Politics is not a popularity contest

Without so much as batting an ironylash, Nick McGrath, MHA for Labrador West, inadvertantly summarizes the past decade of provincial politics. As he told CBC's Labrador Morning a few days ago:

Anybody can be the nice leaders, or any government can go in, and when times are really good, and you’re spending, spending, spending, everybody loves ya. But when you have to make tough, responsible decisions, that impact upon the populace within the province, then people start to say, well, you’re not as popular.’ We’re not here to win a popularity contest, we’re here to govern a province, and run the province as effectively and efficiently as possible, and I think we’re doing a good job of that.

"Spending, spending, spending", of course, was the preferred method by which Minister McGrath's PC Party ensured that everybody loved ya' between 2005 and 2012.