In 1815, there were no beaver around Thunder Bay.
Exploited relentlessly, the country’s busiest rodent was trapped out by the Northwest Company, coming to rest on the heads of Europe’s 19th century hipsters as the lining of top hats.
“It was all for fashion,” Fort William Historical Park spokesman Marty Mascarin said. “It seems frivolous today.”
That exploitation forced the Northwest Company further west in pursuit of buck-toothed gold, one of the reasons that led to western expansion and the eventual founding of Canada.
It’s been the reason that the beaver has become a national symbol, sitting atop countless coat-of-arms, including Thunder Bay’s.
But if Conservative Senator Nicole Eaton has her way, the beaver as Canada’s symbol might go the way of the dodo bird, or the beaver-lined top hats of 19th century Europe.
Last week the senator launched a campaign to replace the beaver with a polar bear. Calling it a “dentally defective rat,” she said the beaver was out of date and that the country needed an “emblem makeover.”
But Mascarin said from the region to the Fort to the country, the beaver is an important part of the past.
“It’s something you can’t get away from,” he said.
John Rafferty (NDP, Thunder Bay-Rainy River) agrees. The beaver is inextricably linked with the history of the country.
“Without the beaver we wouldn’t be the nation we are today,” he said.
And while Eaton has damned the animal, Rafferty said he believes that since she made the comments Prime Minster Stephen Harper has told her to quiet down.
“I suspect the government was just as surprised as the rest of Canadians were with her comments,” he said.
Rafferty said for him, an issue like this raises flags about the workload of Senators.
“One has to wonder what exactly are senators doing,” Rafferty said. “I believe in a single E senate – empty.”
