Maritime Morning - Andrew Krystal

Act I: Where young Peter assails the virtue of the gentle fox in the first question period of the fall session of Parliament

Peter MacKay’s nasty verbal onslaught upon poor, old, excommunicated Nova Scotia M.P. Bill Casey in the House of Commons didn’t sit well with either old Tories or many Nova Scotians. The verbal volcanism, from a piqued Peter, occurred when old Bill asked a simple question about whether or not the “new” Atlantic Accord agreement, hammered out the other week and broadcast on national TV before a bemused and cherubic Premier Rodney MacDonald and a triumphant (dare I say Chamberlainesque?)  Peter Mackay was going to be committed to paper, to a signed contract.

When Mackay deflected, Casey said that “this is a $25-billion contract and if that doesn’t qualify for a signed contract then I don’t know what does.” 

Angrily, Mackay replied to the House: “I know he (Bill Casey) is very concerned about the details and also very concerned about his own personal situation. We just wish that he would work a little bit more productively in the interests of Nova Scotians and put his own personal crusade aside and accept what is good for this province.”

Nova Scotia Liberal MP Scott Brison echoed the view of many of my radio show callers when he countered that “It is Peter Mackay, not Bill Casey, who has put his personal interest ahead of Nova Scotia.”

What are the facts? Well, Peter has his job, his party, his portfolio, and his staff and Bill Casey has a sign hanging over his doorway and has to print his own business cards. Personal motivation is the last thing that motivated Bill Casey.

It is this element of mean-spiritedness with Stephen Harper squinting into the cameras like Clint Eastwood when discussing Bill Casey and Peter Mackay’s performance yesterday that seem odd, almost something beyond the Conservatives own self-restraint – that they cannot help themselves.

What Casey’s foes fail to realize is that the more they demonize him, act like jilted lovers, and look to destroy him and cast aspersions upon his straight-forward country logic and unassailable character, the greater is his standing and his cause – his David to the Tory Goliath.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog posting, trying to diminish Bill Casey is a zero-sum game. In fact, you lose points when you pick on him.

For some reason, no one gets it – or the Tory indignant sense is too great.

It’s only going to get worse; soon Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will be campaigning in support of Bill Casey in his riding to annoy the Conservatives; he may even support Green Party Leader Elizabeth May against Peter Mackay himself in the riding of Central Nova (you’ve read it hear first). Politics makes strange bedfellows. And our relationship with Peter Mackay, here in Nova Scotia, is an odd one.

While Peter is married to Nova Scotia, Stephen Harper, according to many, seems to be his mistress. And she gets all the candy.