There is an even chance that, when voters in Newfoundland and Labrador go to the polls in their provincial election on Thursday, they will give the boot to the four-year-old Liberal government of Premier Dwight Ball and elect the Progressive Conservatives under Ches Crosbie.
Canadian provincial politics has a rich history of come-from-behind parties emerging from the margins to occupy the epicentre of power. The Greens are poised to show the rest of Canada that it can happen in P.E.I. as well.
And while the Greens may appear to lack any experience in governing, this, history shows, is not always a disqualification for office.
New, untested parties have formed effective governments. A look back into the history of provincial politics in Canada shows that the seemingly improbable can become fairly mainstream and practical.
Hon. Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario
Queen’s Park
Toronto
My Dear Premier Ford,
I beg you to accept my apologies for ignoring you. Here you are about to present your 2019 budget, wherein you will unpeel the next layer of your vision for Ontario, and I have not offered you a scintilla of counsel. Mea culpa. (That’s Latin for “open for business,” Sir.)
Hon. Doug Ford,
Queen’s Park,
Toronto, Ontario
My dear Premier Ford:
It’s me again, Sir, your faithful fan out here in the foothills of Ford Nation.
I’ve already written to you a couple of times, first to commend your efforts to return Ontario to the glories of the 1950s, and subsequently to endorse your invocation of the notwithstanding clause to subdue that twit, John Tory, the mayor of Toronto.
“Please don’t tell my mother I’m in politics. She thinks I’m still playing piano in a bordello.” – late Nova Scotia Senator Finlay MacDonald
Politicians, as a whole, do not rank high in the public’s esteem. Most polls bury them toward the bottom, perhaps a rung or two above bill collectors and telemarketers.
The chief rap against politicians is that they say one thing and do another, that they make promises and do not keep them.
