Politics is the art of mediation
not confrontation. Danny Williams, the premier of Newfoundland and
Labrador, doesn't know that art.
Politicians have to mediate between
government and opposition parties, government and other nations. They
also have to mediate and negotiate between reality and fantasy, the
needs of citizens and their own aspirations, between what people want,
what they need and what they can afford.
Of course, for electoral purposes,
sometimes those elements are twisted or exaggerated. There are
politicians who promise what the voters want during the campaign and
politicians who give voters what they can during government. Within
certain limits, all are acceptable.
Premier Williams has gone beyond
those limits. Again.
We heard his rant for the first
time in December 2004 when he had Canadian flags removed from federal
buildings in his province and attacked then-prime minister Paul Martin
and his government. I donšt want to go into the gory details of the
dispute, but needless to say, I never feel real comfortable talking to
or about people whose attitude is, "it's my way or the highway." I never
like politicians who put Canadian unity on the line every time therešs
an economic or a political issue.
In an honest relationship you
should never make a list of what you give and what you get. When you
start preparing the balance sheet, you know that that relationship is at
the end of its rope.
Yes, the province of Ontario, under
Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, has presented the bill to the federal
government denouncing a fiscal gap of $22-billion to the province,
however, it was, and, it is, a political and economic point presented in
a forceful but decent and professional way.
There are no stunts, no riots, no
folkloristic initiatives desecrating symbols and principles.
Williams recently took out
newspaper ads accusing Prime Minister Stephen Harper of breaking the
Atlantic Accord, a deal worked out in 2005 with Paul Martin, under which
Newfoundland and Labrador was supposed to receive generous equalization
and transfer payments up until 2012.
It might even be that Williams is
right but there are less and less people ready to believe him now. Many
had doubts about what he did to Martin, but many accepted it as an
exception. Political dialogue cannot be replaced with a political
circus, or a game in which the winner is whoever screams the most.
This tactic is neither brilliant,
nor new. It only takes a trip to a kindergarten class to see how it
works. A child who screams until the teacher, who has more intellect, or
no guts, gives in by giving the child candy.
As I said, I canšt pass a judgment
on the issue because I donšt have all the elements. But at the same
time, I cannot expect the premises that Canadian prime ministers are all
out there to screw Newfoundland and Labrador.
We all know that the province is
going through rough times because natural resources, especially
fisheries, are depleting. But we also know that the spirit of
Confederation is to help each other.
But helping each other, means that
something that belongs to someone has to be given to someone else. It
also means that the federal government has to take money from, say
Ontario, and give it to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Well, here is some news for
Williams. There are people who need assistance in Ontario as well. There
are poor people. There is a manufacturing sector in almost free-fall.
Until last month, Ontario had a provincial deficit.
Ontario still has overcrowded
hospitals overcrowded and longer wait-times than many hospitals in St.
John's.
I was talking to an Ontario Cabinet
minister last week and I was told that many provinces, including
Newfoundland, invest, per capita, more money in education than Ontario.
When Williams accuses former prime
minister Martin or, his successor Harper, of not giving more money to
this province, he is simply saying that he wants more money from
Ontario. It would be better for him to think again before he tries
another stunt and to understand where the money he wants is coming from.
