How does Mr. Alward go to Fredericton?
Progressive Conservative Leader David Alward appears to have the second part of this equation down cold. As for the first, his barrage last Thursday – the first full day of the provincial election campaign – shows him lacking a certain, essential polish.
“Today is the start of the final chapter of the worst government New Brunswick has ever had,” he declared before a crowd of supporters near Fredericton. “Shawn Graham wants to take the next four years to make you forget the last four years. But we will not let him hide from his government’s record. We will not forget the mess that he made of our province.”
Oddly, the slight quiver in his voice as he threw down the gauntlet suggested that even he might have thought the words pouring from his mouth were needlessly hyperbolic. The worst government New Brunswick has ever had? How, exactly, does one go about quantifying such a claim? Is it worse than those of Bernard Lord, Frank McKenna and Richard Hatfield, each of which suffered from periodic bouts of boneheaditis?
Of course, voters expect this sort of trash talk in contemporary political campaigns. Few who run for public office, however, can afford to load their biggest guns with disputable superlatives mere minutes after the official commencement of hostilities. After all, where does Mr. Alward proceed from here? Soon, the talking point must be, “The worst government in the history of mankind,” before it becomes, “Not since life began, billions of years ago, has New Brunswick endured a worse government.”
The Tory partisan would have found easier targets at which to lob his rhetorical grenades had he moved to higher, less pregnable, ground where he might have opined something like, “It’s always sad when promises go unfulfilled and rashness masquerades as leadership, but working with you we will give New Brunswick back its future,” or “I won’t kid you, the past four years will make the next four years tough on everyone, but the future is always the undiscovered country and we will discover it bravely, determinedly and together.”
Still, it’s entirely possible Mr. Alward was simply rattled, even angered, by the results of new poll that show the Liberals five points ahead of the PCs, with 41 per cent of popular support. Given the shellacking Mr. Graham received during the NB Power/Hydro-Quebec debacle only a few months ago, his resurgence does seem jaw-droppingly implausible. But, again, such are the vagaries of politics, something which Mr. Alward seemed wholly ill-equipped to reconcile when asked to explain the development. “What we have seen is that the irresponsible behaviour of this government has damaged people’s confidence in the political process,” he told reporters last week. “They don’t feel that any political party is going to make a difference.”
Naturally, this would only make sense if people continued to reject all parties in the election. But the Tories are the only ones actually losing ground. Apart from the Grits, both the NDP and the Greens are showing small, though respectable, advances.
Mr. Alward is right about one thing: People in this province are fed up with politics-as-usual, especially when the issues of debt, energy, social entitlements and economic development loom as large as they do. This helps explain why fully 41 per cent of us remain either undecided or undeclared at this (it should be noted) very early stage in the campaign.
At this point, the Tory leader’s choice seems clear. If he can’t, or won’t, step up his political repartee, he should studiously avoid deploying goofy generalizations and strangled outrage in its stead.
What’s the tactical approach to getting the province out of “the mess” he so inelegantly, if correctly, describes?
If he can’t do this with alacrity and evident confidence, then the only character he’s in danger of assassinating is his own.
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