The Lighter Side: For the last time, Mr. Premier; sticker shock
Article content
Welcome to The Lighter Side, a weekly column from the Brunswick News political team. Political Editor Andrew Waugh, Ottawa Bureau Chief Adam Huras, senior Legislature Reporter John Chilibeck and Provincial Reporter Barbara Simpson team up to bring you an assortment of behind-the-scenes and behind-the-headlines political tidbits from the week that was.
For the last time, Mr. Premier
A case of selective political memory was on display at the New Brunswick Museum this week.
For those who aren’t familiar with the condition, it’s when a politician can precisely recall their opponents’ track records but is fuzzy on their own and those of their party colleagues. The condition, whose only treatment is often a reality check from a journalist or a political opponent, can be triggered by an upcoming election.
Case in point: Out front of the province’s 1930s-era museum this week, Tammy Scott-Wallace, minister of tourism, heritage and culture, thanked Premier Blaine Higgs for his “unwavering support” of the new museum project. Higgs and local Tory MLAs were on hand to pledge $58 million toward the revitalization and expansion of the Douglas Avenue museum in Saint John.
Trouble is, Higgs‘s support of a new museum has been, well, wavering. In 2018, shortly after becoming premier, Higgs cancelled the previous Brian Gallant Liberal government’s $50-million funding commitment to a new museum. When asked about this history, Higgs defended his decision this week, telling media that the provincial government didn’t have the money at the time and the previous waterfront site wasn’t right for the project.
Of course, this wasn’t the first iteration of the project to fail. In fact, the premier went on a fact-finding mission before the press conference to figure the exact number out.
“How many iterations has this been through?” Higgs asked his Tory colleagues as they were taking their seats.
Saint John Lancaster MLA Dorothy Shephard – who only days before announced she wouldn’t be reoffering in the next provincial election under the Higgs banner – had the answer.
“It doesn’t matter,” she replied to laughter. “It’s the last one.”
Sticker shock
Liberal MPs in Ottawa this week accused a Conservative committee chair of overstepping his authority by unilaterally inviting a few of the country’s premiers, including Blaine Higgs, to speak on a looming increase to the federal carbon tax.
Also, Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin doesn’t like the chair’s stickers on his laptop.
This week saw the premiers of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Alberta and Saskatchewan request to testify before the House of Commons finance committee before April 1’s scheduled increase of the carbon tax.
But it’s a break week for Parliament, and it’s up to committee chairs to call a meeting.
Finance chair Liberal MP Peter Fonseca decided not to.
Meanwhile, Conservative MP Kelly McCauley, chair of the House’s Government Operations and Estimates committee tasked with studying government expenditures, decided to call two meetings to let the conservative premiers talk.
Estimates committee member and Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk called it a “farce” – and a few other things, including a “political stunt and theatre,” “a shame,” as well as “disrespectful” – that McCauley would call the meeting without first consulting committee members.
He contended that there’s a lengthy history of doing so.
Liberal MP Francis Drouin appeared to level a threat, stating “the precedent that you are setting, Mr. Chair, I can tell you that your side will be pissed off with us because we’ll call meetings at our disposal and you will not be happy with us,” he said. “If you want to set the precedent with this committee, I’m telling you, we’re going to challenge you.”
Also displeased was Atwin, another Liberal member of the committee.
She was upset over the same thing, but also something else.
Atwin said the Liberal Finance chair was simply respecting a constituency week, while then highlighting McCauley’s “own bias in making this decision.
“I’m noticing the stickers that have always been present as props in this committee, you love pipelines and oil and gas and it’s very clear,” Atwin said, referring to a laptop McCauley uses at committee that is plastered with “I love oil and gas” decals.
“So perhaps that had a stake in this decision you made today.”
McCauley responded: “I do love oil and gas, if it bothers you, I will close my laptop.”
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.