I’m Still not Ready to Gamble on Another Promise
The most common argument against this action:
Now, Conservative supporters (some of them bloggers) are hurling condemnation. Suddenly I’m branded a Martin supporter, a soulless wretch canoodling with Liberal crooks and gritty pirates.
Side note: hate mail from both the left and the right is equally venomous. Really mad Conservatives tend to use ALL CAPS more than Liberals, while the latter are prone to cursing more than their counterparts. I think there’s an anthropology paper in this somewhere.
Though my allegiance might be muddy for some, it is crystal clear to me: my objective now and always has been to rally support for action in Ottawa that will benefit Newfoundland and Labrador. I am equally dedicated to annoying and harassing both the left and the right in this enterprise. That should be abundantly clear. If I used this platform for partisan purposes I would be just another party mouthpiece, and Newfoundland and Labrador already has too many of those.
The fight over who gets the most red seats and the most blue seats can and should come later. Looking at the Accord through a purely partisan lens is a mistake, particularly with the spectre of the Bloc looming in the background – the only party who has said that they would deny the Accord.
The first priority of Newfoundland and Labrador’s representatives in Ottawa should be to the wellbeing of their province – not to the health of their political party.
4700 letters in the past 24 hours. Keep them coming.
6 Comments
Leave a comment
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
You don’t get my support on this. You wouldn’t have this deal if it weren’t for Stephen Harper. Please don’t ask your members to prostitutes themselves as the NDP has or as most people of my province of Quebec would al for themselves and dam the rest of Canada.
Comment by Murray Heaphy — 5/17/2005 @ 6:31 amRight on Kevin!
Your experience reinforces my impression that this national political conflict is not between good and evil as the Cons would have it, it is merely the same old conflict between the politicians *I* like versus the politicians *you* like (with all parties sharing the same expediency quotient).
Worse still, the local branch of this war is being cynically waged under the guise of doing what’s good for NL.
Local Cons previously sought Efford’s head, amongst others, for daring to vote with the government instead of the Opp on a meaningless, but highly political, opinion resolution. They launched a vociferous war against Efford under the charge of “voting against the province in favour of the party".
Loyola Hearn led that particular jihad. And now he finds himself, as does Norm Doyle, in the uncomfortable postion of having to make an even starker choice.
Except that in this case, the vote is not over a meaningless opinion resolution; it is a hard and fast enabling bill of the Canadian Parliament that will *guarantee* a C$2.5B cheque for this province.
C$2.5B . . . already bi-government negotiated and approved by all parties, ready to go into our accounts and ready to be used by our provincial government to the advantage of all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
And now Loyola and Norm, and their apologists on this site and in other quarters, are coming up with every lame excuse in the book for not voting the right way. Instead they bob and weave and do a fast dance in the end throwing their allegiance to their party which they assume will advance to Government.
They show true allegiance only to themselves believing that they will advance to Cabinet for their loyalty in selling out their province to the benefit of their party and themselves.
But that’s all ok, they and their apologists claim, because after *we* get what *we* want (the government in our hands) the province will get the money anyways. . . eventually. . .under some new and improved deal that we will negotiate with *all* provinces. . . when we get around to it. . . under the unspoken condition of the books being in the shape the current government say they are.
What are the odds of that??
In the end, Loyola/Norm offer just another set of meaningless promises in offering to trade the solid and concrete of what we deserve in the here and now for an illusion of more prosperity in the future.
I can’t believe that not only do Loyola/Norm put forward this explicitly self-serving point of view with a straight face, after all that is their job, but that there are people out there willing to act as transparent apologists for them and say with an equally straight face: “trust them".
I’ve worked around many politicians over the years and there is no doubt in my mind that they can be best trusted to act as politicians; in the interests of what they consider to be most important to them. That’s what politicians, regardless of stripe and colour and party, do.
In fact, that’s a good a definition of a politician as any I’ve ever seen.
Make sure that Loyola and Norm see that voting for this province instead of their party is in their own best interests and that voting for their province *is* where their interest lies.
Keeps those emails, faxes, phone calls and letters going!
Comment by Simon Lono — 5/17/2005 @ 6:48 amMr Hearn & Mr. Doyle:
Comment by Ethel close — 5/20/2005 @ 9:43 amWith respect I ask you to put the people of Nfld first. If you do this for our people you will not have to worry come election time.
Newfoundlander’s have a long memory when it comes to people standing up for them.
Respectfully Ethel
Mr. Hearn & Mr. Doyle
Respectively I too ask you to put the people of NFLD., first. Please, do what is right for our people. Newfoundlander’s have a tremendous memory when it comes to people standing behind them! Let our trust fall with you.
Respectively,
Comment by Colleen Hughes — 5/20/2005 @ 12:01 pmColleen Hughes
Another Tory hoax(read below):
OTTAWA – The middleman who claims he was enlisted by Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal to facilitate his defection to the Liberals feels “used” by his friend.
Sudesh Kalia accused Grewal of making “false” statements about how senior Liberals courted him to cross the floor in exchange for plum cabinet and Senate positions for himself and his MP wife, Nina.
“He used me, and if he had planned that, he’s not my friend then,” Kalia, a B.C. businessman and longtime pal of Grewal, told Sun Media.
According to Kalia, Grewal called him out of the blue Sunday.
Grewal said rumours about him being offered a Senate seat were false, but later indicated he’d be interested in joining the Grits if they met his terms.
“He gave me demands,” Kalia said.
Kalia, a provincial and federal Liberal who is also a personal friend of Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh, offered to arrange a meeting with the minister. Grewal accepted and the pair met Monday, but Dosanjh vehemently denies making any offers.
Late Wednesday, Grewal released an eight-minute excerpt of a taped conversation with Tim Murphy, the PM’s chief of staff. While Murphy makes no offers or promises of favours in exchange for abstaining on the budget, he implies there could be future discussions about appointments after the critical vote.
Yesterday, the Conservative party refused to immediately release the tapes in their entirety, including some conversation in Punjabi between Grewal and Dosanjh.
Chief spokesman Geoff Norquay said some of the audiotape will take time to be translated, and that he felt it important to get the most “useful” part out immediately.
Norquay insisted Grewal was approached by the Grits, not the other way around.
Grilled in and outside the House of Commons on the issue yesterday, the PM denied his staff or MPs were trying to buy votes.
Comment by Hazen Grigg — 5/20/2005 @ 12:15 pmMr. Hearn & Mr.Hearn;
Would you kindly put the people of Nfld. first before your party. You will surely be remembered come election time. Thank you.
Comment by Dot Brocklehutst
Comment by D. Brocklehurst — 5/23/2005 @ 11:40 am