Myopia leading to delusions

I was surprised indeed to read a headline Monday of last week in the Globe and Mail online, that Danny Williams was looking to bury the hatchet with Stephen Harper. The piece was by Roy MacGregor a journalist I know and whose work I respect. So, I read on:

"Canadian voters could soon see a dÉtente between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his east coast nemesis, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams. In the realm of politics making strange bedfellows and a week being a long time in politics, such possibility staggers the imagination - and yet is being discussed in the highest political circles of Newfoundland, including the Premier himself.

"'If the Prime Minister reached out', Williams told the Globe and Mail, 'we would accept any kind of an olive branch.'"

Williams further declared he did not intend to continue the ABC campaign in the next federal election.

Well, well, well I said to myself. Hmmmmm.

That was Monday morning. On Monday evening the news was full of the premier's trip to New York to speak to businessmen about the difficulties he was having with Hydro Quebec. That corporation was frustrating the premier's every effort to guarantee transport of the potential hydro power from the possible future development of the lower Churchill to markets in the New England states.

I began to see the light. It is a fundamental principle of military tactics to avoid fighting a war on two fronts at the same time. Since our angry premier regards all of life as a war, he realized if he was going to launch an assault on Quebec, maybe it would be prudent to try and make peace with Ottawa first.

In his typical diplomatic way, rather than coming out and offering peace, he invited Harper to make the first move and that he, his Dannyship, would then consider whether to shake hands.

The Globe and Mail piece went on to repeat the very optimistic, some might say delusional hope, held by many in the inner circles of the provincial Conservatives that Harper would agree to help Newfoundland and Labrador with the Lower Churchill in return for the guarantee from the premier to deliver all seven federal seats to the Tories at the next election.

I use the term delusional because I try to be polite in this column.

The greatest of all the delusions is the notion that all this tactical manoeuvering on the battlefield of national and international energy politics makes the citizens of this province salivate with ecstatic anticipation of the premier's next move.

It is not so.

It is particularly not so in those places beyond the view of the premier's "overpass eyeglasses." Similar to the side mirrors on some cars Mr. Williams' glasses should be printed with the warning "Rural voters may be farther than they appear."

That's how it was with the people of Flower's Cove. Their heroic resistance to government myopia caused the premier to take off his glasses, polish them, take another look and realize, too late, the support he thought was automatic had vanished.

Something similar seems to be happening in the Terra Nova by-election this week. The government, in the process of renewing the antiquated fleet of ferries around the province, has put out a call for private sector entrepreneurs to submit bids to operate the vessels. Many of these craft are so old that according to the government's terms they must be replaced with ships younger than 15 years. In practical terms this turns out to be new ships. They must be built, but where?

Forgetting an earlier promise that this sort of infrastructure should be built within this province by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, the government neglected to say anything about that in their call for offers. As a result, at this writing, it seems likely that the contract to build six ferries, with all the person years of employment and spin-offs will go, not to the Glovertown shipyard in the heart of Terra Nova riding, site of this week's by-election, but rather, to Louisiana.

When questioned about this by CBC Radio, Tom Marshall, who is Minister of Finance, President of Treasury Board, Minister Responsible for the Public Service Secretariat and Minister Responsible for the Office of the Chief Information Officer, scoffed. This is a private sector contract, he said. They have to get the best deal. Government can't be telling private business what they can and cannot do.

No? Government insisted that the ferries be less than 15 years old. What is to stop them stipulating they must be built here, by our people? After all it's our money the Williams government is spending.

Personally I hold up my hand for reviewing this contract. Rewrite the terms to offer the contract to the lowest bidder prepared to build the ferries in this province in a shipyard manned by people from this province. There is still time to do this before the by-election. I recommend haste. The people of Terra Nova may forgive this colossal blunder. Even if they don't, it's a lesson learned.

Take another look at all contracts of this kind: If we employ our own people to make things this province needs, even if we are paying a bit more we are not losing. The income taxes on the salaries created are returned to provincial coffers. If, after taking the tax income into account, the cost remains higher than the bid from Louisiana, we are still getting a better deal. We are creating an employment climate that will bring our people home to work and encourage others to come from away. We can stem the outflow from rural Newfoundland and Labrador and begin to rebuild the population of our province. We can create the true wealth of a people happy to do honest work that will change for the better the place they love. This cannot be wrong.

But to think this way requires imagination and vision. You have to be able to see that it is so.

Maybe Finance Minister Marshall's glasses aren't working any better than the premier's overpass models. In fact I am pretty sure a trip to the optician by the entire Williams Cabinet would yield a diagnosis of collective myopia resulting in delusions. They should all buy new glasses. See if it helps them to see better. Maybe they can get a deal.

pickersgill@mac.com