It used to be that the government, federal or provincial would have a good fight on its hands if rural communities were losing people, business, schools, hospitals etc. The Mayor would be front and centre with a hastily called News Conference followed by protests inside or outside politicians offices or hundreds and sometimes thousands of people marching on the Hill and filling the public galleries.
They had a way of putting townies in their place and showing them there's more to Newfoundland and Labrador than the Avalon Peninsula. Nowadays the Mayors have cozied up to the Premier and his Ministers - quite often at a cost to their own people and towns.
Don Stewart - as an example has been running defence for Danny since the FPI plant was closed in Harbour Breton. Stewart is a good politician and won the mayoral race even after the town was abuzz with speculation that Don was too close to government and was withholding information from other councillors.
Let's back this story up a little. Harbour Breton a thriving fishing community on the South Coast was bustling - and unlike many rural areas had a healthy population of young families. The fish plant operated year round and local small business was doing great. People like Gloria, Eric and Eric were proud to be living and working in the region and had all the expectation of continuing to do so. In a sense Harbour Breton was the flagship in rural fishing communities.
Then the announcement - FPI was leaving the community and was not re-opening the plant. Initially there was shock and then there was anger. Leaders in the community were crying foul and wanted some action taken by both the federal and provincial governments.
In true political style - the promises were fast and furious, talks of quota's and changes to the FPI Act and if all else fails - Danny would not let the community die.
When action was not coming fast enough Eric and Gloria and the parish priest put their heads together and formed a committee to try and wrestle the government into action.
They were coming to St. John's and they wanted commitments from Williams. I arranged the News Conference for them, sent out the Notice to the Editors, arranged the seating and invites, along with ensuring the technical gear was in place for the media. I also did up a kit of information for them - and no I was not employed by the town to do so.
That's when I first experienced the "Danny Damage Control" entourage. This was lead by Mayor Stewart who was only going to sit with his own people at the head table if he controlled the "tone" of the conference. It almost went down that way except Eric Day, councillor and union man spoke his mind and let the province know how the people felt about losing their community.
The town support for the group continued to grow and culminated at a rally which I attended during their annual festival in Harbour Breton. But Don - was having nothing of that. He told people to wait for the Premier and to settle down and keep it quiet for awhile. The Premier rolled into town gave tearful speech and was cheered as he spoke "from the heart" to children of displaced parents.
And Don kept it up as time went on and people were starting to leave to seek work west. He held the government's hand when they rolled into town again with the Barry announcement. This was going to be great - Barry might get quotas from Loyola, Barry might find some herring, and even conducted his own scientific study on the matter. The town would get the plant from FPI for a buck - when FPI cleaned up any environmental concerns, the town would get some community quotas, and they could attract Barry or Cooke or other interests with the plant they would then own.
FPI is controlled by the legislature and is responsible for environmental problems at the site. This should go ahead swimmingly. In comes Don...
As things started to slip, no quota from the feds, no herring in the water and an uncooperative FPI - Don asked for patience from the people - his people, friends, and neighbours. More and more people were leaving and in some cases convoys of U-Hauls left the community. Don had it under control - the government and FPI were working with him - and he would save the town.
Well my friends - Don fiddled while Harbour Breton burned and they awoke last week to hear the plant had been sold to Barry for a buck.
As you might expect townspeople were furious and Gloria called Bill Rowe while Eric joined the Fisheries Broadcast to voice their outrage at learning the news from the media.
Well today Don Stewart was on the Broadcast and he did not disappoint as he began the process of the soft sell for the government. He downplayed the fact that his own town was irrelevant in the process and essentially were ignored as Bill Barry and John Risley determined what was best for them.
Where's Oliver? and Earle? who knows!
If you want to know what's wrong with rural Newfoundland and Labrador - yes blame the feds and the province - but now sadly we must point a finger at the Mayor too. Shame on you Don - was it really worth it?
Tommorrow - we will discuss Stephenville.
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