A CONSERVATIVE senator wants to toss aside our long-standing national emblem, the beaver, and replace it with the polar bear. The era of the “dentally defective rat” is over, argues Senator Nicole Eaton…. Would Americans stop pushing us around on border and trade issues if we had a huge predator for a national animal instead of an unassuming, industrious one? Polar bears can be pretty ruthless. They’re even known, on occasion, to eat their young. And not just the dads but the moms, too, as Toronto zookeepers discovered recently. That’s a hawkish new image for Canada indeed. Polar bears are strong and majestic looking, so it’s easy to see their appeal over squat and toothy rodents. But looks, dear senator, aren’t everything. And what’s really curious (besides how this could possibly be a matter for the Senate to worry about) is why, as a Conservative, Eaton doesn’t see more to love in the beaver….

They’re big on history. The lucrative trade in beaver pelts drove exploration in much of the country and formed the basis of our early economy…. Yes, fashion is fickle and beaver fur has fallen out of favour. But, it could be argued, their tails have more than filled that void. Fried dough drenched in sugar — there’s no dessert named after a polar bear that can beat that. Socially and fiscally, beavers fit the Conservative bill, too. They mate for life and their older offspring care for the younger ones. Why, if we were all like that, demands for a national day-care programme would cease…. Each beaver family can maintain acres of wetland … and they don’t charge a dime for it. And when some of the furry fellas decide to munch on the good senator’s Muskoka cottage dock that, it could be said, helps the economy by creating new construction jobs.

….They even have their own verb: it means to work hard. The polar bear, for all its “strength, courage, resourcefulness and dignity”, which Eaton so admires, is under serious distress from warming temperatures and loss of sea ice for hunting…. In fact, it’s a bit odd that a Conservative senator wants to draw attention to the polar bear at all. The climate change file isn’t exactly the Harper government’s strong suit. Eaton has put out her call to trade in a “19th-century has-been for a 21st-century hero”. We say the beaver is found across the nation, is a hard worker, cares for family, contributes to the community and yet is no pushover. What better national emblem could we have? Long live the beaver. — (Oct 28)