Ducks Unlimited Canada | Geoffrey & Mika

I joined the local fundraising committee of Ducks Unlimited Canada in the 1990s. Ducks Unlimited Canada is an organization dedicated to conserving wetlands and the diverse species that inhabit them. Ducks, of course, are the focal point. Ducks Unlimited Canada has projects across Canada to enhance and reclaim wetlands. Ducks Unlimited Canada was founded in 1938 and, to date, has conserved 6.3 million acres of wetlands. Ducks Unlimited Canada is successful because it relies on conservation-minded volunteers like me to organize local fundraising events. Members of the fundraising committee met in the Chairman’s basement to plan the annual fundraising banquet. It is truly a grassroots organization. Also, it maintains its focus on wetland conservation. It has not allowed itself to be co-opted by other interests unrelated to its mission. It publishes annual financial reports detailing revenue generated and how the money was spent. This is a hallmark of a successful organization with a clear mandate and a strong focus on its mission.

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Geoffrey out duck hunting.

The words “gun lobby” and “gun nut” are slurs invented by prohibitionists–people opposed to gun ownership and hunting–to besmirch the character of gun owners and hunters. I heard the term “gun nut” used on American television sitcoms like “All in the Family” as early as the 1970s. I shrugged it off at the time as inconsequential. I had no reason to believe as a boy that there was anything wrong with gun ownership and hunting. I remember how other children brought things like duck wings for show and tell in kindergarten and primary school. Wings taken from the wild ducks that their older brothers and fathers shot while out hunting. Other children proudly told the class about their fathers, who had returned from successful big game hunts. My dad and my uncle enjoyed hunting cottontail and jackrabbits when I was a boy. It was not until late in 1989, following the mass shooting at the engineering school at the University of Montreal that I first heard mention of the “gun lobby” used as a pejorative term in public parlance. It came as an unwelcome surprise. Continue reading →