The Bruce Report

Since he waltzed into office on September 16, 2006, Premier Shawn Graham has demonstrated a stunning capacity for fancy footwork. And, for the most part, he hasn’t missed a step – though, at times, he appeared to stumble, if just for a moment, over his double-wide size-nines.  

The year began upbeat, with rising, syncopated rhythms. In early November the rookie leader punched his first dance card by announcing that he had begun recruiting members of the super-wealthy New Brunswick Business Council to the noble, if Herculean, task of making New Brunswick economically self-sufficient by 2025. “The Council shares our desire for transformational change in the province,” he said at the time. “We recognize that the status quo can’t remain.”

To which St. Stephen-based candy baron and council member, David Ganong, enthused, “We had met with [Graham] prior to him taking office when he was Leader of the Opposition. . .We have continued to have dialogues and meetings of various committees with Business New Brunswick. They are prepared to listen to our ideas and to push their own ideas forward, so it’s a very interactive and positive dialogue.”

A couple of months later, Graham shimmied over to Francis McGuire, the ebullient and always presentable honcho of Moncton’s Major Drilling International, to play Ginger Rogers to his Fred Astaire. At the unveiling ceremony of the freshly minted Self-Sufficiency Task Force, new co-chairman McGuire stated that private enterprise had better start opening up its collective cheque book, or else. “If you want to compete with Toronto,” he scolded, “you have to offer Toronto wages.”

It was a nice stretch, but critics wondered if he hadn’t shown enough thigh. After all, they insisted, if you really want to compete with Toronto, you must first generate Toronto-scale industry, commercial diversity, research and development, venture capital, and foreign direct investment.

Within weeks, Graham was dancing solo. In March – after bringing down a budget that hiked taxes on individuals, small businesses and corporations – he tapped his way through tough reviews by claiming that the previous government had not been honest about the true shape of the public accounts when he took office.

Still, some continued to wonder how his projected multi-million-dollar shortfall became a $37.1 million surplus? And how his $6.6 billion “balanced budget” squared with a $356 million increase in New Brunswick’s net debt?

More bewildering, they argued, was the lack of investment in the very instruments that could help the province become economically self-sufficient. The budget indicated cuts of nearly $20 million to both Business New Brunswick and the Regional Development Corporation. Could it be that the dancing premier was losing his footing only seven months into his run?

During the spring and summer, the reviews worsened. His jitterbug on the self-sufficiency platform was clumsy and unconvincing – lacking, some said, in substance. His jig and reel on the health care stage was cold and technical – absent, most agreed, of empathy. Even his famous waltzes suddenly seemed pedestrian.

Then, in late July, came a hoofer from Fat City’s very own political hippodrome. Prime Minister Stephen Harper – fresh from laying eggs in regional theatres across Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, thanks to his awkward Atlantic Accords two-step – found his perfect counterpart in New Brunswick’s game, if struggling, premier. Together, they made dance floor magic. Finally, triumph followed triumph.

The Council of the Federation of 13 provincial and territorial leaders, held in Moncton in late August, achieved nothing of real consequence. But Graham’s curtsy before the breathless national media corps was magnificent. He was, they said, a real trooper, a consummate professional.

“Just look at how well turned out he is for a Maritimer.”

“I think he’s a former gym teacher.”

“Ahhh. . .That’s why he moves so well.”

Graham’s public declaration, in early September, to make Ottawa pay its fair share of restoring the long-suffering Petiticodiac River – one of the worst environmental catastrophes in North America – was risky and innovative, like modern jazz ballet. (Martha Graham would have been proud).

And his newfound determination to reinvent post-secondary education, health care, and regional economic development over the next two years of his mandate suggests that the dance will continue. The only question for both fans and detractors is: Will it be Swan Lake or the Monster Mash?

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