A proposal to replace the beaver – described by one senator as a ‘dentally defective rat’ – with a polar bear as Canada’s national emblem provoked rebukes from across the nation on Friday.
Senator Nicole Eaton called for adoption of the cold-loving polar bear, the world’s largest walking carnivore, as a new symbol of Canada.
‘It is high time that the beaver step aside as a Canadian emblem or, at the least, share the honor with the stately polar bear,’ she said in the Senate on Thursday.
The lawmaker lauded the polar bear’s ‘strength, courage, resourcefulness and dignity,’ calling it ‘Canada’s most majestic and splendid mammal, holding reign over the Arctic for thousands of years.’
PHOTO: AFP