For those of you who rightfully have no idea who Pat Binns is, you can relax now as he is once again someone with a bunch of bad ideas who is now without the power to implement any of those bad ideas. Ruk – who we popped in on at Dublin NH on the way here – made sure it was done right. And I am happy to say that the new premier, Mr. Robert Ghiz, has also done right and taken on his responsibilites to the Canadians who live in PEI a little more seriously than Mr. Binns could ever imagine doing:
In the CBC Radio interview Monday night, the province’s next premier was also asked whether he would stand by his pledge to end the perennial practice of replacing Tory-leaning contract workers on the provincial payroll, in order to replace them with Liberals. “The days of firing people are over,” he said firmly. “The [Canadian] Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been clear on this.”
Whatever my part was in laying the ground for that statement [Warning: the first link is a .pdf!!] – me now over four years removed from living in those parts – I am pretty pleased to have been able to play that part. I am also pleased for the folk who had the courage to say they got shafted and stood up for their rights in the case. It will be interesting to see how a government that respects the Constitution will change the lives of the Canadians who live in PEI.
I am also pleased for Cynthia Dunsford, blogger and our sometime comment maker hereabouts who won her riding as well as for Craig and all the others who consistently worked or bitched about the last lot when working against them or speaking out could compromise your career in a place where a political leader can and did use influence in a way that might shock because it damn well should have shocked. And good for us all, I suppose, not having a bunch of yahoos who might justify things with arguments like “you wouldn’t understand” or “it’s an Island-made solution” as tax dollars were poured into another dead-end, untendered, unaccountable scheme. Sadly, now and until the end of their mandate in a few days, the exiting Tories will now have their self-appointed task of destroying the record through a couple of weeks of shreading and burning so that years from now someone will right a book proclaiming what a great bunch they were and there will be nothing left to refute the claim.
Oh well, in any event, I’ll be whistling a happier tune as we drive up northwest through New Hampshire, Vermont and New York’s north country on our way home.