Environment, salmon and politics: British Columbia's role in domestic and international fisheries policy, 1996--1999

Between 1996 and 1999 the British Columbia (BC) government adopted a transgovernmental stance to pressure Ottawa and the United States into renegotiating the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST). BC's stance on this issue defied federal primacy over international affairs and ocean fisheries, and created tension between Victoria and Ottawa. This thesis demonstrates that BC's stance can be explained in part by two factors: “confidence” (specifically, decreased provincial confidence in Ottawa's ability to manage the salmon fishery) and “interest” (specifically, increased provincial interest in salmon). These factors are consistent with existing theoretical explanations for provincial transgovernmental activity. The research also suggests two other factors—political context and symbolism—influenced BC's stance. “Political context” involves the Clark government's desire to divert public attention away from negative issues affecting it in non-fishery areas. “Symbolism” involves associations between fish and the provincial identity. This study thereby demonstrates the validity of contemporary explanations for provincial transgovernmental behaviour, and exposes a need for the existing theory to be modified to include added factors.