With the latest news regarding the futures of Charlene Johnson - Minister of Finance and Terry French - Minister of Justice - the electorate must demand the call of an election.
Where to start - that's the problem here. The ignorance of or deliberate avoidance of the intent of the House of Assembly Act - passed by the Tories. A very significant part of this law deals with the early departure of a Premier.
When one reads the House of Assembly debate regarding this law - one can only conclude that the latest an election call would be is February/March of 2015. The intent was clear. If the governing party - responsible for the introduction, tabling, then supporting the passage of the law were planning to abuse the Act - why make the change? Why indeed. The Act does not provide for the bungling of or deliberate manipulation of the provisions of 3.1 and it certainly does not say anything about bad polls.
Kathy Dunderdale resigned in January of this year - and the party should have immediately called nominations for leader and settled in on a 2 month process to (s)elect a new leader. Instead they have been prolonging the process in a manner that achieves a full unentitled term.
The media has been irresponsible in their ignorance or avoidance of this situation - and as a result this so-called pillar of democracy has been absent. It is their job - their profession - to report, review, research, and present these real issues to the public.
Adding to the perversion of our "democracy" is the continued spending of taxpayer dollars by a caretaker Premier/s. Tom Marshall - is spending like the leader of a newly elected and wildly popular governing party. None of this is real. His view on power and democracy is nothing short of arrogant. He is spending and committing billions of dollars for generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. In my opinion - I think it's safe to say that the Tories under Marshall/Dunderdale/Williams will continue to govern for at least the next decade whether re-elected or not.
The spending on pensions, pay and benefits packages, infrastructure, education, health, and resource developments are commitments that will go on in some cases for years and in others for decades - long after their government is gone.
It can be argued that all governments must make some multi-year commitments - usually however it is under a legitimate term and legitimate leadership. This has been over since the New Year.
They will double our debt obligations in a province where they have not grown population and private sector industry. They will double our debt obligations in a province that is aging faster than any other.
Ironically as another 2 Ministers remove themselves from office - the biggest headline is Danny is going to give us an extra year of the Ice-Caps. Yay...
Note to "Journalists" - Get off your arses and provide the public with real information instead of the leaning drivel of another fellow in a bow-tie who appears thankful that the Tories will provide him with a delegated convention - so as to ward off the boredom of an open leadership process.
2 comments:
Well said
The amusing thing on the go now, is the comment (and sometimes made by media people) that the party fortunes would be better if Marshall was in place after Williams' "escape". Wasn't Marshall complicit with everything blamed on Dunderdale? Or, was he oblivious to it all? Either way, doesn't sound like a good fit for the province.
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