Carrots and sticks (II)

The Wrath of Dan was brought painfully to bear on Cartwright-L’anse au Clair PC candidate Dennis Normore after Wednesday’s Telegram hit the stands.

On Thursday’s front page, Terry Roberts files a follow-up report:

Williams chastises candidate
Says districts will not be punished if they don’t elect PC member

Tory candidates who try to browbeat voters by saying they will be punished if they don’t elect a government MHA can expect a terse phone call from Premier Danny Williams.

“I won’t stand for those kinds of statements being made by any candidates on our behalf in this election,” Williams said Wednesday.

…

Williams said he contacted Normore Wednesday morning to “express my displeasure” about the “improper” comments.

“This is not the way we operate. There’s not a question of any district paying at all for not being a government seat,” Williams said, adding that he was “very annoyed.”

“It hasn’t been the pattern or the policy of this government to punish districts. I saw too much of that during the years when I wasn’t in politics and just standing back as an observer,” he offered.

“… he [Normore] certainly got a clear message from me as head of this party that those kinds of comments are simply unacceptable.”

It’s nice to know that Danny won’t stand for those kinds of comments being made in this election.

But what about past ones?

Here’s how Len Muise, a former PC candidate himself, explained the kerfuffle over Ron Dawe’s thwarted attempt to secure a PC nomination during the last election, in a March 2003 opinion piece in the Western Star:

Finally, voters in the district are in a dilemma. They want Ron Dawe as their MHA because of his past representation and the fact that he will likely win this seat regardless of his political affiliation. People have become used to their member being on the government side and being in cabinet. However, everyone knows that Danny Williams will stick to his decision not to allow Ron to represent the PC party. They have to decide if they want a member on the government side with a possible cabinet position or do they want Ron Dawe as a member outside the PC caucus. This will be a hard choice for the voters in this district.

Here’s how new-ish Labrador West MHA Jim Baker appealed for votes during his party nomination earlier this year, in the February 19th edition of The Aurora:

I really believe in Danny Williams and I like his leadership style. I think he is the type of leader that comes along once in a generation and I look forward to being part of that team. I really believe the people in this area are ready now to get onside with the government.

And here is how he deconstructed his ultimate by-election win in the March 11th edition of 53 North:

In closing, Baker said, “We will most definitely see Danny Williams re-elected, and that puts me in a good place. I will have day-to-day contact with the decision-makers.”

Labrador West Tories agreed, saying in the same paper a week later:

A dominant theory eventually emerged as to why Baker, a Tory candidate in a traditionally NDP riding, was successful.

Rudy Tucker, President of the Labrador West PC District Association, said, “We’ve been in the opposition in Labrador West for quite some time. We’re finally on the government’s side.”

Added [campaign manager and former PC MHA Alec] Snow, “I think the big difference here is that people wanted to be part of the Danny Williams Team – that’s what they voted for, and that’s what their going to get… Instead of always objecting, we’re going to be able to participate in the votes for the province.”

Baker… also agrees with the consensus, saying, “I believe being part of the Danny Williams Team is certainly what did it for me. People see in Danny Williams a leader that comes along once in a lifetime. Everywhere I went people said ‘it is definitely time we got on side with the provincial government.’”

Almost all is fair, and appealing to a desire to be on the government side is, really, fair enough.

But that appeal can quickly cross the line from carrot to stick. And it often does.

Item: In May, CBC reported that now-retiring MHA George Sweeney’s political colours were hurting efforts by Harbour Grace town council to secure provincial government funding:

Short believes the town received less support than it needs because Liberal George Sweeney — who represents Carbonear-Harbour Grace district in the house of assembly — sits across the aisle from the governing Progressive Conservatives.

“Since the PC government got in, I might as well say it, we never got nothing in Harbour Grace,” Short said.

Item: On June 29, the Western Star quoted Bay of Islands PC nomination contestant Leo Bruce:

Bruce said it’s time the Bay of Islands joined the Danny Williams team and left the “wasteland of the Opposition benches in the House of Assembly.”

Interesting admission there, Leo… that the PCs have turned opposition districts into a “wasteland”.

Item: The Telegram’s Terry Roberts relayed a curious account, in the July 6 edition, from the opposition leader’s district:

With public opinion polls predicting a landslide for Williams and his party, some are openly questioning whether Reid will also fall prey, and are suggesting that the district of The Isles of Notre Dame (formerly Twillingate and Fogo) will be the race to watch.

One of those is Harry Cooper of Twillingate, a former mayor, town councillor and fire chief.

The 76-year-old is a retired businessman and an admitted Liberal supporter for most of his life.

That support faltered in 2003, however, and this time around he’s solidly behind the PC candidate, Derrick Dalley.

“Most people think the PCs are going back in again. If you’re on the opposition side of the government, you don’t get very much in your district. We proved that over the years when we were 17 years on the opposition side of the PC government,” Cooper said Thursday during a telephone interview.

Interesting admission there, Harry… that the PCs engaged in government-by-punishment the last time they were in power, too. That confirms what might otherwise be an entirely self-serving anecdote that your incumbent MHA recounted to the House of Assembly back in 2002:

Since that time, I am pleased to be able to stand here today, along with my predecessor - who at the time was the hon. Walter Carter - since 1989 until the present. I want to tell you about some of the roads that have been paved in my district. I will list them. The Member for Windsor knows the ones I am talking about. Cottlesville, Virgin Arm, Chanceport, Bridgeport, Moreton’s Harbour, Valley Pond, Tizzard’s Harbour, Parkview. These are only half of the roads that have been paved since 1989, and we are going to continue to pave them. We also did Parkview, Fairbank, Hillgrade, Herring Neck, Merritt’s Harbour, Too Good Arm, Pikes Arm, Cobbs Arm. These are just roads that were never touched under the Tory regime up until 1989; never touched. All on one island in my district. All on New World Island. Never touched. They were told: No, we can’t even talk to you until you vote Tory. We hear them standing today and criticizing us. I will tell you, we will never, if we are here for the next 400 years, stoop to that level; that the then Tory government used to stoop to in that day.

But anyway, back to Labrador West, this is how the losing candidate, and Danny Williams himself explained, the Tory by-election win in a CBC morning-after report:

Baker, a Labrador City councillor, received high-profile support throughout the campaign, with Premier Danny Williams and numerous other cabinet ministers campaigning in the district.

[NDP candidate Darrell] Brenton said the presence of so many Tory ministers may have persuaded some voters to back the government side.

“It may have had an impact,” Brenton said Tuesday night. “[But] I’m going to keep Mr. Baker’s nose to the grindstone and make sure that they produce.”

Williams told CBC News he had no apologies for leading such an aggressive campaign in Labrador West.

“We threw everything at it,” Williams said.

“We were there in full force, but I have to be honest - that’s no different than any other byelection.”

Now, given that the Normore-style dark intimations of retribution for voting wrong have emerged from the mouths of Tories in diverse corners of the province, it’s easy to be skeptical about Danny’s protestations that “this is not the way we operate… there’s not a question of any district paying at all for not being a government seat….”, that he “saw too much of that during the years when I wasn’t in politics…”

It’s quite easy, in fact, to conclude that this was an official, well-scripted, and well-worn selling point... until they got caught out on it.

And given that the current government happily admits to doling out highway spending on a partisan basis, the question screams to be asked:

Just what was this “everything” that “we threw at it”, in Labrador West, or Humber Valley, or any of the other recent by-election campaigns?

And that’s where you come in, gentle reader.

Surely to goodness, someone out there on the internets has a tape or transcript, a clipping or press release, from any of the provincial by-elections in 2005, 2006, or 2007, in which Team Danny Williams candidates, supporters, cabinet ministers, or miscellaneous apologists, offered up not just the usual electoral carrot (“government membership has its privileges”), but an electoral stick as well (“not one red cent!”)