Political Appointments Commission DOA

It's hard to know for certain if Dwight Ball thinks people in this province are really stupid, or that because he's new to the reins of power people will blindly trust his moves, or what, but his first attempt at democratic reform is bordering on hilarious. During the last election Ball campaigned on taking the politics out of political appointments. In this province appointments have been used to reward political friends from the highest directorships to the kids raking the lawns in the parks. Patronage here isn't an art form, it's a way of life. That's common in Atlantic Canada give the historical lack of industry and jobs here.

However, to trot Bill 1 out as some sort of democratic reform is just plain insulting to the intelligence. For starters, the five unpaid members of the Commission are appointed by Cabinet. In other words, they are political appointments and the discussion surrounding their appointments will be secret as Cabinet Confidence requires. That's the poison pill. Now, if the Commission was appointed by a group of MHAs from all three parties, in an open forum, that might be something more along the lines of independent - as long as the choices had to be made unanimous consent. Given our system of government, that's probably as independent as it could get. Then, once the 3 MHAs had chosen the Commission it could be ratified by the House of Assembly, and given the status of Officers of the Legislature - like the Auditor General for example. That might grant them some immunity from political push back on appointments.

The next fatal flaw is that the contenders for the specific appointment will be kept secret and only the chosen appointee will be published. Well, in the private sector some privacy for human resources may be necessary, but they're called political appointments for a reason. They're political. They're public by nature. If a potential appointee has a problem with public scrutiny of their application, then perhaps they're not meant for public service. In any case, as the discredited PC Opposition has already pointed out, the Commission, appointed by Cabinet, may just put appoint whomever they like and cloak it in the secrecy of the Commission process. In other words, the Commission acts as a front for the Cabinet giving them someone to take the flak while they appoint who they wish. Good examples of this are health boards. They make the decisions, but those decisions are largely dictated by the government funds transferred to them. So, they become the fall guys - not the government.

Finally, the Minister in charge of the department that the appointee is going to decides from the "three finalists" who will be appointed. Well, that's just straight politics. The Premier says that the Minister must have the final say. That's not true at all. The Commission, once properly constituted, could have that say and the Minister can respect the apolitical decision. It's out of his hands. There is nothing unlawful or unethical about that. In fact, it takes away some of the ministerial accountability which may reduce the stress of his/her job. A Ministerial appointment is a political appointment, period in Canada. To say it is otherwise is to open yourself up to ridicule. And that's exactly what the Liberals have done with Bill 1.

The Liberals were already on the tightrope of credibility when they suddenly changed their tune on layoffs, P3's in health care, and the HST. They will quite literally fall from that tightrope when the budget is announced. Furthermore, this attempt to "depoliticize" the appointment process is quite frankly laughable. Literally, that's all you can do is laugh at it. Unfortunately for us, it's our democracy and institutions that bare the brunt of this foolishness, but we should be used to that by now. Bill 1 is just another attempt to deceive the people of the Province by a government that has just started its mandate, and is sailing into hurricane waters in a bathtub. That's the truly scary part.

The Stunned

Simply put - the stunned. How else can you describe the political gong-show of the last two weeks in Newfoundland. We have the on-again off-again budget that has been postponed until the federal budget is announced for starters. This provincial government loves to crow how it is the example of fiscal management and the Captain of the good ship "Have Province". Yet, it is so dependent on the federal government's moves that it must wait until the federal budget comes out first?

Then, Kathy Dunderdale announces a sweeping 3% cut across the board, to reduce government spending, which would total well over $200 million in cuts. A day or two later she states well actually essential departments like health and education won't be cut. Fair enough,  but not across the board by any means. Then a day later she says there will not be any job losses except through attrition of retiring employees. Then she says well actually one third of the 2600 contract employees will be laid off - which would be just over 800 people. The next day she says it will be well less than 800 people laid off. Somewhere in the midst of all these "clarifications" she announces the actual dollar cuts will not be almost $300 million, but closer to $100 million. The casual observer is left scratching their head and wondering if the Premier: A) Is being fed disinformation by the finance department; B) Is making up major policy on the fly; or C) Forgot to take her medication for the last several weeks.

That brings us to the opening of the House of Assembly. The most shuttered legislature in the country, that last sat some 9 months ago, finally opened to great expectation last week. Just after the provincial election in October Dunderdale made the following statement defending her government's decision not to open the House until March:
"We need legislation to bring to the floor of the house of assembly. It's not going to be ready in time"
Yet, there is no legislation to speak of being brought forward by the government. So the House sat empty for five months after an election so the government could prepare major legislation for presentation, but the government didn't draft any. They did not even have a budget ready. Nothing.

The circus continued once the House opened with what can only be described as an embarrassing lack of talent on the government side. Jerome Kennedy, leadership wannabe and Danny Williams yes man, proceeded to make a complete horses arse out of himself. He viciously attacked Liberal member Jim Bennet for leaving a threatening telephone message on a ministers answering machine. He read the transcript of the message in the House for the record. He attempted to have the Speaker censor Bennett for threatening a minister. The gist of the phone message: take care of a cancer patient who needed transport to chemo or he would "vilify" the minister on open line radio. My God! Bennett apologized, but that was not enough for the morally outraged Kennedy. Course then Russell Wangersky wrote a blistering column on the sheer hypocrisy of Kennedy's moves and all seemed to fade away http://tinyurl.com/73u9l93 .

The other clown this week was Darin King, Minister of Fisheries, and along with Kennedy, pretender to Dunderdale's throne. His petty antics in the House can only be measured against his childish antics on Twitter. Whether it be the pseudo intellectual bravado of quoting Shakespeare by Kennedy, the questionably rabid attacks on Dale Kirby by another intellectual great MHA Paul Lane, or the pontificating Darin King, Twitter has become a permanent record of foot in mouth disease for this government. The latest beauty came today with King issuing an actual press release  http://tinyurl.com/7kr97nl chastising the Opposition for, among other things, not asking him enough questions on the fishery. My personal favourite is this little gem of wisdom included in the press release:

"I ask you all to be hon. members in this House and if you are going to come forward, you present information that is factual and that is accurate and present information that shows where you stand on issues, not trivial press releases calling the minister to resign because he made a joking comment to ministers in this House. If you want to be taken seriously, you do not put those kinds of press releases out. You tell people how you would do things differently and you challenge me to ask me how I can improve things, and I will certainly do that.”

Apparently, King didn't recognize that his own press release had not one shred of any "doing things differentley". It was in fact a use of government resources for partisan political purposes - which given enough research one may find is in breach of government policy.

Unfortunately like Muskrat Falls, the fishery, or any other matter of significance to the future of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, this government's strategy is to " baffle with bullshit". Put disinformation out there. Put out enough foolishness. Rob the debate, or the actual institution, of any real credibility so the people have nowhere to seek leadership. Eventually they will give up in disdain, and get on with their lives leaving all those big, bad decisions to the people that know best - the PC Party of Newfoundland. It's a strategy of deception that is so low as to barely qualify the goings on as democratic in any way. After all, democracy is not simply limited to the actual practice of getting elected. It's also about how you handle the people's business in the following years of your mandate. Don't believe that? Ask Brian Mulroney or better yet Kim Campbell.

The PC Party of Newfoundland has dragged the process down into the gutter. Perhaps it is a place they feel most accustomed. Perhaps it is a place they feel at home. The rest of us were looking forward to reasoned, and seasoned debate on truly crucial issues facing the province. The kind of issues and decisions that reverberate for generations. What did we get? The stunned.