Stagg Editorial- September 1994

Brian Tobin, Federal Fisheries Minister since November 1993, has made a strong, militant impact both upon Newfoundland, Canada and the world.

In ordering the seizure and arrest of two American scallop draggers and their crews on the Grand Banks he put to rest any notion that Canada's federal fisheries policy would succumb to the dressed up cowardice that so characterized the Mulroney and Trudeau years of government.

Tobin recognizes that his roots are in small town Newfoundland in places like Stephenville and Goose Bay where he grew up. Voters in these towns and in the fishing communities of Newfoundland are not interested in the fine points of diplomatic debate when it comes to preserving a vital resource.

Tobin has done a tremendous service to Newfoundland and to Canada in showing that his dedication to protecting the fishery goes beyond mere words and gestures. The very real act of policing and arresting the American boats on the Grand Banks has shown the world that Brian Tobin, as a Newfoundlander, as a Canadian, and as federal Fisheries Minister, recognizes his political obligation to the ordinary worker both in the fishing industry and in all of Canada.

The Fisheries Minister did not do a unique thing when he arrested the American crews. Rather, he carried out, for the first time in Canada, a routine that would have been ordinarily done in many other countries including the United States and any of the European countries that have plagued our fishing grounds lately. Simply put, if foreign fishing boats had ever dared to damage the coastal fishing grounds of any other North Atlantic fishing nation they would have been arrested long ago. Surely Canadians would not have been surprised if the American Coast Guard had arrested a Canadian fishing boat which had dared to fish protected stocks off New Jersey or South Carolina.

Brian Tobin is doing a competent and patriotic job as Canadian Fisheries Minister. Now he must stay the course and resist any urge for promotion out of that department when the Prime Minister shuffles his cabinet. To use his success in the Fisheries Department as a platform for promotion would do a tremendous disservice to the people he now serves. As a Newfoundlander he must show that he is in that job for the long haul.

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