Beth Marshall calls it Economic Success
A Sue's Blog reader calls it Rural Decimation
A Sue's Blog reader calls it Rural Decimation
Not since Ralph Wiseman's, then Minister of Resources and Employment ,
letter to the Telegram, Jan 16, 2003, have I head anything so foolish as the
honourable Beth Marshall's , MHA, comments on Niteline, last Thursday night.
Minister Wiseman, seemingly oblivious to the fact that, during the decade
prior to 2001, we suffered a net population loss of over 55,000, boasted of
the "record high labour force participation rate (58.6%)" occurring under
his administration. . "These are all very significant milestones" says
Minister Wiseman, " and tell a story of employment growth and development in
our province the like of which has not been previously recorded." Minister
Wiseman was presumably not able to see, or else wanting to ignore, the
correlation between this pseudo economic success and the massive
outmigration of unemployed workers.
In similar glowing terms, Ms. Marshall, while announcing her intention to
run again, boasts of the phenomenal economic and demographic growth
occurring in her Topsail riding. The population bleeding, rather than
declining, has been stepped up under her government's watch: the net loss
being now somewhere in the vicinity of 80,000, and with more people dying
than are being born.
Surely Ms. Marshall cannot be unmindful of the direct correlation between
the "fool's paradise" springing up on the Avalon and the decimation, death
and decay simultaneously occurring in the outports. While this
"growth" can be attributed in part to the policy of her government, it is
not an achievement about which any conscientious politician should take
pride; rather is indicative of a terrible tragedy that is unfolding.
Even given what has come to be the norm in politics, I am personally
disappointed that Ms. Marshall would resort to this kind of self-serving
propaganda. Few in her riding are so dense as not to recognize the anomaly
contained in the epidemic of "sub-divisions" that are spreading all over
the Avalon landscape like the flush of some alien subterranean spore.
Lloyd C.
letter to the Telegram, Jan 16, 2003, have I head anything so foolish as the
honourable Beth Marshall's , MHA, comments on Niteline, last Thursday night.
Minister Wiseman, seemingly oblivious to the fact that, during the decade
prior to 2001, we suffered a net population loss of over 55,000, boasted of
the "record high labour force participation rate (58.6%)" occurring under
his administration. . "These are all very significant milestones" says
Minister Wiseman, " and tell a story of employment growth and development in
our province the like of which has not been previously recorded." Minister
Wiseman was presumably not able to see, or else wanting to ignore, the
correlation between this pseudo economic success and the massive
outmigration of unemployed workers.
In similar glowing terms, Ms. Marshall, while announcing her intention to
run again, boasts of the phenomenal economic and demographic growth
occurring in her Topsail riding. The population bleeding, rather than
declining, has been stepped up under her government's watch: the net loss
being now somewhere in the vicinity of 80,000, and with more people dying
than are being born.
Surely Ms. Marshall cannot be unmindful of the direct correlation between
the "fool's paradise" springing up on the Avalon and the decimation, death
and decay simultaneously occurring in the outports. While this
"growth" can be attributed in part to the policy of her government, it is
not an achievement about which any conscientious politician should take
pride; rather is indicative of a terrible tragedy that is unfolding.
Even given what has come to be the norm in politics, I am personally
disappointed that Ms. Marshall would resort to this kind of self-serving
propaganda. Few in her riding are so dense as not to recognize the anomaly
contained in the epidemic of "sub-divisions" that are spreading all over
the Avalon landscape like the flush of some alien subterranean spore.
Lloyd C.
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