Shawn Graham’s Liberals are running under the slogan “The Future Matters“.
They are hoping New Brunswickers will ignore their past mistakes; but, as the late poet and philosopher, George Santayana, famously wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it“.
That is why I am highlighting two critically important issues where Shawn Graham and the Liberal Party attempted to impose what they thought was best for us, while ignoring our thoughts and opinions, a clear trend that has been occurring since day one.
I’m hoping this serves as a reminder when people are making their final decisions on who to vote for on election day:
1) UNB Saint John
How can we be so quick to forget the 2007 report to reform post-secondary education , which included recommendations to turn UNB-SJ into a polytechnique?
Not a single Liberal MLA opposed the recommendations, which is terrible considering how many Saint John Liberal’s served in Shawn Grahams cabinet:
Gordon Fairweather, a former Tory MLA who left politics in 1977, took aim at Minister of Post-Secondary Education Ed Doherty, Supply and Services Minister Roly MacIntyre, Energy Minister Jack Keir, Minister of State for Housing Mary Schryer and Minister of Tourism and Parks Stuart Jamieson.
“I thought at least one or two of those five saviours of Saint John would step up to the plate and I’m astounded that we haven’t heard a single word from any of them,” Fairweather said in a report published Wednesday in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal.
Progressive Conservative MLA’s fought against the plan, pushing to have a decision made immediately:
The Conservatives have introduced a resolution in the legislature calling on the Liberal government to make a quick decision on the future of the University of New Brunswick Saint John.
“Why are you not standing up and fighting for the people of Saint John?” Conservative MLA Margaret-Ann Blaney asked the government side on Thursday.
The same resolution was previously passed unanimously by the university’s student union on Nov. 29 and asks the government to announce what the future holds for the school by the end of January.
The university’s administration has argued that the delay in determining the school’s future is having a serious impact on the enrolment numbers for next fall as students question if they’ll even have a university to go to in the city.
The Liberal government has promised the institution will continue to be called a university but has not yet guaranteed that it will keep its current programs or liberal arts focus.
And to top things off, Shawn Graham went on to accept an honorary degree from UNB, which many faculty members protested:
Robert Whitney, a history professor at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, said roughly 100 current and retired faculty and staff members have signed a letter of objection to granting Graham an honorary degree and have sent it to David Stevenson, chair of the university’s board of governors.
Whitney said the decision is up to the board of governors, but from his perspective, the honour would be misdirected.
“The premier and his government sponsored a report which was clearly intended to restrict the access of higher education to many people in New Brunswick,” he said.
“For us, it just doesn’t seem to make sense that you would grant an honorary degree to someone who promoted policies that wanted to restrict people’s access to university education.”
2) NB Power For Sale
Once again, a very controversial issue was decided behind closed doors and forced upon the people in New Brunswick without any consultation!
This time the decision was to sell NB Power to Hydro Quebec:
Quebec and New Brunswick have reached a proposed deal that would see Hydro-Québec buy the majority of NB Power’s assets for $4.8 billion.
New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham and Quebec Premier Jean Charest announced the historic deal in Fredericton on Thursday, concluding a week of speculation.
However, after the deal received much public opposition, the Liberal’s went and renegotiated the deal; however, they wouldn’t show the people in New Brunswick the deals of the plan:
Yves Gagnon, the K.C. Irving chair in sustainable development at the University of Moncton, was a critic of the original deal.
In October there was a text of the memorandum of understanding but without the text of the finalized agreement the energy expert said it will be difficult to properly assess the new deal.
“It’s going to be impossible for independent parties to analyze the value and the merits of this second deal with Hydro-Québec,” Gagnon said.
Gagnon said the first agreement also sounded good on the day it was announced but that changed as details emerged.
Progressive Conservative Leader David Alward asked the Liberal government to send the new deal to a legislative committee for further examination.
“The reality is with Plan B we already know there are shortcomings. Many of the same problems that existed with the first deal exist in the second deal,” Alward said.
Rumors of a caucus revolt over the proposal deal? Not if you ask Shawn Graham, every single Liberal MLA was backing the deal:
Graham told reporters on Monday at the opening of a new school that there had not been any caucus revolt.
When asked if the proposed deal had 100 per cent backing from the Liberal caucus, Graham replied: “Yes, very much so.”
Also, don’t let the spin fool you – only one Liberal MLA ever publicly came out against the sale of NB Power to Hydro Quebec, and this only occurred when the end of the deal was imminent!
Every Liberal MLA’s spent the majority of their time trying to sell the plan to us, even when they knew a majority of people were opposed to the deal:
The Liberal government is running into stiff opposition to its plan to sell NB Power, according to a new Leger Marketing poll.
The first public opinion poll on the deal was released on Monday and showed the deal is seen unfavourably by 60 per cent of New Brunswick residents, while only 22 per cent of respondents like the agreement.
Christian Bourque, vice-president of research at Leger Marketing, said the government is running into difficulty pitching the proposal to people.
“It’s only one in five New Brunswickers that are actually supporting the deal with Hydro-Québec,” Bourque said.
“And of those remaining 18 per cent who have not made up their mind yet, they’ll tend to sway with the majority, and that majority right now is saying no.”
The proposal deal also cost New Brunswick $8 Million Dollars, much of it was spent trying to convince us that it was a good deal:
New Brunswick Finance Minister Greg Byrne is defending the final $8-million cost of the botched deal to sell parts of NB Power to Hydro-Québec.
The Department of Finance released figures on Monday that added up the legal, accounting and public relations bills associated with the failed power deal.
Toronto-based law firm Olser Hoskin Harcourt, which acted as the deal’s lead negotiators, billed the provincial government $2.43 million.
Osler hired a series of other firms to help in the negotiations, which brought the total bill for legal and technical services to $4.82 million.
The New Brunswick government hired a series of public relations experts in an effort to sell the deal to the public.
Hill and Knowlton billed the provincial government for $892,000. The firm also handed out subcontracts to Bristol for $175,100 and Colour for $1.22 million.
Canada Post was paid $42,300 for postage for a household pamphlet that was distributed about the deal.
In total, taxpayers paid $2.33 million for communications and advertising.
Another major component of the final bill was for financial services.
Macquarie Capital Markets was paid $882,900 for third-party financial advice on the impact of the deal on New Brunswick power rates. A further $28,612 was paid to Morneau Sobeco for actuarial advice on pension issues stemming from the proposed deal.
The Future Matters?
Shawn Graham’s Liberals are not working in the best interests of the people of New Brunswick – they are working for the best interest of their friends like Atcon:
Last year, the New Brunswick government extended three different loan guarantees to Miramichi-based Atcon worth a combined $50 million. Those were on top of earlier loan guarantees and loans, which elevated the provincial government’s exposure to roughly $70 million.
We can expect more of the same if Shawn Graham is re-elected.
As for the slogan “The Future Matters” – yes, the future matters; but, so does the past.
If we fail to understand the past, we will all suffer the consequences – another four years of Shawn Graham.
On election day, stand up and say enough is enough!
Shawn Graham’s Liberals were in full-attack mode yesterday after Pam Lynch, a PC Candidate, changed the address listed on her website.
