Paul Davis
wants to lead the P.C. Party into the next general election. Any sensible
person would have to ask: why him? Surely, there are better choices.
Davis told
the Telegram: “I never had a lot of time in the premier’s office… there were
some ideas and vision and focus that I never had a chance to do.” Interesting.
I don’t think anyone does vision and focus. These are attributes
used to help shape a larger plan.
Davis was
given the boot in the General Election last year.
Still, it is
almost impossible to clear the mind of the amateurish missteps with which Davis
greeted the public as he left the Lieutenant- Governor’s residence. The appointment of an unelected Minister,
unfamiliar with both political convention and the requirement to seek election, still
resounds.
Then there is the Department of Justice fiasco — dropping "Justice" in favour of "Public Safety" — which confirmed that he understood enforcement but not habeas corpus.
And to that
issue: why had he no stomach for an Inquiry into the dodgy Humber Valley Paving
affair? In his police mind, is there no accountability for political cronies or
for politicians who pander to them?
Davis truly earned
the appellation "the Constable Premier" on this Blog. No, it was
not a compliment to the man now claiming "vision".
It is good judgment
that prevents a Premier from phoning a police officer who has just pulled the
trigger in the Don Dunphy tragedy "to offer him support" — forgetting,
it seems, that he owed deference to the slain man's family, too.
It is good
judgment that keeps a Chief of Staff earning $152,000 and failing to hire more
(and possibly keener) talent with that money — something a good Opposition
needs.
Isn’t it
judgment that distinguishes good and bad governance?
Don’t strong
values also compel leadership to fix those processes that undermine the public
interest?
Some issues stand out in Davis’ one year of playing Premier.
The pre-election
Budget is one. It provided for the third huge deficit in a row — nearly $2
billion on $8 billion of spending, $2.4 billion of new borrowing (source: Budget
Update) and forecasted continuous annual borrowing in the $2.0 to 3.7
billion range — without provision for now recast Muskrat overruns.
Davis was one
of the key flag wavers of the “boondoggle”.
Did he not
conspire, with former Nalcor CEO Ed Martin, to keep a lid on news that the
project had exceeded the $11 billion cost estimate, leaving it to Stan Marshall
to confirm the $11.4 billion figure only 7 months after the General Election
and only 2 months after Martin got the boot?
Isn’t this
the same Tory leader who, even now, supports the project — still inured to the
catastrophe of a doubling of people’s electricity bills and a vastly enlarged
public debt?
This, of
course, is all old news.
Davis wants
to take this same skill-set — what he describes as ideas, vision, and focus — and
parlay them into a new mandate.
You have to
be pretty cheeky to have such an expectation despite having failed — in the year
he was Premier — to attempt a reversal of at least some of the worse decisions
of his predecessors. Having displayed no contrition for his errors, no
acknowledgment of the dreadful governance record of successive Tory Administrations (of which he was a part), and having failed to show that he understands that he helped
imperil the province, he — again — seeks the top job.
Who gets to
make such godawful choices and have a second shot at being Premier?
Even if we
forget his missteps and bad judgments — even if we forget, too, his embrace of
"hope" as his single economic management tool (much as Dwight Ball is
doing now) — are we to close our minds to such an incapacity to lead?
Against a
disastrous short tenure, on what basis does Davis believe himself to still be
the best choice as P.C Party Leader? Is popularity also to be knocked off the
list of qualifications, along with suitability?
“Landslide Davis”
is a term only Mark Critch would invoke — and then only for a laugh.
Davis won
the Tory leadership by a single vote. The same Paul Davis, as Premier, led the
P.C. Party to resounding defeat, returning only 7 Seats in a 40 Seat
Legislature — the worst result since 1966!
Mark Quinn
of CBC reported recently that, “Paul Davis thinks the unpopularity of the
Liberals presents a chance for him to become premier again”. Davis was not
boasting of his personal popularity — a measly 35%, according to CRA, a polling
agency. He merely sees himself as having become advantaged by a Liberal Premier
whose sub-basement approval rating is a dreadful 18%.
The public
now knows that Dwight Ball passes no litmus test for either good public policy
or political enlightenment. His failure
to lead in a crisis likely guarantees that he will not survive a full term.
Yet, we have
to suffer the nightmare scenario: Paul Davis as an alternative to Ball. Because he fits the bill? No. Only because he
is more popular than the most unpopular Premier in Canada!
Would the
P.C. Party allow such a travesty? It’s not as if Danny Williams has gone away
or that the Party has ceased to be hijacked by special interests.
It will have
another chance at the Annual General Meeting this month to prove otherwise.
If Davis is the best the Tories have on offer, there is little more to be said.
Given Muskrat and the fiscal circumstance they created, the Party may deserve to
be consigned to the dustbin of history anyway.
But any
further truck with Paul Davis would only cement its dim prospects.
There is one upside however.....comedians, like Mark Critch, have it soooo easy!
