Observations

A CBC Here and Now report tonight:

Premier Danny Williams is standing by the Chief Electoral Officer. In a statement sent to the CBC, the government says the Premier has no intentions of asking for Paul Reynolds to resign. The Liberals and the NDP have been calling for that since Reynolds refused to investigate the 2001 by-election in St. Barbe. That came after Here and Now revealed how Ed Byrne had used illegal money to make secret payments to a worker in that campaign. But Reynolds says there’s no reason to hold a formal investigation because there’s no evidence that anyone other than Byrne did anything wrong. The government says it respects Reynold’ conclusion, and considers the matter resolved.

Observation 1: Why is the Premier in a position where he has to decide whether or not to “stand by” the Chief Electoral Officer? Oh yeah – because he turned the position into a patronage job.

Observation 2: “In a statement sent to the CBC…” What? No press release? And where’s the usually scrum-happy Danny? (srsly, where is he?)

Observation 3: “the government says the Premier has…” The government says? Really, now: where’s Danny?

Observation 4: “The government says it respects Reynold’ conclusion, and considers the matter resolved.” Translation: The PC government says it respects the former president of the PC Party’s conclusions about the conduct of a PC campaign. How very convenient that it now considers the matter resolved.

And finally, out-of-sequence Observation 5: “the Premier has no intentions of asking for Paul Reynolds to resign.” Good. Because the Premier has no business asking Paul Reynolds to resign, even if, by appointing the former President of the PC Party to the job, the Premier turned a non-partisan office into a patronage job.

Why’s that?

Because the law of the province – as inconvenient as it sometimes may be for the Premier – says otherwise:

4. (1) There is established the office of the Chief Electoral Officer to be filled by resolution of the House of Assembly.

(2) The Chief Electoral Officer holds office during good behaviour and may only be removed by resolution of the House of Assembly.

It sure would be awful if an MHA laid such a resolution before the House.