despite the drought in Alberta. As a seedkeeper of six varieties of garlic, Klassen realizes “I’m holding space to let the garlic grow.” With all the competing interests for land development, Klassen has learned to revere the small miracle of growing food from seed.

To order your garlic, contact Paula Klassen by email: soulcentriceducator@gmail.com.

Another harvest drew together 30 gardeners in the Jasper Community Garden at the beginning of the month for a ‘work bee’ session. Garden coordinator Karl Peetoom tallies up the fruits of some of the labour: “From the two plots dedicated to the Jasper Food Bank, we dug up 60lbs of potatoes, 20lbs of carrots, and 35lbs of beets.” The bounty will help fulfill the food sharing mandate of the Jasper Community Garden and dem-

// supplied

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feature //

arvest by fern yip

ovey

onstrates a way to make good food available to everyone. Janet Cooper, who has a plot at the Jasper Community Garden, says that she has been “blown away by how much the 8 by 4ft plots can produce. Enough to feed a family!”. // supplied Cooper wasn’t the only one amazed by the Jasper Community Garden this season. Curious tourists often “Talk about an all season stopped by, surprised by the variety of Thanksgiving! I’ve been able to vegetables that can be grown in such share vegetables from my garden a northern climate. In part, the high with friends all summer. Then I visibility of The Jasper Community get invites for tasty dinners.”

Garden helped Jasper receive a high - James mccormick rating from Communities in Bloom, a non-profit organization that challenges communities to foster civic pride, environmental responsibility, and beautification through the enhancement of green spaces. The Five Bloom rating applauds the Jasper Community Garden as “a lively, creative spot where… flowers and vegetables are grown in abundance and, more important, a sense of community grows!”

For Jasper gardeners, pulling out the last carrot, potato, or beet marks the end of a growing season from which joy, self-sufficiency, and community have also been harvested. Now is the time to put the gardens to bed for winter and cherish the remaining delicious bites the fall season has to offer. Those who lament the incomparable taste of fresh garden vegetables will begin dreaming of seed catalogues and for the arrival of spring. fern yip //info@thejasperlocal.com

// supplied

// n. gaboury

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page B5 // the jasper local //issue 59 // Thursday, october 15, 2015

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Local politics //

thursday, october 15, 2015 // issue 59 // the jasper local// page B6

Too soon! Like it or not, commercial hockey is here The puck has dropped on another season of commercial hockey in Jasper and for better or for worse, 150 or so members of Jasper’s (mostly male) population will begin their weekly lurch into the dungeon of dramatic debauchery, otherwise known as the Jasper Arena.

All over our community, the troglodytic transformation has begun.

Responsible husbands, capable employees and holders of thoughtful conversation will, over the coming weeks, debase into jock-strap-wearing life forms concerned mainly with the abilities, activities and civilities of their stick-wielding opponents.

The sour stench of sweat soaked skates will permeate garages and basements; dinners will be hastily choked down in anticipation of an impending carpool; and nearly every night of the week, friends and families of those who participate in the Jasper Hockey League will wonder aloud how a normally prudent and punctual person can stretch two 22 minute periods of recreational hockey into five hours at the rink.

The answer, of course, is blowing in the wind—a wind which, unfortunately, contains spittle-flecked referee tweets, Old Spice-scented shower steam and

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the garlic belches of said hastilybegun. Off-season recruiting by the In the spirit of healthy competition choked-down-dinners. Is that also a Royals has landed a couple of big fish and with a critical chirp at the ready trace of nicotine from the wedgedand the Beavers have bolstered their for puck hogs, snap-shows and poorajar entrance to the smokers’ area we D-core in the absence of several key sports, The Jasper Local wants to detect? No one said playing hockey as veterans. The Hawks are reformed and take a lighthearted look at the JHL an adult had to be healthy. the Bongs are hoping their summer this year. Commercial hockey in our Driven by escapism, peppered with pickups are ringers, too. community is a culture that—perhaps idiotic humour and lubricated with How the league shakes out is yet to for reasons which will become clear— shampoo pranks, the culture of commercial hockey festers and flourishes in the dressing room of eight local teams: The Barley Kings, the Beavers, the Bonestars, the Bongs, the Jets, the Hawks, the Outlaws and the Royals.

In these pages, in the coming months, The Jasper Local will attempt to break down what exactly it is which makes these teams tick. It’s not going to be pretty, it’s doubtful that it will be accurate, and it certainly won’t be unbiased, but it will be our goal to get into the goop The Royals picked up Hef “He (para)chutes, he scores” Dorian for the 2015 season (middle). Dude can that makes these players skate! // Bob Covey alternately stick together and become sick of each other. be determined. Each squad has the doesn’t get a lot of press. However, With significant changes to several talent and the tenacity to get a win having been around the league for a teams’ rosters, the jury is out on who any night of the week but JHL history little while now, we know there’s plenwill rise to the top in 2015/16, but one has shown it’s the group which plays ty of mucky material to mine. thing is clear: a redoubled effort to the most effectively as a team which Let’s have a good season out there, dethrone the Barley Kings has already perseveres in the end. folks. Game on.

Bob Covey //bob@thejasperlocal.com