Wake up and smell the oranges

As this year ends, and elections await the coming year, I write this letter to all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to contemplate our past governments. When we joined Canada, we had 23 years of a Liberal government under J. R. Smallwood.

Many good things happened under his leadership, but there was also corruption (remember Alfred Valdmanis, John C. Doyle?)

So, after finally seeing that power corrupts, the Newfoundland people elected the first PC government under the leadership of Frank Moores. Moores is reputed to have had an eye for the ladies and a habit of delegating policy and decisions to his ministers and deputy ministers. He was a “hands-off ” premier who was succeeded by Brian Peckford in 1979.

Peckford was more progressive than conservative, appointing the first two women in Newfoundland history to cabinet positions.

However, does the word “Sprung” bring to mind anything? He retired from politics in 1989 and was succeeded by Tom Rideout, famous for the creation of the word, “backupable.”

He was a former Liberal who crossed the floor to join Peckford as a minister. Mmmm, integrity? So, the good voters of Newfoundland elected another Liberal government after 17 years of the Progressive Conservatives reign, this time with Clyde Wells as the leader.

Wells was so popular that Lynn Verge defeated him in the riding of Humber East in the election of 1989.

So, good soldier Eddie Joyce resigned so Wells could represent the district of Bay of Islands.

Does anyone remember “Clyde Lied?” Remember why? However, he was most famous for reneging on the Meech Lake Accord. He retired from the House in 1996 and two years later was appointed to the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Brian Tobin replaced Wells as leader of the Liberal party.

Tobin led the Liberals to re-election in 1999. He did a great job as premier, getting rid of the denominational educational system in order to save much needed revenue for educational services. Of course what actually happened was that the Department of Education increased the number of administrating bureaucrats while frontline workers such as teachers, principals, guidance counsellors, custodians etc. dwindled.

He was also responsible for banning the provincial auditor general from overseeing MHA expenses. He resigned, suddenly, in October 2000 to re-enter federal politics.

Beaton Tulk took over temporarily.

In February of 2001, Roger Grimes won a highly controversial leadership contest and remained in power until he had to call an election in October of 2003. Under Grimes’s stewardship the MHA spending scandal occurred. Thirteen years the Liberals were in power and gained arrogance and entitlements until the good voters turfed them out — again for the PC Party.

Under the leadership of Danny Williams, the Progressive Conservatives regained power in the general election of 2003.

What happened with Williams? The MHA spending scandal was revealed after allowing the auditor general to audit the MHA discretionary fund; the AG found that the scandal crossed all party lines — most tellingly involved was the No. 2 man in the PC party, Ed Byrne.

One of the first things Williams did was to legislate 20,000 workers back to work during a strike, which was called to protest his pay-freeze and planned reduction of 4,000 public-sector jobs.

Williams began the controversial Muskrat Falls project with an agreement with Emera Inc. of Nova Scotia to build an underwater transmission link to access electrical power to the U.S. grid. He touted this as a thumb of the nose to Quebec.

There were many achievements under his premiership, not the least of which was declaring the province of Newfoundland and Labrador officially a have province.

He retired in November of 2010 and Kathy Dunderdale took over as premier temporarily until winning the leadership of the PC party in the spring of 2011 and leading the party to an election win. She remained premier until January of 2014.

Under Dunderdale’s leadership, the provincial government refused to permit the PUB to do due diligence in assessing the Muskrat Falls project and quickly pushed through the sanctioning of the multibillion-dollar project.

Tom Marshall succeeded her on an interim basis. And now we have Paul Davis. So, what did we get from 11 years of PC policy? Bill 29, Muskrat Falls, electric power outages, increased debt and, most recently, a budget that is nearly $1 billion in arrears.

To recap: 23 years of Liberals — scandal and theft of pensions; 17 years of PCs — Sprung; 13 years of Liberals — educational “reform” and MHA hands caught in the cookie jar; and now 11 years of the PCs again — the largest debt in Newfoundland history, Bill 29. Enough said. Whenever there was any kind of social reform i.e., women in cabinet, whistleblower legislation (not yet law), full-day kindergarten, increased minimum wage etc., it was initially floated as policy by the New Democratic Party.

Most recently, the Liberals under Dwight Ball’s leadership have claimed sponsorship of the following New Democrat Party policies:

• Family Violence Intervention Court, which is fairly widely known to be an issue championed by MHA Gerry Rogers, has been claimed by Andrew Parsons.

• Paul Lane has become suddenly vocal on the Labrador West dust study, which the NDP has been working on for close to a decade, raised it in the house in 2012, and got a promise that it would be done in 2013.

• Cathy Bennett claims that allday kindergarten, that has been in the NDP platform since 2003, is a Liberal initiative.

Don’t you all think it’s time to wake up and smell the oranges?

If you want to see positive changes to this province and ensure that the party in power keeps its MHAs in control, elect more New Democrats.