Premier Andrew Furey selfishly called an election in the middle of winter, in the middle of a global pandemic. It was an election really orchestrated by Furey’s handlers in St. John’s and Ottawa.
Now, due to the spread of the British B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant more contagious and more dangerous variant, in-person voting throughout the province has been halted in favour of mail-in ballots. Unfortunately, special ballot roadblocks for some residents are interfering with their ability to exercise their right to a democratic vote. This process is undoubtedly resulting in extra election costs in a province already clinging to a crumbling fiscal cliff. As my grandmother used to say, “What a clutter!”
During the election campaign, Furey has been motoring around the province in a Liberal-red bus with the “Rising to the challenge” slogan emblazoned on its side. Rising to what challenge, you may ask.
Journalists, local and national, have been reporting for months on the province’s undisciplined spending and our current $2-billion deficit. Former senior civil servants, one former premier, the CD Howe Institute, our local employers’ council, several blogs and many private citizens have been writing letters, editorials and reports outlining that the biggest challenge facing our province is our spending, our current deficit and our ballooning $14-billion debt.
All have asked, pleaded unsuccessfully with Furey to delay the election until after the release of the report by Dame Moya Greene and the Premier’s Economic Recovery Team. Only after the release of this report could all political parties present meaningful platforms on how specifically they would address our fiscal dilemma, grow the economy and shrink our debt. Only then could an informed citizenry wisely vote with the facts and the truth in front of them.
The Muskrat Falls sanction process and the resulting commission of inquiry should have taught us that the path of secrecy and nondisclosure is always downhill, whereas transparency and informed debate takes the rising road.
Furthermore, Furey set up a Health Accord Task Force which was charged to look at ways to change how health care is administered in the province. Before this task force could get its boots on, Furey was following the spending lead of Dwight Ball and providing a $2-million down payment for a PET scanner for Corner Brook. As a medical professional, Furey knows full well that $2 million will not come close to the total operating costs of such a tomography service. Oh well, what’s another $5 million or $10 million in a province where we annually provide bonuses to bloated-salary Nalcor executives without regard for their actual work performances.
There are other challenges (for example, our fishery, the continuing Muskrat mess, rate mitigation, etc.) that should have been part of the election debate. However, Furey and his handlers and the entire Furey follow-the-leader team did not seem to have the stomach or the fortitude to engage in such messy realities. Like Scarlet O’Hara in the movie “Gone With the Wind,” those seeking our votes just say, “Oh, I can’t think about this now. I’ll go crazy. I might think about it tomorrow.”
Such avoidance of the main challenges facing our province is arrogance, irresponsibility and cowardice at its worst. This is putting personal ambition and political expediency above the fiscal health and welfare of the province for generations to come.
“Rising to the challenge” should mean giving voice to the dilemmas facing us. “Rising to the challenge” should entail standing erect with backbone and spine, full of vitality and exuberance for real causes. “Rising to the challenge” suggests uplifting oneself to a higher loyalty, a higher morality. It should mean putting the public good before personal ambition.
It should mean looking carefully to a real horizon, however distant, where we live within our means, pay our own bills and confront Ottawa and potential investors with real plans and real demands. It means that we stop crawling to the prime minister like beggars, hoping that he will have our backs.
Robert Dawe
Topsail
