JAMES MCLEOD IS LEAVING. TIME TO LAY BLAME.

I had never thought James McLeod to be one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. In last Saturday’s Telegram, he telegraphed just that. 

In mortal terror, he’s leaving the province. And I know I’m the one responsible.

McLeod had interviewed Uncle Gnarley for a story in September that he called “Meet Uncle Gnarley: Muskrat Falls’ prolific doomsayer blogs in turbulent times”.  I had no idea that, after just a few hours with him, McLeod would want to ‘cut and run’ — hightail it — for the mainland!

Already wearing his unemployment boots and heading for the Marine Atlantic Ferry, he left this advice:

“Here’s the honest truth: It’s in the economic self-interest of every man, woman and child in this province to do the same thing I’m doing: pack up and move literally anywhere else. The province has a demographic problem and a geographic problem. There are too many old people…

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE IN HIS OWN WORDS

Telegram Reporter James McLeod conducted an interview with the Finance Minister, in July, which he titled "Jerome Kennedy in his own words".  The transcript is posted on the Telegram’s Web Site, on his “Briefing Notes” Blog.  Mr. McLeod is a keen reporter and this one, like others of his lengthy verbatim transcripts, is a valuable record of the ‘thinking’ of his subject. 

Unfortunately, the only part of the interview which became ‘news’ was the Minister’s views about the Tory Blue Book.  Kennedy eschewed any notion that they constituted promises. “You used the word promise”, Kennedy said to McLeod. “I’m not sure that the Blue Book can be described as a promise. It outlines a platform of initiatives…we strive as best we can to ensure that the commitments made or the components of the platform are complied with.” 

While the Minister’s phrasing failed to meet some expectations and titillated the public, for a few days, the revelation, for my money, was quite secondary to what the McLeod’s interview accomplished.  I am not referring to the Budget “ceiling” either, though it was discussion of that subject, that shed light on a more critical issue.