Maritime Morning - Andrew Krystal

As the Greek myth goes, King Minos of Crete had a maze built by the architect Daedalus to hold the half-man, half-bull creature known as the Minotaur. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the heroic Theseus. Coincidentally, the ill-fated Atlantic Accord monster seems half man and all bull.

First, you have to negotiate the labyrinth before you can negotiate with the Monster, and with the Ottawa Conservatives recent declaration of an accord over that disputatious Atlantic Accord, everything old is new again! The deal is back (sort of) and the end of it all is where we began apparently, and where we began is now the end —  a labyrinth — a maze not unlike the actual ledgers and Accord spread sheets

Say what you will, and say what they say, there was no reason in the first place for this issue to have even been raised, re-jigged, fooled with, or fiddled; a waste of time.

Provincial fiscal imbalance restitution was, apparently, the reason for messing with a signed deal in the first place and the historical restitution of this signed deal was the role and goal of the opposing Provincial side.

So, what do we have now? The same thing: only with no one saying that Ottawa blinked and backtracked, flip-flopped or caved. Stephen Harper is a proud and a stubborn man, it wasn’t easy for Peter Mackay, Nova Scotia Premier Rodney Macdonald (with honorable mention to Conservative Gerald Keddy) to get the government to re-engineer things and save face.

The impatience, glowering, and hot anger in Harper’s eyes over dissenting M.P. Bill Casey burned through the TV screens during Harper’s announcement; it let everyone know, without his echoing words which he spit, that Casey is loathed for his impertinence when he voted against his party and brought this entire Atlantic Accord regional firestorm upon the Conservatives with a Wagnerian incandescence.

With another bit lip, Harper wished his Newfoundland nemesis, Danny Williams well for his thundering electoral success even as Danny taunted Harper from his election night victory dais.

Here’s the real deal:  99.9 per cent of us know nothing about the Atlantic Accord. It is a complex economic formula that makes anyone’s eyes glaze over except economists who view such things as their baby and, therefore, beautiful.

Since none of us mother such formulas, I have a problem: it is an ugly baby, as ugly as a tax form, obtuse; too abstract for most of us to understand; the economic and technical nuances of the deal and what it means, or does not mean, for Nova Scotia is over our heads — or we are just numbed… In fact, many seasoned journalists with whom I have spoken admit that they don’t really understand the Accords either. Who has seen the Atlantic Accord documents except the main players?

In the end, was it a good deal for Nova Scotia? This is the question.

What I do know is that Stephen Harper gets even. “Get even Stephen” is his nick-name. There is huge personal incentive for Harper to show-up maverick M.P. Bill Casey (who voted against the last budget and the amended Atlantic Accords and was subsequently kicked out of caucus) and to show up hyper Harper detractor Premier Danny Williams, as well as to actually show support for loyalists Mackay, Keddy, and the diplomatic Nova Scotia Premier, Rodney MacDonald, by actually doing the deal — and showing up with the money.

Chronicle Herald Ottawa bureau Chief Stephen Maher told me today that he feels that the deal cobbled together by Mackay/MacDonald and company is a good one for Nova Scotia. And most, at the very least, say it is the best that Harper was prepared to give. The pot was even sweetened by another yawn-inducing piece of finance department detail known as “the Crown share” of offshore revenues — something frozen in the amber rock of disputatiousness going back to the mid-eighties and just unlocked and where Stephen is writing another cheque to us!

It sounds to me that Nova Scotia did, indeed, do well, that the “New Atlantic Accords” will be helpful. We have to wait for the oil though. We were always going to have to wait for the oil. Playwright Samuel Beckett would be proud.

The self-induced Accord problem by Harper has run its course. It seems ironic that what was perceived as a stab in the back will, in the end, see the most Provincial benefit in the deal’s back end.