Leisure, nature and environmental movements in the mass media: comparing Jumbo Pass and the Tobeatic Wilderness Area, Canada

Abstract

Media coverage from major provincial and national newspapers is used to examine two Canadian sites where leisure and tourism become objects of environmental movement mobilisation: the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort ski development (British Columbia), and the Tobeatic Wilderness Area (Nova Scotia). In both cases, environmentalists and government appear as central news sources. A dominant discourse defines both of these places as wilderness landscapes that need protection from ecologically inappropriate modes of outdoor recreation (downhill skiing and off-highway vehicle use). There are also key differences between the two cases. First, while motorised recreation is defined as inherently incompatible with the wilderness values of the Tobeatic, environmentalists ally with heli-ski operators at Jumbo Pass in their opposition to resort development. Second, news coverage of Jumbo Pass offers more space to environmentalist opponents to question the ‘wilderness’ status of the region. Finally, in the Jumbo case, tourism is linked to economic development in opposition to ecological protection. By contrast, tourism in the Tobeatic is interpreted as a pro-environmental alternative to extractive development. Despite differences between these conflicts, both demonstrate that the relationship between outdoor recreation and environmentalism may be conflictual, rather than mutually supportive.