For the second day in a row, normally sensible Norm Doyle has sounded out-of-touch with reality.
Today he was interviewed by Ramona Dearing on CBC Radio's afternoon drive show, On the Go.
Norm made a number of points - I am paraphrasing here - :
1. The Conservative Party has not decided to bring down the government. Norm needs to start reading the National Lampoon, the unofficial propaganda organ of the Conservative Party of Canada. His Leader is quoted saying: "As soon as Parliament gets back, I will be asking our caucus to put this government out of its misery as early as possible."
Harper's rhetoric is increasingly vicious. The Lampoon quotes him as calling the arrangement between the Liberals and New Democrats to pass the budget as a "deal with the devil." Try acting like a potential prime minister, Steve. It might boost your own personal standing in the polls.
2. The Conservatives haven't decided to vote against the budget. Geez, Norm. A national caucus chairman who sleeps through meetings will get noticed. Norm's Leader has been speaking about bringing down the government over the budget for...what is it... three weeks now at least?
3. You can't cherry-pick the budget. Ok Norm. I'll buy that. So why did your Leader want to have the Kyoto provisions taken out of Bill C-43 in order to gain Conservative support? After the Kyoto provisions were out, why did he continue to complain that the offshore deal money was being left in?
Why are you and Secret Agent 86 Post Offices still rambling on about cherry picking the offshore money out of the budget bill? Scroll down for the answer.
4. The Atlantic Accord is safe. Norm added a rant that the New Democrats didn't do anything to pressure the Liberals to take the offshore money out of C-43 and have it passed as a separate bill.
Watch for a public tender to widen the walls in Norm's office to accommodate his pinocchiosis.
Norm knows full-well that even if the offshore money was a separate bill it wouldn't make it into law before his power-crazed Leader forces the country into an unwanted election. It couldn't pass both the House and Senate and get vice-regal approval in such a short space of time.
Norm also knows his boss wanted all along to handle the matter another way. What is going to stop Stephen Harper, prime minister of a majority government from taking us all back to square one? After all Harper is the guy who flatly stated in writing he wants to sell Ottawa's Hibernia shares and use the money for the good of all Canadians.
Norm also knows that his boss has talked about guaranteeing passage of the agreement if he makes it to the prime minister's office, but hey: can we get that in writing Steve? It's not that we don't trust you, Steve, but any guy who has changed his party position on so many issues in such a short space of time just can't expect to get by on a smile and a hand-shake.
As for the bit about the New Democrats, Norm, they didn't need to take the offshore bit out of the budget bill since now they get to support Newfoundland and Labrador and advance their own issues at the same time.
Here's what it all boils down to: Norm and his colleague, the shadow member for St. John's South- Mount Pearl, are badly jammed up. Their leader is hell-bent on pushing an election no one wants, including their own constituents.
Norm and Loyola know that if C-43 comes to a vote they are screwed. They either vote for it and potentially save the government (Steve remembers these things).
or they vote against the budget and get people in the supermarkets and the churches and the Open Line shows taking strips off their hide for putting Stephen Harper's wishes before the interests of their own province. Suddenly all the Liberal MPs who have supported the provincial government's position on the offshore despite the views of their prime minister look a whole lot better than two guys who made the wrong choice when things got tough.
I'd hate to be those two knocking on doors in St. John's if they voted against money for children, students, seniors...
and Newfoundland and Labrador.
No wonder Norm Doyle keeps trying to separate the offshore money from the budget bill. He is frantically trying to save his own political skin.
No wonder he is sounding a tad squirrelly.
A political jam-up like the one Norm faces would drive anyone nuts.
