Wife of ex-PM Harper calls cougar hunter, TV host "creep"
Digital Reporter
Thursday, December 21, 2017, 2:05 PM - Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s wife has become one of the latest to take on a Canadian TV host and big-game hunter who posted a celebratory photo of himself with a cougar he had just shot.
Steve Ecklund, host of the Wild TV big game hunting program “The Edge” posted the contentious photo to his personal Facebook in early December: He stands in the woods of Alberta, sporting a wide grin as he holds up a dead cougar.
The post has since received almost 1,000 comments and roughly 2,300 shares, divided among those who say the post is offensive and those who support cougar hunting as a means of controlling the predator's population.
Laureen Harper weighed in Thursday, tweeting that the northern Ontario native is a “creep” and “must be compensating for something.”
In response to one her tweet's over 1,000 replies, Harper asserts that while she agrees hunting has value for conservation, this does not change her opinion on Ecklund's photos.
Since Dec. 3, Ecklund’s original Facebook post has almost 1,000 comments, and about 2,300 shares.
He thanks Big Adventures, an Alberta-based website for hunters, which lists cougars among its “most popular big game hunts” .
Critical sentiments from twitter users range from comments that sympathize with the animal, to insults and death threats. Others support Ecklund and cougar hunting as means to protect the population of the animal's prey, such as deer.
According the the Government of Alberta, it is legal at any time of year in Alberta for a person to hunt cougar on their own land without a valid license. The hunter must then register the kill within one week.
With a license, Canadians who live outside of Alberta or Canada can hunt on public land from Dec. 1 to the last day of February. Hunters with an Alberta license can hunt from Sept. 1 until the last day of February.
Watch below: British Columbia bans grizzly bear hunting altogether
