And how could they? It’s hard not to laugh when news breaks that the province’s highest-ranking penny counter, Finance Minister Cathy McBennett, missed the deadline for informing not one, but two, public-sector unions that the government intended to enter into contract renegotiations.
Little Cathy must have been predictable in school.
“Cathy, did you complete your homework?”
“No, Miss. I forgot.”
Luckily for members of the nurses’ and allied health professionals’ unions, the slashing of their salaries and benefits has been postponed for at least a year. (“At least,” because perhaps Bennett will forget to notify them again next year.)
There is hope and strength to be gained from their good fortune. If they can get a reprieve from the Liberals’ meanness and incompetence, others might, too.
Cross your fingers that Bennett also forgets to implement the imposition of the HST on insurance, which will suck millions out of almost everyone who owns a house or car. (“Almost,” because so many people drive around without auto insurance these days. “Your Honour, I forgot.”)
The bleakness of the province’s situation can turn some of the humour black. The image of a government-hired contractor going around in the middle of the night to remove anti-Dwight Ball posters from poles is initially amusing, but becomes less funny when you realize that someone — presumably a thinking adult employed and paid by the public — deemed it a good idea to rip down these reasonable expressions of dissent.
What about democracy? What about freedom of speech?
“I forgot.”
Liberal apologists, grasping for any argument to defend their heroes, quickly pointed out the unsightliness of posters on poles. In the battle between tidiness and free expression, the latter doesn’t always win — nothing to laugh about there.
The widespread and common protests against Ball and Bennett and their belligerent budget must be encouraging for anyone who is worried, quite justifiably, that the province might slip further back into feudalism.
The filibuster in the House of Assembly is an indication the citizenry is not yet ready to submit to their overlords, but even it involves black humour.
The people are fed up with not being listened to, sayeth Paul Davis, leader of the official Opposition and former leader of a former government that would have ordered 500,000 muzzles if it had occurred to them.
After all, “Shut up and do what you’re told,” is the longstanding modus operandi of governance in Newfoundland.
Liberals and their supporters habitually accuse opponents of not having any solutions to the province’s financial crisis, even though there have been many practical suggestions.
Here’s another one: tax the people who have the money.
Ball has said top earners in the province already pay more than their fair share, that the top one-third of earners pay 88 per cent of the income tax collected by the provincial government.
The top 33 1/3 per cent collectively pay seven times as much tax as do the bottom 66 2/3 per cent. It’s a shocking statistic, until you also ponder the fact that the top 33 1/3 per cent collectively pull in salaries that are five times as much as what is earned by the bottom 66 2/3 per cent.
There is vast income disparity in this province, and basic mathematics makes it apparent that the best and most just method of solving the government’s financial problems is to collect money from the people who actually have it. Why hasn’t the premier ever talked about this aspect of the dilemma?
Maybe he forgot.
Brian Jones is a copy editor at The Telegram. He can be reached at [email protected].
