Tories putting the ‘wake’ in Wakeham

By Ivan Morgan

I guess I need to be blunter. I have made comments over the last few months but now I feel the need to speak plainly.

From what I can see the provincial Tories should be good and worried. In this latest byelection in Waterford Valley I saw, from the Tories, amateurish videos, a lacklustre candidate, and no evidence of a concerted big push by the team. From out here it looked like they didn’t even try very hard.

Byelections are different from general elections. For those not in the know, in a byelection the whole party can work on one district for one candidate. Come a general election, each candidate is pretty much on his or her own. Maybe the leader can spend a part of one day campaigning with you but, with 40 seats, he or she will be busy. That goes for the money too. The whole party can afford to spend time and money on a byelection; a general election is a whole other matter.

Recently we saw the byelection in Waterford Valley go handily to the provincial Liberals. The PCs got shellacked. The result was predictable. The Liberals, who spent money and energy on their star candidate, won handily.

I am no longer inside the political circle (thanks be to the Almighty) so I am not privy to a lot of the machinations that go on in all parties. I am now firmly ensconced, like you, on the outside looking in.

I don’t know what the Tory plan is for the next election. All I know is from out here it looks like there isn’t one. It looks like something has to change. Maybe the current leadership has to go? Fresh faces (dare I say young faces?). New ideas? New attitude?

There’s a provincial election looming and if something isn’t done fast, things look pretty grim for local Tories. Assuming the Furey Liberals don’t call an election ‘til spring, there’s time to drum up some opposition moxie. Its doable. The American Democrats had a leadership problem, and they seemed to have found a solution.
Yes, the Tories have won two recent byelections in rural Newfoundland, but it’s the Northeast Avalon that has a lot of seats (more about that in another column). They lost both recent byelections held here.

I’m not rooting for the Tories. I am rooting for you and me. Lively politics and good choices make for good government. Real competition is healthy. I am not a Tory, or a Liberal, or anything for that matter. I am where I was always happiest – an independent.

From where I stand the current Liberal government is easily beatable. If you read this space every week you will know my reasoning. The only problem is you need a good team that can convince people to vote for you. You need leadership, energy, vitality.

Rocket science it ain’t.

Our system is based on an Opposition party being, in essence, a government in waiting. Danny Williams first served in Opposition back in 2001. I remember at the time he seemed personally offended that Roger Grimes was Premier. He wanted that job so bad he could taste it. He was chomping at the bit. Two years he steamed in opposition, pointing out to the Grimes Liberals just how useless he thought they were, until winning in 2003.
I am not seeing anything like that these days.

The current Opposition constellation doesn’t seem to care much about anything. Sure, they’ll have a few half-baked press releases a week, the scattered tired press briefing, but where is the fire in the belly?

There is so much wrong with how this province is run. Deficits balloon. We all pay more and more in taxes and see less and less for what we supposedly pay for in terms of service and infrastructure. Out of control food prices. Out of control electricity prices. Out of control drug crisis. Health care? Don’t get me started!
There is so much for a principled Opposition to be very angry about and want to fix.

Act like it.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com