Delicate dance underway for Clarke
The busiest eight-and-a-half months of Cecil Clarke’s life are now well underway. On the one hand, there’s his full-time, nonpartisan gig as Cape Breton Regional Municipality mayor to fulfill. At a particularly crucial time, too, what with critical work still required to secure a muchcoveted Municipal Charter and help guide the container terminal project along.
On the other hand, Clarke is seeking the Progressive Conservative Party provincial leadership, also a timeconsuming task.
Clarke is one of five candidates jockeying to replace former leader Jamie Baillie and, despite his experience as a minister in past provincial governments under premiers John Hamm and Rodney MacDonald, by no means should he be considered the favourite. A strong contender, certainly, but there are others who will have plenty of support, chief among them Pictou East MLA Tim Houston.
So he’s got plenty of work to do and in doing so there are those who say his work as CBRM mayor is bound to suffer. It was even suggested that he do right by the taxpayers and resign his position if he ran. In that way, an election could be held and voters could be assured that Clarke’s replacement, for better or worse, would give the job his or her fulltime attention.
Post columnist David Johnson also weighed in and while pointing out that it was perfectly legal for Clarke to stay on as mayor, running for the PC leadership may be perceived by some “to be unethical, and undesirable.”
Maybe so, but there was never a chance that Clarke was going to enter a race without the safety net of a job. He could also probably argue that running for the leadership is not a fulltime gig and one that he will pursue during his off-hours, weekends, timed owed and vacations.
Making matters even worse for Clarke’s detractors is that the leadership convention will take place on Oct. 26-27. That’s less than two years before the next municipal elections are on Oct. 17, 2020. Under the Municipal Governance Act, should Clarke win the leadership convention and vacate his mayor’s job within two years of the next election, no by-election occurs and the deputy mayor takes over. Rest assured, there are those who would have loved to have seen a by-election take place.
For Clarke, then, it’s a win-win. Claim the leadership and he’s one step closer to his dream job ¬– Premier of Nova Scotia. Lose and he returns to fulfill the final two years of his current job which he also seems to like plenty, but not enough to run for a third term.
In the meantime, the clock is ticking towards the convention and balancing his priorities will be a delicate dance for Clarke. No doubt, he’ll be criticised every time he’s seen at an event outside CBRM, but he’ll also have plenty of support in his quest, too. After all, having a Cape Bretoner that close to the premier’s seat could certainly result in some overdue dividends for this region some day.