At one time all the Toronto newspapers had outdoor writers. Their presence seemed somehow linked to the Canadian National Sportman's show. The show was a gathering place and watering hole for Outdoor writers and maybe it generated enough ads to make it half worth having outdoor writers.

The Toronto Sportmen's Show, which at one time was the biggest in the world, seems to have begun to deteriorate the same year they stopped having guns at the show. It likely had to do with problems created by legislation from the Trudeau government or else the sale of the show into smaller pieces. Not sure.

Anyhow the big show broke up into several shows such as the boat show, the hunting show (which stopped last September), the spring fishing show
and a new and tiny Sportsmens Show.

At one time the Globe and Mail under editor Bob Rife had six pages of Outdoor Coverage weekly the most and best of any Canadian newspaper. This was killed by and English editor, a Cockney editor from London whose name I forget, who had absolutely no cultural connection to Canada and its traditions at all. Outdoor writing is now gone at the Globe. Maybe there were no ads to support it.

The Toronto Star at one time had lots of Outdoor coverage starting with Jimmy Clark whose father was a Star shareholder. Mike Bolton was another. Mike got a brain tumour and when Star senior editor Martin Goodman learned about it he fired Mike. Mike recovered completely and went to work for Ontario Out of Doors Magazine and Martin Goodman then got cancer and died so there is a God.

John Powers got the Toronto Star job and did an excellent job for the Star. He wrote many columns a week, did a great job in the arena hosting the shows that the Sportsman's how put on, and he even sponsored the Great Salmon Hunt in Lake Ontario. He did bring in ads but maybe not as many as the Star wanted.

John Power was deep sixed by Rosemary Spears a female managing editor who didn't like guns and hunting. It was the easiest way to keep John from writing about the subject. Ms Spears rates right up there with the book burners of the dark ages in my view. I am told outdoor writers at other papers in the Star chain have been warned not to mention the word gun. Its a firing offence.

The Toronto Sun is the only paper that has retained constant Outdoor coverage but mostly it has fishing coverage.

Now that a female editor at Ontario Out of doors has taken over the reigns there is some doubt that magazine will survive. And the people who could pick it up, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters have their own financial problems due to a bungled law suit so maybe it will just go tits up.

There is no doubt that the field of outdoor writing in Ontario is currently at the lowest point it has ever been. The only successful magazine is Outdoor Canada but it is a national rather than a provincial publication.


VBR,



Ted Gorsline

I think this mirrors the general decline of outdoor activities in Canada generally. Forty years ago when going to Ontario to hunt the border guards would tell you stories about their moose and didn't even check your rifle. Now you get the third degree at the border if you even look like a hunter. The fish and game wardens treat you like a criminal as well. Quebec is worse, most of my friends and family won't go there at all anymore. I doubt if the fishing lodges get the business they used to either.

At one time there was a chap named Dan Thomey and he started Ontario Out of Doors Magazine. Danny had no money and yet he took the publication from zero circulation to 35,000 over night by fighting for the interests of Ontario hunters and anglers.

He sold it because he was working from 8 am to 11 pm, seven days a week and he didn't have time for his wife and daughter and he was worried about his family.

But he fought like hell and he was really good at it.

The new owner decided to become less pugnacious in hopes of attracting mainstream ads like liquour ads by companies that didn't want their names associated with controversy. This the magazine did and it even started a hunting show. But the publication lost its spirit and became bland. It was all "where to go" and "how to do it" instead of organizing riots like Danny did. No more fighting on behalf of the readership.

Not only did the magazine stop fighting, but the organization created to lobby stopped fighting and even the small firearms industry which was being kicked in the head daily also stopped fighting.

A friend says its because the original residents of Ontario are what they call United Empire Loyalists. These are people who during the American revolution decided not to fight but to live under the British crown so they all moved to Ontario. Thus Benedict Arnold is considered an American traitor but a Canadian hero.

One of the cultural attributes of United Empire Loyalists is that they are forelock tuggers. They stoop to authority. That seems to have been what Ontario's organized hunters and shooters have done and it cost them dearly.

In contrast the boys in Alberta are not United Empire Loyalists and they have successfully decided to fight and change the federal government. A great many refused to register their firearms even when it became a criminal offence. And they have been successful. I guess the lesson is that if you stop fighting you die and if you keep fighting even when the odds are against you like they were against the boys in Alberta you may win.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Is it time for Western Seperation yet? derf

If I were king of the world I would move the separatist population in Quebec (about 48%) to Sable Island at gun point and make a kind of Indian reserve for separatists.

I would then fence off Toronto with chain mail and make it illegal for anyone living there to visit the rest of the country unless they paid a $100 a day exit fee. I would make sure they were back in the city before dark.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Ted,

Myself and a few buddies were members of Dan Thomey's fishing club on the Ganaraska River for a number of years. He's got some fine fishing waters there for steelhead.

Those well trained German Shepherds of his also did a really good job of keeping trespassers out.

We already got Sable Island reserved for the Alberta Seperatists, close to the gas wells you know. So find another Island say, between Calgary and the US border.

Exit 31

Dear Fischer,

As far as I know the Ganny had the best run of rainbow trout in Ontario. If my memory serves me correctly 20 years ago it had 16,000 trout from 3 to 16 pounds go up the fish ladder and they all swam across Danny's farm. I fished there myself a few times.

But the reason I like Danny alot is that whenever anyone in Ontario gave hunters or anglers a hard time he always led an immediate counter offensive with his magazine and he created the Great Salmon Hunt. When he sold Ontario Out of Doors it withered on the vine and now appears to be on its death bed.

Danny always fought. Nobody else ever did.



VBR,



Ted Gorsline

Dear Exit 31,

Isle Royale in Lake Superior would be ideal for Alberta Separatists. The American's already own it.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline

I'm going black bear hunting in Aug. Is there any problem with hunters in Ontario?

Dear JRO,

Unless things have changed recently the black bear season is closed in August in Ontario and the skins would be ratty in the hot weather.

VBR,

Ted Gorsline

I don t know how u are getting AB rednecks to go anywhere cause a hundred rural albertans are have more firepower than the rest of Canada. Be nice to us and we will protect you. All in fun

My outfitter told me black bear hunting opens on the 15 of Aug just like it did last year. The temp is in the 50's in aug in Ontario just about half way up.

Dear JRO45,

Your outfitter could be right. I haven't lived in Canada for 20 years. The fall bear season used to open on Sept 1 but it could be the season has been extended to tray to take some of the political heat off the fact that the spring bear season was closed. The Ontario MNR has a big web site and the season will be there for sure.

VBR,

Ted Gorsline

Dear Oldiesel,

I cannot in my heart criticize Alberta red necks for anything because you held the thin red necked line for years and finally did poke the Liberal Party which really needed poking.

If you guys go to Isle Royale let me know and I will go with you. I am a southern Ontario red neck and half my hunting buddies moved to Alberta years ago when it was clear Ontario was going to become the cess pool that it is today.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline