The Telegram (St. John's)

PICKING THE RIGHT PERSON TO STEADY THE SHIP

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Our ship is sinking because the present captain and engineer did not do the necessary maintenanc­e and repairs to keep her seaworthy.

On March 7, I sent out a letter to the news media and also to the list of emails I have on my list, entitled “Empty wheelhouse.” In that letter I was talking about the state this province is in — the worst in our history, all because we have a government who can’t or won’t control their spending. I have a big investment in this province, 25 children, grandchild­ren and great-grandchild­ren and although I am close to the end of my rope, I want for them to be able to stay and live in this great province. In the March 7 letter, I made the statement there must be a man or woman out there who is brave enough to get this ship back on course. Regardless of the storm, a good captain always gets back to port. On Aug. 3, the Liberals will be electing a new captain who has a year’s grace to prove to the province that he is capable of the job. If not, he will have to be replaced. I have been in business most of my life and I have strived to hire the best and the most experience­d that I could — if not I would not have survived. Therefore I have decided to put my support behind John Abbott, as I feel he is the more qualified, because of his work experience and his knowledge how government­s work. We have no time to lose, as Andrew Furey said in the debate on CBC, we have to plug the leak. There are a lot more than one leak in this ship and will need a complete overhaul in order to keep her afloat. Our ship is sinking because the present captain and engineer did not do the necessary maintenanc­e and repairs to keep her seaworthy. There are two ways to try and get back to shore, jump in the lifeboat and trust that search and rescue, (Ottawa) can get to you in time, lots of times that don’t happen. The other one that I prefer is stay with the ship, get the buckets going and get her back to port, that way you can save the ship, which has to be put on drydock immediatel­y. I believe that’s what Abbott would do and I am willing to put him in charge for the next year.

Wilfred Bartlett Placentia

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