RUSSELL WANGERSKY
The Telegram

You can win battles, and still lose wars. In Monday's Globe and Mail, Premier Danny Williams was once again suggesting that it was time that the federal and provincial government bury the hatchet.

"If the prime minister reached out," Williams is quoted as saying by Roy MacGregor, "we would accept any kind of olive branch."

"I'm trying to get away from that anti-Harper mentality. I am saying we are here to work with the federal government at any point in time."

The story goes on to suggest that one type of middle ground might be to have someone like Loyola Sullivan appointed to fill a soon-to-be-vacant Newfoundland seat in the Senate, and that Sullivan could be added to the Harper cabinet to allow for better representation for this province.

Now, ending the war is nothing new. It's something that the premier has been saying since the last federal election: "From my perspective, it's done, put it behind us, let's move on," Williams said at the time.

Problem is, at least one side hasn't put it behind them, and there's no real sign that they will.

Biding their time

The federal government hasn't shown much interest, and Williams has suggested that the backlash from his Anything But Conservative campaign led to federal budget changes that cost the province millions in revenues.

This isn't to say that Williams' efforts may not have helped Canada as a whole: watching the Harper government work its deliberately partisan agenda as a minority government makes any reasonable person shiver about what it would have attempted as a majority.

But at the same time, being the lightning-rod for prime ministerial ire hasn't helped this province in a number of ways.

Everybody likes a good fight - Buddy the Puffin's "ABC" sign made great television, and the battle between Williams and the Harper government made for a healthy amount of television time for Williams and his $80,000 Internet and billboard campaign. It caught the attention of more than a few reporters and editors, and it helped elect a slew of non-Conservatives who might well have had trouble finding federal seats in a full and open campaign without provincial interference.

But no matter how effective the battle, you still have to deal with the rest of the war. Ask yourself, for example, what might happen if, during a provincial campaign, the mayor of Mount Pearl came out and said that he feared for the future of the province under another Williams government, and argued that any Conservative whose provincial district was in or near Mount Pearl should be defeated. How quickly would that axe be buried after a provincial PC win, and just where would it be buried?

It's all well and good to expect that competitors will play fair after a vote. Sometimes, though, human nature rules out over an appeal to fairness.

Another example

Or think of this.

In Viroqua, Wisc., last week, there was an epic battle between a 180-pound deer and a 640-pound concrete statue of an elk. The deer, a seven-point buck, apparently took the statue of the elk as a competitor during the rutting season, and repeatedly charged its foe, finally successfully toppling the statue, according to the LaCrosse, Wis., Tribune.

The toppled statue suffered cosmetic damage during the fall, including broken antlers.

The successful buck, its honour intact, staggered some 20 feet away and then promptly died of a fractured skull. It is now making an appearance in the deep freeze of the elk statue's owner - and the statue's owner is thinking of using the deer's antlers on the statue.

Maybe the fault in this case is that, being caught up in the rush of the event, the media neglected to ask a crucial question: if the ABC campaign is successful, what exactly happens next?

Because it's not so nice here in the freezer.

Russell Wangersky is The Telegram's editorial page editor. He can be reached by e-mail at rwanger@thetelegram.com.