The abrupt end
to the Opposition filibuster in the House of Assembly on June 8th served
to underscore the larger issue of the Tories’ legitimacy as Her Majesty’s Loyal
Opposition.
Government
House Leader Andrew Parsons told the media that the Tories “were agreeable to
finishing up”. As well they might have been. Even if the Liberals’ budgetary
measures were misguided, as many deem the case, only the mindless would be
capable of denying that Tory fiscal mismanagement was the root cause of the
debate in the first place.
The Sitting
was the first of the 48th General Assembly. In the preceding General Election,
the remnants of the Progressive Conservative Party had been sent to the
Opposition benches less by a Liberal juggernaut than by its own determination
to self-destruct.
A province is
facing penury from overspending and a reckless energy strategy devised by a
bunch of ‘rink rats’. A vulnerable society, one perennially on the edge, has seen
its tenuous financial stability frittered away in less than a decade.
Opposition
Leader Paul Davis still recites lines that reflect blissful economic ignorance of our current circumstance. More frequently, Keith Hutchings is sent out to play
the Opposition role. The smiley Member for Ferryland tackles important
budgetary issues as if he were commenting on a sporting event. Gravitas is lost
to sound. Incredulity is grafted onto light-weight. Bemusement is the consequence.
