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If you were skiing at Sunshine Village last weekend, you may have spotted some famous faces, as celebrities gathered for the 8th annual Fairmont Banff Springs Sports Invitational in support of the Waterkeeper Alliance.
This year’s attendees included Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Alec Baldwin, William Baldwin, Jason Priestley, Kelsey Grammar and Justin Trudeau.
The stars showed their support for the cause by participating in two days of outdoor activities, including a snowshoe/toboggan race, biathlon, and a dual giant slalom.
First up for the snowshoe/toboggan race was Justin Trudeau and his mother Margaret. Although the Trudeau team made good time, Margaret crashed into a padded barricade at the bottom of the hill.
“I was just told to keep straight,” smiled Margaret after the race.
“It was a crash after the finish line and that’s all that matters,” said Justin, playfully.
The Trudeaus have been involved in environmental issues for over a decade. Margaret is the honourary president of WaterCan, where she and daughter-in-law Sophie Gregoire support the cause, and this is Justin’s second year involved with Waterkeeper Alliance.
“It is a wonderful event to be a part of, to remind people how special our water resources are,” said Justin.
Margaret Trudeau believes the Fairmont Banff Springs Sports Invitational to be instrumental in bringing people of similar focus together.
“It’s also a chance for people from all different parts of the country, America, Europe as well, to find out what they’re doing and what we can do,” said Margaret.
Justin believes many Canadians take water for granted.
“We are the highest per capita users of water in the world; no one uses more water per day than Canadians. We sort of sit back and say ‘oh no, we have lots of fresh water,’ Well,, right now, that sort of thinking has gotten us into trouble,” said Justin.
Justin believes severe water shortages are looming on the horizon as Albertans over-allocate agricultural waters and have increased the use of water in the tar sands project.
Actor Jason Priestley, from British Columbia, also holds Canadian waters to heart.
“I’m a big salmon fisherman, so anything I can do to help deal with the waterways, and my salmon, I call them mine, I do whatever I can. Being here and doing whatever I can to support, I do it,” said Priestley.
Along with many other celebrities, Priestley is also inspired to support Waterkeeper Alliance, because of impassioned proponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“He inspires me because he’s fearless, he’s relentless. He cleaned up the Hudson River which was the cesspool of Eastern America and he’s just a tireless worker,” said Priestley.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a lawyer by profession, and is one of 11 children of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for the U.S. presidency in 1968. His son was 14 years old at the time.
“His family is so important to American politics and they are so a part of American political life…he understands the power behind the Kennedy name and he uses that for the betterment of the American people and I really respect him for that,” said Priestley.
“It’s tough to say this, but Bobby Kennedy is his father. That’s a very serious thing to say. In Bobby Jr. we have someone who has the greatest collision of tremendous ability and tremendous will,” said actor Alec Baldwin.
While Kennedy’s family is an American dynasty, Kennedy’s involvement with the Waterkeeper (formerly Riverkeepers) was by consequence rather than familial obligation. In 1983, at age 30, Kennedy was charged with heroin possession and sentenced to two years probation and nearly 1,000 hours of community service.
Kennedy chose Riverkeepers to serve his community service. Afterwards, Riverkeepers hired Kennedy as their chief prosecuting attorney. Kennedy eventually became the president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. He is now an impassioned environmentalist and has a few tips for Canadians.
“People are looking to Canada for water, for commodity sales of water, and it’s something that would be a huge mistake for Canadians to start engaging in that… the Canadian government should be sending a clear message to people in the United States that that’s not going to happen,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy believes the most important thing a person can do is get involved in the political process.
“It’s something that Canadians have one-fifth of the freshest water on earth, a lot of it comes from this province and it’s something that the Canadian people should be proud of, it’s one of the future economies of this country, but I don’t think the message is to import water sales to another nation,” said Kennedy.