Maritime Morning - Andrew Krystal

Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald will have his head served to him on a stick by the electorate soon. There is no escape, no reprieve, and no uncertainty. Any goodwill the Premier of Nova Scotia accrued by brokering a deal with Harper over off-shore oil revenues and redressing the amendments of the Atlantic Accord have been spent when he sided with Stephen Harper over Bill Casey.

Casey, the genteel and obstreperous Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit M.P. who voted against Harper’s budget for its erosive approach to the Atlantic Accord — and who was subsequently kicked in the caucus — is an even larger figure now as an exiled independent than he was as a Conservative.

When Premier Macdonald announced that when it came to supporting Casey in the upcoming Federal election he is a Conservative first, and that he would be supporting the Conservative party ahead of Casey the independent, he gave up any chance of staying on as Premier.

Simply put, Bill Casey is considered the conscience of Nova Scotia. He lost his job over principle. Casey, and the vociferously acid Premier Danny Williams, was the “bad cop” to Rodney MacDonald’s “good cop” during the whole Atlantic Accord crisis. In reaching a deal, the goal for Harper was as much about showing up Casey and Williams as it was about recovering Maritime votes.

Here in Nova Scotia, the public has a problem with Rodney. His “go softly” approach over the Atlantic Accords dispute process frustrated many who yearned for a rambunctious, spirited, defense of  the Province in the wake of weasel economics by the Feds: You’ve heard of the Charlottetown Accord, this is the “Charlatan Accord” — and Maritimers know it. And until the deal was reached last week with Harper seemingly caving, many felt Rodney’s approach was wrong, and his mettle weak.

Now it is a case of too little, too late. Many voters just don’t believe the Feds anymore and don’t understand the mechanics of Atlantic Accord economic policy or economic formulas. Why should they?

The fact that Rodney MacDonald has appeared too timid to upset Harper and too willing to please, has been, and is, the image problem. Remember, it was the Premier of Nova Scotia that phoned Bill Casey when he was locked in a room with Tories surrounding him before the vote to allegedly urge him to support Harper, to support the government, to stay in line. Rodney was being a good boy and doing what he was told – that was the impression; that was/is the image.

So, now that he has everything he wants from Harper by reaching an agreement and announcing it, why the suck up? Why support Harper over Bill Casey? Harper is going to cost him votes, not gain them. What is Rodney doing? Instead of being consistent, he should act like a politician.

Rodney is not Peter Mackay. Mackay has to listen to the boss – Rodney doesn’t. Just look at the “Conservative” Danny Williams! He sounds like a Green party member at a Dow Chemical parade. Brand loyalty with Danny Williams doesn’t have a place anymore than it does with provincial governments in Quebec or Ontario – they may be, or have been, Liberal, but they fought both Martin and Chrétien when they needed to for their Province knowing that the party brand means nothing — it is about getting elected. The Feds and the Province have huge separations, no matter the political stripe. Even fundraising is separate in many instances.

Yet, the bodaciously incorrigible columnist for the Chronicle Herald, one Stephen Maher, said on my broadcast today that Rodney sounds like he thinks Harper is his boss. And that is the impression. In politics, it is all about impressions.

Rodney wasn’t angry enough during the Atlantic Accord process according to lot of voters, but he claimed his sugar over vinegar approach (remember Rodney showed earnestness and concern, not anger, not a get-evenness; the Maritimes is about being proud and indignant when wronged, not acting like a lawyer who looks for an angle and who avoids exposure) was working.

Here’s what works politically here: guts; a display of guts — risk, and intestinal fortitude, crassly characterized as “balls.”

Bill Casey bestrides the Province of Nova Scotia like a colossus; a scarecrow. “Don’t go here Tories”, the scarecrow says. “Don’t go here.”