NEITHER HERE NOR THERE

Neither here nor there -

This is how violent uprisings are spawned. Violent uprisings that lead to bloodshed and the overthrow of governments. Governments that oppress the very people they are supposed to serve.

I am not suggesting for a moment that such things would happen in a quiet and friendly province like this, in a country that is famous world-wide as a keeper of the peace.

If this were a country where violence was the chosen means for settling disputes, and I repeat that it is not, the spark that lit the fuse could be traced to Flower's Cove and the announcement that the town's X-Ray clinic was to be closed.

"To better serve you", announced the Minister of Health (of the day), whose name politeness does not permit me to pronounce.

When the premier, who people have started to call " The Friendly Giant", eventually sensed that the people were angry, he reacted, firing the minister whose name cannot be spoken and replacing him with a man who shares his name with a giraffe. In the run-up to an already scheduled by-election that followed, the firing of the Minister with the unspeakable name was not enough. The giraffe sound-alike buried his tough-guy image and went on a charm offensive. He reversed his predecessor's policy in the twinkling of an eye and promised to keep the clinic in Flower's Cove.

Too late though. The people had smelled a rat and nothing the giraffe could do would make them vote for a government that had made the fatal error of revealing their grand strategy for rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Not only would there be no additional development in that vast area outside the overpass (where people work with their hands), but things that were already in place would be taken away.

The people of the northern Peninsula are self-sufficient and savvy. They voted 'no' to a government that would see them made extinct.

When the premier received the news that the voters had returned a candidate not belonging to his team, he took it personally. It is said that a loud voice was heard from the top floor of the Confederation Building, uttering unrepeatable language. Things were thrown. Property damage resulted.

When the tantrum was over, the planning for revenge began.

Seeking to avenge yourself on an electorate that has rebuffed your advances is about as sensible as trying to make someone love you by shouting threats at them. It is not just doomed to failure, but guaranteed to have exactly the opposite result than the one you hope for.

Nevertheless that is what the government chose to do.

This kind of vengeful wrongheadedness is an early sign of the partisan rot that history shows will eventually infect all parties in power. It comes sooner to governments with large majorities who are high in the polls. If you believe your own press releases and are subject to white-hot rages and incoherent ranting against those you regard as the enemy, the process speeds up.

The government saw its chance to mete out punishment to The Straits White Bay North when opposition leader Yvonne Jones appealed for an air ambulance to be based in Labrador. It was a legitimate request. A Labrador worker injured in a fall had just died waiting for a plane. The government, once again underestimating the intelligence of the public, figured they could take the plane away from St. Anthony and voters on the Northern Peninsula would blame Yvonne Jones.

Wrong on 4 counts.

1. A government cannot take things away from people and expect they will blame someone else.

2. The voters are not that stunned.

3. The whole province can see this is petty revenge. It places human lives at stake in a contest of political gamesmanship.

4. It is bullying, plain and simple.

At a recent rally in St. Barbe, one speaker pointed out that it is never a good time to be pitting one region against another. He understood that Labrador needed an air ambulance. If the government was telling the truth about how oil revenues had transformed this province, then Goose Bay should get a new plane and St. Anthony should keep the one it's got.

Mayor Ern Simms of St. Anthony pointed out to me something about the by-election that I didn't know. Voters in the town of St. Anthony actually voted Tory. The anti-government vote that carried the riding was outside the town. St. Anthony was being punished despite the fact that they voted for the government. So why did the government not return the mayor's repeated phone calls and emails seeking a solution?

They have now succeeded in uniting the entire constituency against them. Strange way to do politics don't you think?

But the combined vengefulness of Jerome the Giraffe and the Friendly Giant may have been topped by ex-Straits White Bay North MHA Trevor Taylor who addressed the electorate in an open letter to St. Anthony's Northern Pen. In it he boasted of the millions he had brought to the riding while the sitting member. Then, in closing, he sneered at the voters " You voted for change. Now you've got it".

I think Keith Billard, the Mayor of Flower's Cove, where this sad episode began, said it best "This is not just a St. Anthony problem, not even a Northern Peninsula problem. It is a problem for all of rural Newfoundland and Labrador".

pickersgill@mac.com