At long last, long-weekend campers in Banff National Park will no longer have to face the menace of people having a beer or glass of wine around the campfire:
Banff National Park is banning alcohol in its campgrounds on long weekends.
Parks Canada staff say they've had too many complaints from campers about intoxicated people ruining their experience in the park.Wardens say ever since Alberta parks banned alcohol, people have been coming to Banff to drink and party at campgrounds.Starting this May long weekend, campers will be greeted by wardens and RCMP. They won't let anyone into campsites with alcohol. If campers are caught with booze, fines range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars with jail time.
This is in addition to 10 provincial campgrounds with booze bans in effect for the May long weekend.
The response from Parks Canada raises a question, however: if we're concerned about rowdiness and we have all this manpower available to search people for booze, why not devote that manpower to those actually causing the problems?
Why are we punishing everyone for the actions of a small few?
Moreover, why have we suddenly rushed to the nuclear option here?
The response from Parks Canada raises a question, however: if we're concerned about rowdiness and we have all this manpower available to search people for booze, why not devote that manpower to those actually causing the problems?
Why are we punishing everyone for the actions of a small few?
Moreover, why have we suddenly rushed to the nuclear option here?
We seem to have skipped over many logical steps, notably an education campaign helping people clearly understand the rules and making it clear that there's zero tolerance for drunken rowdy behavior.
Policies based on knee-jerk reactions invariably tend to be bad policies. This one is no different.
UPDATE: An excellent editorial from the Calgary Herald on this subject.
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