Annelise Sorg urges opposition to Aquarium's dolphins plans.

Whales and dolphins can't vote, but you can.

That's the message from the Coalition For No Whales In Captivity, which says the NPA supports whales and dolphins being captured.

"Every election's important for the whales," coalition director Annelise Sorg said in an interview. "The Vancouver Aquarium is a public aquarium in a public park funded by public money. And the Vancouver Aquarium's members are tied to the NPA. We want a referendum on the importation of dolphins."

Sorg is urging Vancouverites to vote for candidates who are opposed to the Vancouver Aquarium's plan to import more dolphins to Stanley Park.

She said there are still six beluga whales and one dolphin kept captive in the park, adding that Vancouverites have the power to stop the capture, breeding and commercial trade of whales and dolphins taking place in the public aquarium.

To that end, Sorg is urging voters to vote for Larry Campbell for mayor, as well as several COPE and TEAM members for council, school board and park board.

They include COPE candidates Fred Bass, David Cadman, Allen Blakey and Anita Romaniuk, as well as TEAM candidates Lou Demerais, Dave Pasin and Erik Whiteway. Some GREEN candidates have also been endorsed, including Connie Fogal-Rankin, Andrea Reimer and Scott Braithwaite-Nelson.

BACKGROUNDER

Dear All, 

For those of you who missed yesterday's (Nov.4/02) Animal Rights Show on Coop Radio, here's a summary.

Host Marge Adams interviewed me for 35 minutes. We discussed captivity issues and the upcoming Vancouver's municipal elections.

I explained that the Coalition For No Whales In Captivity has been involved in the past 4 municipal elections and chances are that we will continue to be involved for many elections to come.

This time, we are urging people to vote for candidates who share our concerns for the whales and DO NOT vote for NPA candidates. NPA stands for Not Paying Attention and Not Protecting Animals.

The Coalition has endorsed candidates running for COPE, the Green Party and vcaTEAM, who have sent us e-mail messages stating their opposition to whale captivity.

TEAM is a new political party containing many scary ex-NPA members and therefore we're giving TEAM the benefit of the doubt in this election. We are hoping that this party does not turn out to be a mini version of NPA.

I had a chance to comment on only a few of the candidates we are endorsing. Here's a summary of what I said on air:

For Mayor, I asked listeners to vote for Larry Campbell (COPE). COPE as a political party opposes whale-captivity and some of their members are long-time supporters of our group.

For Council, I asked that people re-elect Fred Bass (COPE) and Tim Louis (COPE) who have been doing a great job at City Hall for the last three years. I gave a brief history on how much Tim helped the whales when he was Park Commissioner for 2 terms (1993-1999).

A true environmentalist, David Cadman (COPE) ran for mayor in the last election. David participates in all our rallies and Park Board meetings and he is a valuable volunteer for the whales. I have no doubt that he would make a great Councillor.

Roslyn Cassells is running for Councillor as an independent candidate, after spending 3 long years as a park commissioner fighting for animals, parks and people at the Vancouver Park Board. Hopefully people will remember her for all she's done as a park commissioner and will elect her for Council. Roslyn got great reviews from the radio host, as well.

We talked about Connie Fogal-Rankin (GREEN), the widow of the great Harry Rankin. Connie is running for Council, picking up where Harry left off. Harry was a great supporter of our campaigns and he would come to Park Board meetings to give absolute hell to the NPA park commissioners for letting the aquarium get away with murder. Connie has assured us that she will help out with our campaigns as well.

We endorsed Jim Green (COPE) because when he ran for mayor in 1990, showing his strong opposition to the proposed zoo expansion. His mantra was "Free the animals, house the people." . Jim e-mailed us to let us know that he believes that if he is elected, just like we won the campaign to close the zoo, together we can win the campaign to end whale captivity.

We laughed remembering seeing Brian Godzilla Salmi wearing a toilet paper roll on his head when he ran for the Rhinoceros Party in the last municipal election. Brian writes for Terminal City and is running for Councillor as an independent candidate this time.

I was happy to endorse long-time park activist Wendy Turner (vcaTEAM) who is also running for Council. Wendy was a founding member of the Friends of Stanley Park, a group who opposes every aquarium expansion proposal and who wants parks to be green, not cemented.

For Park Commissioner, One Green candidate who will likely be elected because he is running for the Green Party and is fortunate enough to have a last name that starts with a "B", is Scott Braithwaite-Nelson (GREEN). Fortunately for us, Scott strongly opposes whale captivity.

Two candidates who our volunteers and supporters absolutely must vote for, even if they don't vote for anybody else on our list, is Anita Romaniuk (COPE) and Loretta Woodcock (COPE).

Anita and Loretta have been working on park issues as long as I can remember. They both have always gone out of their way to lend us their support and participate in our rallies and Park Board meetings. They know the issues very well and they truly care. If you love whales, please vote for Anita and Loretta.

For School Trustee, I urged people to vote for Jane Bouey (COPE) who has been a supporter of our group for a long time; and Andrea Reimer (GREEN) who is the Executive Director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WC2), an environmental group who in my opinion, has saved more trees and animals in BC than any other group in town.

For a complete list of the candidates we endorse, please visit our website: http://www.whaleprotection.org/cfnwic/elections

Thanks to Marge Adams for a great interview. Listen to the Animal Show on COOP Radio 102.7 FM every Monday from 4pm to 5pm. The show is sponsored by EarthSave Canada and the Vancouver Humane Society.

For the whales,