YVONNE JONES WINS BUT NL BIGGEST LOSER

So, the voters have informed Peter Penashue his services are no longer required. Whom it will shock is uncertain; possibly, only the P.C. Party of Canada.

The entire spectacle is tough to comprehend.  Peter was feckless, as an MP and as a Cabinet Minister.  In the briefest of tenures, he has etched a place among the ‘weakest of the weak’ sent to the hallowed halls of Parliament.

That the National P.C. Party did not consider a Nomination Meeting in an effort to suss out other, possibly more electable or more suitable candidates, is inexplicable. It’s as if they didn’t really want Peter’s Labrador Seat all that badly. 

The current Majority Government forgets its near death experience when it was a ‘Minority’ player in the House of Commons.  A busy PM and non-stop Cabinet Ministers, seemingly, don’t have time to weigh the importance or the long term implications of one loss.  A Justin Trudeau may be a featherweight now, but, politics is a fickle sport and such wins exact a price. Remember Danny’s ABC Campaign?  Now, the Province is completely shut out of the Federal Government.

YVONNE JONES WAS PLAIN WRONG!

Yvonne Jones was wrong, this week, to imply that she would vote in favour of the Muskrat Falls project if she could get some benefits for her district and for Labrador.

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.