It’s only Thursday and, while Ryan
Snodden is working hard to put a damper on the holiday, everyone (but the NDP) is
happy just to have a long weekend.
Who, but an N’Dipper, would want to attend
ideological boot camp with Lana Payne when they could be freezing their butts
off at Paddy’s Pond!
It’s not as if she might be leading
a workshop on the political strategies of Machiavelli or the less tiresome writings
of Winston Churchill though the latter did intone that ‘the inherent
virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.'
When you go from ‘tour de force’ to ‘down in the dumps’ you can be sure Frank Coleman isn’t the only one sounding like a eulogy at Fillatres’.
But, it seems a good thing Dale Kirby and Chris Mitcelmore
weren’t negotiating Middle East peace.
I’m thinking, too, Lorraine
didn’t quite make it to India last summer. She must have stood up the
great Indian social activists with whom she had intended to break bread, preferring
instead to take counsel from Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers. You
don’t need to check her itinerary.
Just look at the way she ripped the heads off Mitchelmore and Kirby upon
her return!
Talk about Marg, Princess Warrior! Jeesz, Mary Walsh should be
looking for work.
Now people are saying the NDP has to build itself back up.
Why would they do that when, for thirty years, they were far happier with a
Caucus of one and five percent of the popular vote!
What’s the Party to do?
She could start by being less
generous to
the Liberals.
Look at what happened last week.
Lorraine and Dwight, in a gesture of unity befitting the
aftermath of a Caucus revolt, took off to Ottawa to talk shrimp. With whom? The Canadian
Senate….a bunch of wind bags who don’t know a cod from a sculpin.
What does Lorraine leave behind? Corruption allegations and possible
Government complicity in a $19 million scheme to bail out Humber Valley Paving,
a Company with connections to the in-coming Premier.
How much better can it get?
It is the political gift that keeps on giving!
What does she do? She
stays on the plane!
Lorraine flies to Ottawa, when she should have hidden away in the
St. John’s Airport. When Dwight
Ball was in the air, she ought to have taken a cab back to Confederation
Building. If she couldn’t shake Ball,
there
are a dozen flights a day to get her back home.
She ought to have known Dwight doesn’t have the political
intuition of a fur ball. That’s what the NDP has to take
advantage of.
What could be more important to a society than high level
corruption? It’s more critical even than oil or fish.
Allegations of a $19 million corruption scandal and Gerry does
what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She changes the bloody subject.
And, the NDP want to be
taken seriously?
If Lana has any designs on
introducing Machiavelli this time round, I’m tellin’ ya’ Gerry is just not
ready. Talk about the innocent!
Jeezus, my hair will never grow
back!
Now, where was I?
Oh yes. How does Lorraine deal with the Convention this
weekend?
Well….
She might tell them Dale Kirby is actually sookier
than George Murphy. It just so happens that the one who gives off the most
gas surprisingly isn’t the one who stayed. At least,
thankfully for Kirby, the Libs can hide him away.
As for Mitchelmore, he never did
belong to the NDP. N’Dippers can
understand that.
If Chris didn’t leave
when he did, he would have to invent the opportunity. Perhaps, that’s why they
call people
like him ‘opportunists’.
The Straits is a Liberal District. Mitchelmore might speak like he’s attending a
funeral pyre; but he’s not stupid.
Winning twice for the NDP, in
Straits of Belle Isle, is tantamount to lightening striking the same
spot twice or, if you prefer, having the same odds as Frank
Coleman getting the HVP Bonds released and a lifetime pension, for
a year of being Premier.
There are some things in politics
you simply cannot control. Danny Williams’ buddy and people like
Kirby and Mitchelmore are three of them.
But it isn’t all bad. Even if the two buckos aren’t around to face
the Convention they demanded, Michael can still argue the NDP is still ahead of
where they are used to be.
And, it’s not as if leadership options are popping out
all over. Michael is the most
articulate, most passionate, most intelligent leader the NDP has ever
attracted.
The Party has to pick itself up,
even if it has disappointed a public who once demonstrated it is willing to embrace
economic babble over
‘Tory
fiscal crazy’.
Michael might remind them, in spite
of the difficulties, the NDP broke through a large barrier in the last election
and that she brought the Party to 30% in the Polls since - even if she wasn’t
able to keep it there. In the heavily contested Virginia Waters, the Party ran
a solid candidate. The outcome was not
an embarrassment.
Michael will tell the Convention she is the best one to lead
the NDP through the next election. Why? Because it’s true.
But, she will need to talk
succession, too.
It is not for me to tell the NDP what it ought to
believe. But, I suggest, it can never
hope to be a credible political force until the Party can demonstrate resilience
in the face of failures, the ability to attract new blood including in a
leadership role, and the confidence to freely discuss an economic program that isn’t a metaphor
for Tory misbehaviour.
It must never confuse the priority of corruption over policy.
Yes, there are many who just want the NDP to be nice.
And, you know what they say
about guys who are.
On this 24th weekend
there won’t be a single camper at the Convention….but N’Dippers can still check to see if anyone
has attended who can help Ms. Michael light a
new fire.