Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Short Snappers
By: Dan Lett
Posted: 04/15/2008 1:16 PM
| Comments:
As an antidote to the long, mind-numbing posts of recent days, several bite-sized chunks.....Is Newfoundland Premier
Danny Williams like the coolest premier in the country? Rhodes Scholar, lawyer and successful businessman, Williams has about as impressive a resume as any premier in this country. He has sparred with the federal Conservatives and generally created an impression that he doesn't tolerate shite from anyone. This week, however, Williams cut a whole new chapter in his impressive political career when he commented on the cancer screening scandal rocking his province.More than 400 Newfoundlanders received inaccurate breast cancer screening results between 1997 and 2005. A class-action suit is in the works. Williams, who claimed he was talking as a lawyer and not as premier (as if that's possible) suggested that he would like to see the government settle with the affected patients as soon as possible. "My preference is not to see these people put through any further anguish."Hear, hear. By admitting liability and offering to settle fairly with the patients, Williams is showing that political leadership can be an antidote to government bungling. Moreover, he is showing that effective leadership can and should trump corporate liability issues. The trick now for Williams will be to ensure the bureaucracy acts on his comments. It has been the case that offers of compensation by politicians are not always supported by bureaucrats. We wish Mr. Williams luck in this endeavour.
***Canada may have had, at one time, a strong hand to play when it came to influencing the direction of democracy building in Afghanistan. Then Foreign Affairs Minister
Maxime Bernier opened his pie hole and Canada - as
Jerry Seinfeld would say - no longer had hand.Bernier’s public denunciation of Kandahar Governor
Asadullah Khalid - he actually told reporters that Khalid should be replaced - is one of the biggest gaffes ever made by a Canadian foreign affairs minister. It was inappropriate, it was ill-timed, it was completely against all logic and experience in the diplomatic world. It was positively
Dick Cheneyesque in the magnitude of its stupidity.Canada is a major player in the fight to bring democracy to Kandahar province, and could have quietly pushed Khalid to adopt a more modern approach to governing. Canada could also have used quiet diplomatic pressure on the national Afghan government to keep a tighter leash on Khalid as a condition for continued Canadian involvement in the province. In fact, a discreet campaign seeking to do all these things was underway, until Bernier did his cannonball.I'm not normally supportive of calls for a minister's resignation. I've only seen a handful of incidents in more than 20 years covering politics where a resignation was really warranted. This is one of those times.
***While we're talking about ungoverned pie holes, could someone please get a hold of Sea Shepherd Society honcho
Paul Watson and tell him to give his head a shake. This week's events, which saw a SSS ship confiscated by the Canadian Coast Guard for allegedly venturing too close to the annual east coast seal hunt, should have been a public relations triumph for the society. The confiscation of the ship, and charging of its crew, could have been a real embarrassment for the federal government, especially since it appears the ship can prove it was outside the protection limit of the hunt when it was boarded. That was before Mr. Watson cracked the pie hole.In response to the death of four seal hunters from Iles de la Madeleine, who died when their disabled boat capsized as it was been towed by a Coast Guard ship, Watson told reporters that while the deaths were a tragedy "the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seal pups is an even greater tragedy." Watson's comments were inappropriate, and have done a disservice to his cause.I love the SSS's spunkiness, and the fact it posted bail for its arrested crew in toonies. I cringed when I heard Watson talking about the deaths of the sealers. I think many other people who might passively support the end of the seal hunt cringed as well.
***Finally, the
Globe and Mail today published the latest
poll results from the
Strategic Counsel, which show the Conservatives retreating to 2006 levels with only 36 per cent support, only six points more than the Liberals. It is hard to assess the veracity of poll results these days, given the radically different results that have been published in the past month. Some show statistical ties, while others seem to show the Conservatives in majority territory.But without a consistent trend across several different polls, it's likely safe to conclude the Tories do not have the support to win a majority. Conservatives who are so close to a majority they can taste it should ask, and soon, why that is. Your thoughts about why the Tories seemed stalled in the mid 30s would be most welcome.-30-
Dan Lett, Winnipeg Free Press
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