Leave taking

Bill Rowe takes leave from his column.

Pam Frampton takes leave from reality:

We elected paternalistic types like Joey Smallwood, Don Jamieson and Frank Moores — the kind of politician who would pat you on the head or chuck you under the chin and tell you everything would be all right.

We were waiting for the messiah, and there were many false sightings.

We trusted Brian Peckford to fight our battles with Ottawa. We hoped Clyde Wells would help us regain our financial footing, and our dignity. We put our faith in Brian Tobin when we needed someone to smooth the way forward.

Election campaigns were still old-school — fried chicken, brass bands and baby-kissing. Orchestrated drama and on-cue enthusiasm.

Thankfully, all that’s changing.

New attitude

Danny Williams’ wild popularity is due, in large part, to the fact that he appeals to our sense of pride and independence, and our determination to see prosperity. He preaches that the solution lies not with him, but with us.

Our parents’ politics just don’t cut it anymore.

"Our parents' politics", "old-school" election campaigns, "on-cue enthusiasm", "paternalism", and "false sightings" of the "messiah" were never as prominent in the past thirty-seven years as they have been in the last thirty-seven months.

Not even during the most hail-the-conquering-hero days of Brian Tobin.

Not even during the most nationalist-jingoist-where-I-stand nonsense that was Brian Peckford, before he discovered "our" taste for cucumbers.

Not even during the most triumphal by-the-short-hairs Meech episode under Clyde Wells.

And here, in November 2007, Danny Williams is easily poised to displace Joey Smallwood, if he hasn't already, as the most corrosive political cult of personality that the province has ever seen.

Exhibit A: Pam Frampton.