Marching to the end
There are a number of uncertainties surrounding the next provincial election slated for October of 2019, or perhaps earlier depending on the winds of change and/or the fortunes of the provincial Liberals.
One pressing and interesting issue revolves around Premier Wade MacLauchlan’s leadership and leadership style. He is reported to run more of a dictatorship than a democracy. It is common knowledge among his colleagues in the Liberal Party, and evidenced by the recent resignations and abdications from the party. To say the premier’s leadership style is problematic is an understatement. This is not a new problem. His tenure at UPEI was reportedly fraught with similar issues.
That the premier is intelligent, thoughtful and articulate is not in dispute, but he suffers from a fatal flaw - political hubris. This doesn’t serve the people of P.E.I. well. The premier’s actions on education, health care, amalgamation and other important Island issues illustrate this. He has run rough shod over the democratic processes that protect our democracy. This has created a wave of anger that is seething just under the surface of Island life, especially in rural P.E.I. It just needs a small catalyst like forcing amalgamation on unwilling rural residents to bring it to boil and create an ugly backlash that will sweep the Liberals dramatically from power. Watching his machinations and failed strategies to override public opinion on any number of important Island issues is an example to future premiers that Islanders deserve better. Islanders deserve to be heard in public forums on public issues that affect their communities in a fair and transparent manner and their input needs to affect change. This dog and pony show theatrics of pretending to listen with an already predetermined result has failed. Islanders are smarter than that; it is an insult to them, to democracy and to the democratic process that inform it.
It is time for Island politics to mature, it is time for Islanders to hold the government to account for its cynical manipulations of democratic processes that are meant to safeguard decision-making around important community issues like education, health care, electoral boundaries, governance, electoral reform and any number of other issues. Will Premier Wade MacLauchlan leave an indelible imprint of mismanagement and cynical manipulation as his legacy? Or will he rise above this unfortunate and perhaps fatal flaw. Will Wade MacLauchlan be the least popular premier in Island history or will he listen, learn and reform?
Time will tell, but a leopard rarely changes its spots.
Richard Toms, Georgetown