Dick Cannings is not a coward – he knows what happens when you walk into a swarm of hornets. The local MP made it known he was coming to Oliver and the “No Park” folk made full use of the opportunity to have an open-forum outside of a local café on Fairview Rd.

Estimate of crowd plus 60.

The encounter started with a formation of signs, small, large, some made at home – other the professional kind – then the MP arrived riding his cycle on a tour of his riding – but honestly no one really seemed to be listening.

Couple of points I heard clearly. One woman said she had attended a recent meeting with the Federal Minister Catherine McKenna who stated to her “the decision has been made – get used to it”. MP Cannings said a National Park will bring more resources to the valley to help with conservation but his arguments fell on deaf ears because the local message was – people from outside are planning on tampering with our land at our expense. Cannings also stated he was not the type to change his mind – he wants a park and says the benefits far outweigh the downside.

As stated here before – this area will never be Banff or Jasper but no one really can describe just what will happen once the signs go up – “NEW National Park”.

A mistrust of many governments levels on the mind of the crowd.