Davis - putting lipstick on a pig?

As the bogeyman can be either gender - the use of the word should not cause sexist issues. Now as our new "unelected" Attorney General raised the topic of fear - I should not be accused of being nasty.

Judy Manning believes that criticism of her appointment is coming from the Opposition Parties as they are "threatened by the Progressive Conservative Government". Telegram story HERE

I would "with respect" reword that to read the electorate is threatened by the Progressive Conservative Government.

Threatened by the mounting debt,

Threatened by the unfunded pension liabilities,

Threatened by the Muskrat Falls project and escalating energy costs,

Threatened by scandal such as the Humber Valley Paving Contract,

Threatened by the erosion of democratic conventions,

Threatened by the level of patronage that continues,

Threatened by the continued loss of industry,

Threatened by our population statistics,

Threatened by the loss of the Justice Department,

Threatened by an "unelected" Attorney General who makes decisions based on her emotions (my heart is in the Placentia - St.Mary's District so I can't run anywhere else)

Threatened by the continued loss of rural communities, and

Threatened by the arrogance and disrespect this government has toward the people of the province.

If the whole idea of Ms. Manning's appointment was to frighten the Opposition - then I guess they are relying on the introduction of a bogeyman to frighten the critics into better behaviour.

Considering Ms. Manning brought up the topic of threatened let's look at why the PC's are making "innovative" changes to our democracy. Paul Davis is going to be different - see - look what he did. He plucked a well-connected Tory unelected out of a sole practitioner law office and threw her into a new Department of Public Safety. Furthermore - just to be different our "unelected" Premier chose somebody who was afraid to run in any of the by-elections. Then - just to be different he accepted the resignation of one Minister (who he would have fired anyway) and left another Minister named in the HVP report right where he was. Additionally - just to be different - he found that Labrador was without a Minister so - he plucked arguably the most controversial and bad-tempered off the backbench and presented him to the electorate as a changed man. Lastly he wanted to up the number of women in government - so he ignored an elected woman and went out and found one that he thought was more worthy of a Cabinet post?

One can only reasonably believe that Davis made such outrageous choices in a desperate attempt to put lipstick on a pig. Or if you prefer -You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. The end product is the same.

How about we outline why the PC government feels threatened:

1. The polls,

2. The by-election losses,

3. The defections or resignations of key Cabinet and caucus people,

4. The acrimonious mess of a failed first leadership race,

5. The divisive actions of Deputy Premier Steve Kent during the second leadership contest,

6. The very loud criticism from Progressive Conservatives,

7. The weak backbench (as evidenced by the "unelected" Premier's recent Cabinet shuffle),

8. Continued failure to communicate or continued failure of decisions,

9. The numbers of people showing up to vote for Liberal nominations in Tory districts, and

10. The growing voice of the people demanding both an election and a judicial inquiry on HVP.

Please just call an election - so we can sort this out. Let's see who the people want and don't want.