One of the great things about Canada, I think, is all the different cultures we have. There's no cultural group or cluster of humans in this country that doesn't think of themselves as something: Newfoundlanders, sealers; lobster fisherman from Nova Scotia; and British Columbia first nations, hunters of moose. For any group you look at, if its a cultural thing, then it's in your heart, it's in your soul, and it defines your family. It's the fabric of your life and your community and therefore it's passionate. It's extremely passionate.
The power and, I think, one of the great strengths of our country is all the cultures we have and that we're culturally diverse. All of them are important to each other, you know, to themselves and to their own community.
In Manitoba, I don't have a right to hunt moose; I have a privilege. I don't have constitutional protection of my hunting culture here. My Métis hunting friends do. My first nations friends have constitutional protection for their hunting. When we talk about it, though, what we share is a bond. As hunters we have this cultural deep connection to it. So when we talk about our grandads, dads, mums, or sisters who do it together—and we do that. We live in the bush together for a week. We go and do that—that's where we reconnect. It's where we heal as family sometimes. It's all that stuff. It's deep and it's important. It's in your gut. It makes you emotional. It makes grown men cry, kind of thing. We wear it on our sleeves.
It's incredibly important. To me it's not about the money. Yes, it's economically important. Outfitting's important. We raise lots of money in hunting. If it were a business, it would be a big deal in the economy. But it's not about that. It's not about the economy. It's not about money. It's about culture. It's about how it defines us as people. It's about what it means to us.
At the end of the day, that's all you really have as a person so it's really deeply important. You see that in every community you go into. You feel it. They tell stories about their lives and their community. It's just awesome. It's rich and it's deep and it's valuable.