From the Thursday, February 2, 2006 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Conservative Party victories in Canada's Jan. 23 federal election “are almost certainly a setback for any short-term progress in protecting the Flathead.”
So said David Thomas, a former city council member from Fernie, British Columbia, and board member of the transboundary Flathead Coalition. According to Thomas, incoming Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government - backed by newly re-elected local member of parliament Jim Abbott - is unlikely to pursue expansion of Waterton Lakes National Park, which shares a border with Montana's Glacier National Park.
In addition, he said, conservationists now worry the new national government will give over federal lands to British Columbia for resource development.
Canadian politics have been closely watched by international neighbors on both sides of the Montana border, as the two countries work to resolve a longstanding debate over how best to manage wildlands immediately north of Glacier Park.
Over the past three decades, several plans have emerged to develop energy reserves in the Canadian Flathead, a river drainage that crosses the border to form Glacier's western boundary.
Downstream residents - and not a few Canadians - have fought those proposals, though, arguing coal and coalbed methane projects could taint international waterways and impact both fish and wildlife.
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