Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Red Deer—Lacombe. They were as close as one can get. The member is a true Albertan, but I think Manitobans appreciate having him in their back pocket.
Bob cherished those hunts and those days on the lake with the member and so many other people. That is where he was happy. On the beautiful, sprawling farm he had, he managed the landscape. He was a gardener of his little piece of earth. That was the way he thought. He wanted more ducks, more available, and he took action to do so.
When I was working for him, we made a video called “Eating Canadian Beef is Good for the Environment”. It did not seem that controversial, but it did get a bit of push-back. It was the first time that I learned many animal rights activists are kind of sociopaths, and he warned me about that. A lot of the online comments, death threats and suggestions of ways he should die, which I hid with current advanced tools, were telling.
He did it with such pride. He knew that ranchers are our best boots on the ground and are important for maintaining our national grasslands and rural communities. I could not say how many groups thought he was the best friend they could have ever had: hunters, anglers, trappers, ranchers, every other type of agricultural producer and many others.
He was always grounded by his belief in the rural way of life: protecting it, maintaining it and fighting for it. He was one of the best at it there could ever be.