Is this what happened?

Sometimes it is difficult to look at events from yesterday - when talking about an event today.

I believe we need to look carefully at the situation May of 2004 - to determine if something else was going on which caused Elizabeth Marshall and Danny Williams to be the only ones that did not take the constituency bonus.

During the years Danny spent in Opposition - he beat the Liberals silly with the Auditor General reports - some of which were completed when Elizabeth Marshall was the AG.

Marshall was handpicked by Williams as this CBC story at the time states.

The story also uses the headline "Accountability target in Topsail"

Here's the most interesting section of that CBC feature on Elizabeth Marshall - the candidate:

Marshall spent 10 years criticizing the Liberal government for its spending habits and book keeping as auditor general. She's the Conservative poster candidate for transparency and accountability — two areas in which she hammered the Liberals in her annual reports.

"I think I'm going in with a great benefit in that I know government very, very well," she says. "I've already thought a lot of things through in my mind, so I think it's a great benefit that I've had that experience in the past."


Cut wasteful spending

Marshall's message when campaigning in the district is one of fiscal responsibility. She says the government has to prioritize, given the province's fiscal position.

So there is Elizabeth - May 2004 - Minister of Health and member of the Internal Economy Commission (IEC) - and no doubt very close to the Premier - politically speaking.

The IEC meets - Beth knows the bonus payment is on the heels of a bitter strike, belt tightening - and increased taxes (service fees). We do not know what she said in that meeting but we do know she would not take the money. Beth also knows this is likely to be picked up on by the Auditor General (a man who was deputy auditor when she was AG) sometime in the future. At the same time - Elizabeth and the Premier would have been collaborating on the development of the Accountability legislation and preparing for what they knew would be messy. (allowing the AG at the books of the HOA)

No doubt Beth Marshall reported on her own colleagues and the Liberals sitting on the IEC to Danny - and I suspect she informed the Premier about that "poor decision" in May of 2004. Being Cabinet buddies and confidantes would have allowed the two to predict the eventual outcome of taking this cash and the two obviously knew it was wrong. Despite the Premier saying he knew nothing of it at the time (his underlings were taking care of it - he described in an interview) I believe Beth Marshall told him about the IEC decision and advised him she would not be taking the payment.

I don't think the Premier gave a damn if a few of his old buddies got the hammer - (Sullivan and Byrne) were expendable - as they were only tolerated and used as they were the old gang that held the works together while Dan was building Cable Atlantic.

After the deed was done and the accountability legislation was well in hand - the formidable Beth Marshall - despite her star qualities and expertise - was now expendable for Williams - she resigned in September of 2004.

So much for her campaign promise of transparency and accountability - she said nothing about the decision to increase the allowances and nothing about the vague way in which was noted.

Well now she is no longer in Cabinet and no longer on the IEC - her expertise and credentials no longer needed to lead government's financial affairs - but Elizabeth - remember - this particular expenditure - was under your watch. And Premier it's about time you said something about the elimination of your star candidate from Cabinet and your determination that she has nothing to offer the people of the province in such a role.

What does the Premier say about it all? Pay it back - okay that could have been avoided had you spoken up 2 years ago. What does Elizabeth Marshall say? Nothing - that speaks volumes.

From what we've seen from the AG so far - the Liberals were not keen on ensuring good records were kept or indeed did not bother to take the lead to correct the mess. Naturally they all took the cash - and from what I heard from Gerry Reid on CBC - entitled to their entitlements - until caught at which point you say "in hindsight it was a bad decision". Ha Ha Ha.....