All you have to do

Radio host No Names Please had some unintentionally humorous, retroactive, and amnesiac advice for the last Premier on Monday afternoon.

NNP suggested that he would have been better off taking on his own federal confrères, party allegiances be hanged. Yip, the old fed-bashing gambit.

“Maybe if Mr. Grimes had been less of a gentleman,” NNP mused. “All you have to do is take on Ottawa.”

That, NNP suggested, could have resulted in a different recent political history.

So let’s take a look at recent political history.

Once upon a time, there was a Premier and a government that told a national panel, in no uncertain terms, More federal attention needed on transportation. It called upon federal government to jointly fund causeway. It reduced itself to the role of lobbyist who would continue to lobby the federal government for the necessary funding for stuff. It went to battle over equalization. It was disappointed in federal shrimp management decisions. It continued to pressure federal government to live up to constitutional obligations. It politicized disaster relief programs. It sought the elimination of fuel surcharges. It expressed disappointment in federal budgets. It called on Ottawa to scrap stuff.

Any of that sound familiar? No? Ok, then.

It asked the federal government to eliminate things. It sat around hoping for federal funding to fall out of the sky. It continued its battle over equalization, co-opting the support of, well, everyone it could round up. It called on Ottawa to decide stuff. It urged the federal government to help. It goed it alone on make-work projects. It was discouraged by federal cod management decisions. It expressed astonishment, which was almost genuine, that in a province of Canada, the federal government of Canada collects federal taxes.

Enough? Of course not!

It took one federal issue and beat it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

It looked for federal answers. It flipped through Roget's Thesaurus to vent its political emotions. It opposed stuff.

Things got so bad, so very, very bad, that it announced a Royal Commission On All The Very, Very Bad Stuff. It threatened to amend the Terms of Union and provoke a constitutional crisis or some such. It received a historic report from the Royal Commission On All The Very, Very Bad Stuff. And it announced the creation of the Congress of People’s Deputies, promptly forgot that it had announced it, and hoped – probably still does – that you had forgotten, too.

And what did this gentlemanly approach, which avoided taking on Ottawa, net that government and its Premier?

For starters, the ridicule of a neophyte opposition leader:

Mr. Speaker, the Premier went to Ottawa to meet with federal MPs, federal ministers, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister, and he successfully, personally, offended each and every one of them prior to his visit. He even insulted the next Prime Minister by taking a cheap shot at all Liberal leadership delegates – candidates, I am sorry.

Mr. Speaker, would the Premier acknowledge that he harmed his ability to negotiate with John Manley when he stated, in reference to Sheila Copps, John Manley and Paul Martin, that he is, quote, "...very suspect of those kind of things, people coming around looking for a vote and trying to make you believe that they understand and they care and they would do something different."

That is what you said, Premier. That is your quote. You should look in the mirror. Do you think that harmed your ability to negotiate with any of those people, personally offending and personally insulting them?

Then, the pledge of a campaigning opposition leader to do so much better:

The time has come for us to stand up and demand respect, attention and equality. Our voice in Ottawa must be strong and passionate, however it must also be rational and levelheaded. Only then will we be effective in achieving for this Province the rights and benefits we have earned and deserve. My government will work cooperatively and collaboratively with our federal counterparts. In so doing, we will develop a mutual respect with the federal government, which in my experience is the key to successful and productive relationships.

And finally, the sneering of a cocky neophyte Premier, taunting the defeated and diminished ranks of the former governing party:

Before I tell the hon. gentleman opposite what I have done, I will tell him what I have not done. I have not aggravated and annoyed and insulted the current Prime Minister, the former Prime Minister, possible leadership candidates, as he did, the federal minister and federal MPs of his own Party, as he did while he was in office. I have not done that, if we can set the record straight on that.

Three weeks later, the first shots were fired in Equalization War One.

And six months after that, the flags came down.