The Green Party of Canada family is devastated as one of our heroes loses everything to wildfire. 

Bruce Hyer, former MP from Thunder Bay—Superior North, and former Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada reported to local media yesterday that the wilderness lodge on Mattice Lake that he and his family have operated for decades has been destroyed by wildfire. Hyer put out an urgent call for assistance to locate two groups of clients on canoe trips in the remote wilderness area. The groups were subsequently located and rescued.  

Hyer was one of the campaigners who helped create Wabakimi Provincial Park.

A lifelong campaigner against dangerous pesticides and for nature conservation, Hyer was elected in 2008, and his first private member’s bill was the Climate Change Accountability Act, C-311.

In December 2013, he became the Green Party of Canada’s second sitting MP and Deputy Leader. He served in that role until 2015.

“As global warming stokes wildfires, it is almost unimaginable that Bruce has lost two businesses as well as his and wife Margaret’s much beloved cottage on the lake,” said close friend and colleague, Green Leader Elizabeth May. “You can still see the beauty of those businesses on the websites below, but they are gone, lost to the rampaging fire we have seen on the news near Armstrong, Ontario.

“Bruce has been working flat out rescuing campers and canoeists across vast areas of wilderness. With helicopters running $2,000/hour, all of his focus is on saving lives. Everyone is safe, but the financial losses are huge. Bruce wrote: ‘I would cry, but I am too busy and tired. Maybe later.’ “

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