It is true, as a VOCM Reporter noted, “(t)hat the Liberal MHA for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair has long been a loud opponent of the project, citing amongst other things, concerns of the lack of power allotted for mining developments in Labrador. VOCM added: “Jones says it comes down to what's in the best interest of her district….in order to change her vote she'd have to see a benefits agreement for Labrador…says she's been fighting for the people of her district for 20 years and she's not going to stop now…”.
Admittedly, the job of an Opposition Member is difficult at the best of times.
But, Muskrat Falls is not one of those issues on which to lever district improvements, regardless of how bad they are needed.
In portraying her vote as a negotiable item, Jones does her district and the whole Province a disservice. The MF issue is simply is too important and contains too many risks to be used as a bargaining tool. And, that is not the half of it.
Her comments imply that MF is acceptable, if the ‘grease’ is spread around in a politically advantageous way, notwithstanding the fact that the Project is inherently unsound and that it may very well seriously injure the treasury of the Province.
Jones’ message is: everything I have ever said about MF, from the government’s abuse of the role of the PUB to its failure to disclose critical information…is acceptable…if only... She forgets the Government’s disregard of her Party as the “Official Opposition” and the denial of their constitutionally mandated role. She ignores the fact that the Government has acted as badly as J.R. Smallwood ever did with intimidation of critics and selective release of essential information; maybe she does not know that a day of reckoning, for this Government, will arrive. Likely, it will be in the form of a Royal Commission. She and her Opposition counterparts may be asked if they did enough to stop it!
Quebecers, to their embarrassment and dismay, tune in daily to one of those Royal Commissions. But, Quebec is larger and, anyway, this small Province cannot afford a debacle.
No matter how much Jones wants ‘something for her District and for Labrador’, remember that what underlies our democracy and our entire political system, is its ‘moral’ basis.
Fundamental principles are inviolate; they are not negotiable for either a kilometer of pavement or a mile of transmission line. If you believe in these principles strongly, you will not only not negotiate them, you will fight to preserve them and you will ask your constituents to join with you, having explained to them what is at stake. That was what she ought to have done.
This was not one of Yvonne Jones’ best weeks.