Give the b’ys a break

This was a great week for democracy and freedom of information in this smiling land of ours.

And a time for forgiveness, as well, and an acknowledgement that the Newfoundland Tories have turned over a new leaf.

In fact, it will go down in political history as the week when the Boobsey Twins, Paul Davis and Steve Kent, joined at the hip, informed the province that Jackson is currently the most popular name for Newfoundland youngsters.

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I was convinced it would have been Ezekiel or Aloysius (or Danny).

It was breathtaking, really, the two buckos, Marshal Davis and Deputy Marshal Kent, telling us where we could go to find the 100 most used handles for kids in Newfoundland.

The information was part of what the administration is calling a “draft open government action plan” — magnificent description, really, created, I’m sure, by a high-paid flack — containing plenty of promises connected with the new-found transparency of this lame-duck Davis government. (Pretty soon, in fact, you’ll be able to uncover the salary of the inventive genius who thought up the “draft open government action plan”).

And yes, the “action plan” included, under another wonderful title — a “Master List of Proactive Disclosures” — those 100 baby names: Emma, Chase, Chloe, Luke and company, and lots of other juicy info.

All done to help us forget Bill 29, the infamous piece of legislation that attempted to place a stranglehold on our basic right to information about ourselves and the way we are being governed ( just imagine), a disgusting law that played a critical role, if not the critical role, in the fall from grace of the PC government.

And there aren’t only baby names being released by this enlightened crowd: you can actually find — smell out, as it were — the number of septic system designs the government has received. Now, how about that?

So it seems to me that such an about-face on the part of the government, surrendering baby names and septic tank designs, should make us forgive and forget.

Yes, I know, Paul Davis was in the cabinet when Bill 29 was created, and obviously had a say in its creation, and Steve Kent was a parliamentary secretary at the time, and had a voice as well, and that the two of them were, therefore, partly responsible for a bill that put Newfoundland — according to a number of international experts on information access — in the same league as countries like Uganda and Guatemala.

But, hey, everybody deserves a second chance.

After all, now we can track down the number of used tires collected in the province (although we have to wait until December before that statistic is available; darn it all to hell anyway).

And, yes, Davis and Kent were there when Bill 29 prompted journalism organizations to describe it as the “biggest step backward in terms of access to information in Canada in recent memory.”

But it’s time to look ahead, not behind.

I know damn well there are cynics out there who will say this is all part of the election campaign, a desperate attempt to keep the Tories from disappearing into a political black hole.

But to hell with those cynics. Let’s give the boys, Davis and Kent, the benefit of the doubt.

They were two Sauls on the Road to Damascus, not the road to the polling booth. They’ve been saved. They’ve seen the light. Hallelujah, brothers and sisters.

I’m sure there are also some out there in voter land who will suggest that Davis and Kent may have privately mocked then NDP Leader Lorraine Michael for launching that filibuster in protest of Bill 29; may have even made disparaging remarks about her campaign to delay its passage.

But I’m not one of them. I’m sure that deep down they knew Bill 29 was an unfathomable piece of work, but they were inexperienced and hadn’t yet grown political gonads, the kind that lead you to stand up on matters of principle.

There are others, I’m sure, those from the glass-half-empty school of thought, suggesting that Davis and Kent won’t be around long enough to make sure we know the most popular names of babies in Newfoundland because the PCs will be turfed out of office in November, and that it’ll be Premier Dwight and Opposition Leader Earle who’ll be making all kinds of promises about government transparency, until it becomes uncomfortable and inconvenient for them to follow through. (Or will it be Premier Earle and Opposition Leader Dwight, as Telegram political reporter James McLeod recently speculated, in a way-out-on-a-limb but gutsy item)

But I adhere to the glass-halffull philosophy. I’m no naysayer. I see Premier Davis and Deputy Premier Kent being around for a long, long time. There will be thousands of popular youngster names available for perusal and study before Davis and Kent have finished their service to the Newfoundland public. Come on, give them a shot. Bill 29 was an aberration. Leopards can change their spots.

Can’t they?