He just filled a civil servant position with an unqualified party hack.

From the Herald:

quote:

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Heather Foley Melvin, the premier’s chief of staff, will become the chief administrative officer of Conserve Nova Scotia, a yet-to-be-created Crown corporation focusing on energy conservation.

Ms. Foley Melvin was named chief of staff four months ago.
She’ll keep her salary — $131,613.82. Bob Chisholm, who had been Mr. MacDonald’s principal secretary, will take over as chief of staff at the same salary as Ms. Foley Melvin’s.

A Tory source said the move reflects the fact Ms. Foley Melvin wasn’t up to the job, but Sasha Irving, Mr. MacDonald’s press secretary, said the premier felt it was important for Conserve Nova Scotia to be led by
one of his key people and someone he trusts.

New Democrat MLA Graham Steele said if the job is that important to the premier, he should hire the best person available.

"You’re not going to get that if you just hand the job to the person who’s been your chief of staff for the last few months," he said. "This is a very disappointing return to old Conservative ways of giving important jobs to friends, and if Heather Foley Melvin is the best person for the job, then she will win a competition, and if she’s not the best person for the job, she shouldn’t have it."

Ms. Irving didn’t have information on Ms. Foley Melvin’s experience in energy conservation but said she has a strong business background, which would be important in the position, and has had experience in energy matters as chief of staff.

Ms. Foley Melvin, who had been district manager in Atlantic Canada for Mazda Canada, couldn’t be reached for comment.

She and Mr. Chisholm assume their new positions on Monday, said a news release from the premier’s office.

The Tories plan to introduce legislation creating Conserve Nova Scotia, an election promise, in the fall.

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quote:

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He just filled a civil servant position with an unqualified party hack.

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quote:

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A THRONE SPEECH announces a government’s agenda with a bit of over-the-top fanfare. But for Rodney MacDonald’s barely re-elected government, the striking thing about Thursday’s speech was not its content, mostly a rehash of the May 4 throne speech and the PC election platform. The story is the agenda being shouted from the grocery aisles.

The big over-the-top show yesterday was the sight of a government that looks close to having its own agenda overwhelmed by public backlash to its inept, uncompromising and discriminatory handling of what should have been a manageable challenge – allowing grocery shopping on Sundays.

And the Conservatives show no sign of comprehending how bad they look in terms of competence, judgment and fairness.

The MacDonald Tories have not had a good week since they decided last Friday to rewrite the Sunday shopping regulations to prevent Sobeys and Atlantic Superstore from continuing to open on Sundays by using the same method (reorganizing their supermarkets into separately incorporated small specialty outlets) that Pete’s Frootique pioneered and got a court to approve.

Business, and even people who don’t care about Sunday shopping, are dismayed by the arbitrary action of allowing Pete’s to stay open while shutting down Sobeys and Superstore, and by the message this sends about investing in Nova Scotia.

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quote:

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Cumberland North MLA Ernie Fage is returning to cabinet today as part of Premier Rodney MacDonald’s expanded inner circle. Forced to resign as economic development minister in February amid conflict of interest allegations, the veteran legislator will be back as minister of human resources and responsible for the Public Service Commission. Mr. Fage was seen as a capable cabinet member until hitting a rough patch last winter; the premier says the MLA’s recent endorsement by voters qualifies him for reinstatement.

Humbled by voters only weeks ago, Rodney MacDonald shows no sign of having got the message. Instead, he’s growing his cabinet, and is giving Ernie Fage a second chance.

---

quote:

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Was it the result of an affair - or even affairs - as the rumour mill suggests? Or was it just the sad end to long-simmering marital difficulties? Inquiring Nova Scotians need to know - indeed, have a right to know - why Premier Rodney MacDonald and his wife Lori-Ann separated.

In government offices and media newsrooms, and in the many coffee shops of metro Halifax, tongues are wagging about the recent breakup of the young couple.

To those on the outside, it came as a shock. Insiders, however, tell a different story, suggesting MacDonald's clean-cut, straightlaced, committed family man image is just that - an image.

...

Family values

These words come from the same man who made his family an integral part of the recent election campaign - a campaign in which family values played a significant role. Lori-Ann was at his side on many campaign stops. His young son was also included at times, leaving many of us with the impression this was a family built on a solid foundation.

If he has, indeed, duped his own family, what does that mean for the rest of us ?

...

If Rodney MacDonald has failed to live up to the vows of his marriage, is it a stretch to believe his political promises might just as easily be cast aside?

Accounts of why the premier's marriage has apparently failed have not been hard to find, including much speculation by several Internet bloggers. All have focused on one reason for the break-up: infidelity.

Government insiders are naming names, raising even more questions and concern. Has someone benefited from a relationship? Are taxpayer dollars involved?

If the whispers are true, there are other issues to debate.

---

I thought it was a stupid story, until I heard the rumours (from the Tory camp) that the women get Tory jobs. Yuck. This is one those rare Tory scandals that I hope have no basis in fact.

edited to fix link

[ 18 August 2006: Message edited by: StockwellDay ]

I think this story will really shake up the rural Nova Scotian voter. The Tories ran a weird dog-whistle family values campaign, their party wasn't united behind their leader anyway, and now Rodney has broken his marriage vows.

I might have a couple of kids out of wedlock, and if I ever run for politics, I would expect that to be a part of the whisper campaign, but not on the front page of every paper in the province.

I get the 'oh my, how much fun' sense of it. O my, the Premier ran such a sanctimonious campaign, and look how he treats his own marriage. I get that this is the LeBlanc camp throwing mud, and that's good for both opposition parties (and thus good for Nova Scotia). But this should be in Frank magazine. Not in the dailies.

quote:

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Speculation is that MacDonald and his wife of 12 years, Lori-Ann, separated sometime before or during the first week of August.

Upon moving out of the matrimonial home, if the premier had issued a simple statement saying the two had gone their separate ways, but were committed to raising their son, and he was committed to dealing with the business of the province, the story would have been practically over.

For many Nova Scotians, the first whiff of what was going on came in the check-out line at the local grocery store when the cover of Frank magazine screamed the story.

...

You would think that by the time Frank's reporters came sniffing, the premier's office would have said something - but no. They had no comment, they knew little and calls were not returned.

It was three days before the legitimate press got it confirmed - and not after MacDonald got cranky with a reporter and hung up on her.

What could have been a front-page story for only a couple of days has dragged on for almost a month. Now, Frank has more to say on the story amid rumour of Tory party backstabbing, extra-marital affairs and high-paying jobs going to special friends.

I hope the premier's office is ready to handle the fallout.

It gave up its chance to put their spin on the story, and will be left spinning as a result.

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quote:

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JUST IN CASE you haven’t had a chance to drop by the clerk’s office at Province House to peruse the expense reports of your cabinet ministers, we had a quick look over what’s on file so far this year.

...

•Most expensive nightly accommodations: Premier Rodney MacDonald’s bill for $1,017.90 after tax for two nights at the Fairmont Hotel in St. John’s, where he stayed during the premiers conference in July.

•Most expensive cab ride: Carolyn Bolivar-Getson, who, while minister of environment and labour, spent $356.70 getting from Vancouver to a meeting of provincial ministers in Whistler in March, then $346 for the taxi back to the airport. Ms. Bolivar-Getson, now the immigration minister, said her flight times didn’t coincide with the shuttle schedule and she wasn’t about to tackle unfamiliar territory in a rental car late at night.

•Biggest meal claim: The expense files list the name of the restaurant, the number of people, the reason for the meal and the cost. In June, Ron Russell, then-minister of the Public Service Commission, filed a claim for $316.33 for three people discussing "PSC" issues at the Press Gang in Halifax. (We also noticed Mr. MacDonald and Ms. Bolivar-Getson claimed $135 each for a farewell dinner for former premier John Hamm at the Halifax Club in January).

•Smallest meal claim: Finance Minister Michael Baker listed a business meeting with two people at Tim Hortons at a cost of $2.82 in May.

•Most unusual meal claim: Ms. Bolivar-Getson reported at least a couple of meals at a Needs convenience store, including a luncheon meeting for two in March that cost $43.23.

---

quote:

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NO MATTER how distinguished it is, there’s always a chance a panel picked to advise government will come up with some good advice and some howlers. That’s why it’s not a good idea for legislators to promise in advance that they’ll take a commission’s advice, whatever it is, and make it law.

For proof, look no further than Wednesday’s report by the independent panel appointed to make binding recommendations on pay levels for Nova Scotia’s MLAs, legislative officers, cabinet ministers, party leaders and premier.

The panel’s basic recommendation – to raise an MLA’s salary to $79,500 – is pretty reasonable, given the workload MLAs shoulder and the panel’s methodology. The Nova Scotia salary was compared with what MLAs are paid in five similar provinces (New Brunswick, Newfoundland, P.E.I., Saskatchewan and Manitoba) and the panel picked a number that reflects the median of these five.

But this would be a 21.27 per cent jump if done in one year, which doesn’t set a great example for negotiations with public sector unions.

Like it or not, this is something legislators have to think about. So looking at the big picture (which should be part of the job), it would be reasonable to phase in the increase.

On the premier’s pay, the commission went right off the rails. It abandoned the apples-to-apples comparison it used for MLAs and decided the premier should earn the same as the province’s chief justice. That would take the premier to $190,000, or $63,000 more than his current salary. Allowing it wouldn’t be prudent (no kidding) to do this in one stroke, the panel recommends taking the premier to $150,824 now and then to $190,000 through raises of $10,000 annually.

---

quote:

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The opposition parties want to put a couple of Tory controversies back under the microscope this fall.

The public accounts committee is calling Heather Foley Melvin, chief administrative officer of Conserve Nova Scotia, to appear and is seeking legal advice on how to further pursue loans approved in the spring to the Magic Valley Fun Park and S&J Potato Farms.

The Official Opposition New Democrats put Conserve Nova Scotia at the top of their public accounts agenda list. MLA Maureen MacDonald, who chairs the committee, said there are questions around the yet-to-be-created Crown corporation’s mandate.

"There’s really been no examination of this in our legislature, and so now we have an opportunity as the public accounts committee to talk to her about her appointment and her mandate," Ms. MacDonald said Wednesday.

Ms. Foley Melvin started the job in June after serving as Premier Rodney MacDonald’s chief of staff for about four months. She kept her chief of staff salary of $131,613.82.

Opposition critics wondered at the time and in the summer legislature sitting why there was no competition for the job. They also asked about her qualifications and charged it was simply a patronage appointment.

---

quote:

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The hiring of a recently defeated Tory candidate for an Education Department project has raised eyebrows in the opposition parties.

Andrew Black, who ran in Halifax Needham, is one of eight "employer engagement navigators" hired to build a provincewide database of employers willing to work with high school students on everything from job shadowing and work placements to sending guest speakers to career days.

Mr. Black is the "government engagement navigator" and contacts departments and organizations at all three levels of government.

...

New Democrat education critic Bill Estabrooks said it doesn’t look like an accident that Mr. Black, formerly a junior high French teacher, got the job not long after losing to NDPer Maureen MacDonald, who’s held Halifax Needham since 1998.

"I don’t think it’s any coincidence that he’s well-connected in the Conservative Party and took the proverbial bullet by running against Ms. MacDonald in the north end," he said.

Liberal education critic Leo Glavine said patronage comes to mind in light of a couple of MacDonald government appointments.

"It raises the whole spectre again of whether or not it was a truly open competition, whether or not Mr. Black has the qualifications for this job and can be the best spending of taxpayers’ dollars to get the most from a program that does have merit," he said.

Mr. Black said there’s "not one iota of impropriety in the way that I got my job."

He said he learned about the Tories’ commitment to connecting students with employers during the election campaign, and jumped at the chance of being a part of making that happen.

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quote:

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Originally posted by BigIronMike:
I have no problem with this. You can't expect them to hire NDPs or Liberals.
Every government needs likeminded people to carry out the mandate.

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It's election advertising, paid for by the taxpayer. In other provinces, you don't show the leader in your government ads, or your ministers. That's changing here.

quote:

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Premier: Tory party to "market’ message

ARICHAT — The premier told a group of Tory women on the weekend that they will see a more organized party in the days leading up to the opening of the legislature on Oct. 30.

"You are going to see us aggressively market the good things we do," Rodney MacDonald told 40 members of the Progressive Conservative Women’s Association as it wrapped up its annual general meeting at a luncheon Saturday in Arichat.

...

After the luncheon, the premier told The Chronicle Herald that his cabinet has been in place for several months now and its members are more accustomed to their portfolios.

"The people of the province will have a much better appreciation of where we want to take the province and how the commitments we have made fit into that," Mr. MacDonald said.

---

A Nova Scotia Conservative (PC) Minister was quoted as saying that wind power was "unreliable" and might come to an end (or words to that effect). The reporter asked a local environmentalist/spokesperson for a comment on the Minister's remarks.

The spokesman noted that the Minister's mistake was of the order of "Solar Power? We can't rely on that! Every day the sun disappears for a number of hours. Where does it go?" etc.

Conservatives. Opposed to wind power cuz it might run out. Amd maybe they're opposed to solar power cuz they don't know where the sun goes at night. Don't embarass yourself by voting for them.

Supplemental: Wait a minute! Where does the sun go at night? .... Oh no! I must be a conservative. Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii .............

[ 16 October 2006: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

Here are the meanest bits:

quote:

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What the premier had done, in effect, was to fire Foley Melvin, who hadn't worked out as his chief of staff, and replace her with Bob Chisholm, a former executive assistant to senior cabinet minister Angus MacIsaac who, in the words of Tory insider Haynes, was one of those savvy "grey hairs" the premier needed to get his government back on track.

If the announcement had stopped with Chisholm's hiring and Foley Melvin's firing, it might have been dismissed as little more than another inning in the endless game of political insider baseball. But then MacDonald, as he is too often wont to do, kept going like a mad Energizer bunny. "Current chief of staff Heather Foley Melvin," the release continued, "will assume new duties as chief administrative officer for the establishment of Conserve Nova Scotia…"

Foley Melvin was being rewarded with a patronage plum: within the course of a one-hour private meeting with the premier, she'd been fired and then immediately hired as the boss of an important new energy conservation agency that didn't exist, and for which she had no obvious qualifications. And, oh yes, she would get to keep her $130,000 salary, not to mention the perk of at least nine month's severance pay should she get fired down the road from this job too.

Instead of sending a clear message that the premier had learned from the election results, the Foley Melvin patronage appointment created what Flinn calls "an instant public controversy and confirmed all the worst fears people had about the government."

... ...

If voters began to get the impression this summer that no one was minding the store, well… no one was.

On August 7, it became clear why. "Premier Rodney Out Of Matrimonial Home," reported Frank magazine in a cover story that not only confirmed the premier and his wife of 12 years had unexpectedly and suddenly separated but also quoted Lori-Ann saying, in response to a question about what had happened to prompt the split: "Nothing happened in my house."

It was not lost on anyone that the Tories had run their entire election campaign on the now spectacularly ironic slogan, "Our Families, Our Future, Our Home," and had employed Lori-Ann and their eight-year-old son Ryan as family-friendly props at all manner of campaign photo opportunities.

The news—and the unmistakable hint in Lori-Ann's comment that her husband may have been guilty of adultery—sparked a media feeding frenzy. At one point, more than two dozen reporters swarmed the premier after a routine cabinet meeting, all looking for the comment MacDonald refused to make. Understandable as that may have been, it meant the story and attendant internet gossip and water-cooler speculation was left out there to fester and ferment, unchecked. MacDonald was a serial adulterer. Lori-Ann caught him with another woman. The premier's living in his parents' basement…

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quote:

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Tories, Liberals team up
Four NDP motions that would stall party donations bill voted down
By AMY SMITH Provincial Reporter

Nova Scotia’s Tories and Liberals joined forces Wednesday to keep a controversial bill on political contributions on track.

The NDP says the public needs more time to comment on the proposed legislation, which would limit contributions from individuals and organizations to $5,000. The bill would also have taxpayers pay political parties $1.50 for each vote received in a provincial election.

"This is a piece of legislation that was rushed into the House of Assembly that now is being rammed through in a process that doesn’t feel very democratic," New Democrat MLA Maureen MacDonald said during a meeting of the legislature’s law amendments committee.

...

During the meeting, the government and the Grits voted down four New Democrat motions, including one to delay the bill until June when a travelling group of MLAs reports back on public opinion of the democratic process.

...

The NDP also called on the committee to invite the federal and provincial chief electoral officers as well as Democracy Watch and Fair Vote Canada to make video or telephone presentations to law amendments.

...

The party’s final motion would have invited and possibly subpoenaed former Liberal party president John Young and Ernst & Young to discuss the firm’s 1993 review of the party’s $3.4-million investment fund.

The proposed legislation would allow the Liberals to hang on to the fund, which has been tied to kickbacks from companies that did business with government, but not use it for elections or advertising.

Interim Liberal Leader Michel Samson accused the NDP of continuing an "orchestrated smear campaign" against the Liberal party.

"This was all about a show," he told reporters after the meeting.

Mr. Samson said his party believes none of the money that remains in the fund was raised illegally. The fund was created when the party took control of controversial private trust funds that had been created as far back as the 1950s to benefit the Liberal cause. About $1.3 million, the amount identified in a 1983 influence-peddling trial as being raised illegally from liquor company kickbacks in the 1970s, went to the provincial treasury.

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quote:

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THE RECENT poll numbers showing the Nova Scotia Tories still slipping carry with them some deeper meanings.

One is that our politics are still troubled, still not "normal," still trying to sail with the anchor dragging. After some choppy but relatively functional governance under the John Hamm/NDP arrangement, the public mind, I would say, is once again troubled at the drift, and fears we’re even going backward again.

The anchor even has a name: Premier Rodney MacDonald. Pretty well everything negative that has attached itself to his government points back to him, from the inept management of the Sunday shopping and gas regulation files, to his marital troubles, to the manipulative rush on the electoral financing bill.

But most damaging of all, in my view, is the Heather Foley Melvin affair, in which an arguably unqualified friend of the premier, who was also his political operative, was named to head Conserve Nova Scotia, at a high salary and months before the agency started up. Because patronage has been the primary cause of our political dysfunction all along, this amounted to ripping open a few stitches on a wound that has not yet healed.

For the public, and perhaps for the Tory party as well – which has, by now, surely concluded that it elected the wrong guy to be leader – the realization seems to be that the chances of a Tory rebirth are increasingly slim.

Even under the best of circumstances, a government that’s seven years old is starting to take on water, and a new captain for a leaky hull rarely improves the sailing. If the new captain doesn’t know where he’s going, the situation becomes dire.

And so, what the poll numbers indicate is that the public is tentatively casting its mind ahead to the next round, and to thoughts of a new government. The Corporate Research Associates quarterly poll shows the NDP steady at 37 per cent since August, which is almost majority government territory in a three-party race.

Indeed, for the NDP to win a majority would be the logical thing, completing the process in which its rise has been mostly the result of the public’s judgment against the historically corrupted and malfunctioning Liberal/Conservative alternation.

Whenever the subject comes up where I’m at, in western Nova Scotia, I often hear matter-of-factly, even from old Tories, "I guess we’re going to elect the NDP next time." The NDP victories in the new territory of Queens and Shelburne in the June election, and a victory in Yarmouth in 1998, certainly give that impression.

Of course, it’s not all that straightforward. The NDP have not been very visible since the election, in any headline kind of way, except in the election finances debate, and appear to be playing a defensive game, expecting the Tories to beat themselves.

The Corporate Research numbers show Darrell Dexter as the most popular leader, but only at 31 per cent – and down three points, which might be a function of not being seen much.

There are several flies in the NDP’s ointment. The Tories might indeed beat themselves, but there’s always the wild-card Liberal party, which is having its leadership contest in the spring, ready to pick up some of the spoils.

Whereas Corporate Research showed the Tories at 32 per cent and the Liberals at 26, up one point, another poll by Bristol’s Inside Out Report, which also showed the NDP at 37 per cent, put the Liberals at 35 and the Tories at 26. If this is the case, could the Liberals – depending on who they get as a leader – come out of nowhere and win?

Not quite. Like the Tories, they have plenty of baggage, notably their tainted trust fund that erupted as an issue once again this fall; their organization is weak, and their partnership with the Tories could end up doing them more harm than good.

But depending on where the hypothetical increase in their vote comes from, it could frustrate the NDP’s hopes for a majority and keep us once again in a three-way split and more or less eternal minority government.

---

quote:

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The provincial Liberals and Conservatives refuse to invite Fair Vote Canada and Democracy Watch to discuss their weak election finance reform law, and will not accept the NDP amendments to the law, which would limit corporate, union and small business donations to political parties and would stop the Liberal party from spending the $3.4 million in its questionable investment fund built during its time in office.

Interim Liberal leader Michel Samson has stated that few members of the public have asked to speak in the legislature to speak out against the government bill, which proves a lack of public interest in the issue. I have no idea when Mr. Samson invited the public to speak out against this issue, but the invitation didn’t reach me. Please consider this letter my dissent. I should be able to round up a few hundred signatures in a day if that’s what is required.

It will be interesting to see which candidate for the provincial Liberal leadership stands up and says they will prevent their party from using this fund. This leader could help create a united front against the government and create a cleaner democracy. They can prove that their party has moved beyond scandal and corruption. Or they can trust that the voters forget. I hope our journalists ask the candidates this question, and remind the public of their answers.

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quote:

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Rum punch

To the editor,

When my mother was a kid on the South Shore, on election day voters would drive up one end of her parents' driveway, fetch their bottle of rum and drive down the other side. It was like a free Tory drive-through LC. Except for the price of real democracy. While I'm not so naive to say that this doesn't happen any more, I do think happens a little less.

One way to clean up our political process involves the election finance reform bill the Conservatives are attempting to pass without changes made to it by the NDP. The bill, as it stands now, would still allow corporate and union donations, and allow the provincial Liberals to spend their questionable $3.5 million "investment fund," as long as this money was spent outside of the four weeks of an election campaign.

The Liberals have a great opportunity here. They can accept the NDP's changes to the bill, create a united front against the government and create a cleaner democracy. They can prove that their party has moved beyond scandal and corruption. Or they can hope the voters forget.

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quote:

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One of the key elements of Bill 117 is to entrench the use of more than $3 million in questionable, tainted Liberal trust funds during non-election periods. Trust funds that have never been audited to provide an accounting of where the monies came from. Trust funds that were built up, at least in part, on the basis of a system of kickbacks and tollgating.

....

Some will call the approach of the Conservatives and the Liberals patently unfair. Others will call it cynical. Some might just call it lazy. Whatever you call it, it’s wrong-headed, and completely unjustifiable. Consider this: What Rodney MacDonald’s government is asking the Nova Scotia legislature to adopt – that taxpayers put $750,000 per year into the operation of political parties, while still being allowed to access tainted trust funds and collect hundreds of thousands from private organizations – is almost without parallel in Canada. Only two provinces offer annual public funding for parties while still allowing them to accept contributions from organizations.

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quote:

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MacDonald made a brief statement and then took questions in the Granville Street lobby of One Government Place, the building that houses the Premier's Office. The conference began shortly after 8 p.m., and lasted six minutes and 35 seconds, before MacDonald walked away.

Premier Rodney MacDonald: "Good evening, everyone. Tonight, at 7:30, I accepted Ernie Fage's verbal resignation from cabinet. Mr. Fage was involved in a car accident on Nov. 24 in Halifax, and said he did not want the incident to be a distraction from his job, or from the work of the government.

"Carolyn Bollivar-Getson has agreed to take on the job as acting minister responsible for the Public Service Commission, for minister for human resources, and acting minister of emergency management.

"I'll take a few questions."

Paul Withers (CBC TV): "You told us earlier today that it was (your) understanding this was a minor accident. If it was so minor, why did you accept his resignation? What have you learned since then that might have prompted you to accept it?"

MacDonald: "What I said today is what I'll say to you now. What my understanding was that this was an accident, and that Minister Fage at the time had reported it to the appropriate authorities, and tonight the minister called me and put forward his resignation.

"He did not want this incident, obviously, to get in the way of the work of the government, or his job as MLA. I accepted his resignation."

Withers: "Two witnesses said they smelled alcohol coming from him, and that they saw him flee the scene of an accident. Are you aware of that, and when did you find out about that?"

MacDonald: "Of course, I can't comment on anything other than what I know. And I've shared that with you already.

"Other than that, with respect to the incident in question, when you're dealing with the appropriate authorities, it would be inappropriate for me to make any such comment on the incident. I have shared with you all the information that I have."

l No. It's inappropriate for a premier to be less than fully candid with the public. MacDonald must decide whether he wants to be loyal to Fage, or Nova Scotians. So far, he's made the wrong choice.

Rick Grant (CTV): "Did he tell you that he had not reported the accident for a week after it occurred?"

MacDonald: "I was not aware of that."

Grant: "When did you find that out?"

MacDonald: "This evening."

Grant: "How?"

MacDonald: "By watching it on the television."

Withers: "Are you aware that there was complaints, that people are saying that that cabinet minister had been drinking and fled the scene of an accident? How did you find out about that?"

MacDonald: "Again, I can't speak to what happened with regards to the incident. I can't speak to other than what I've seen reported and what I've shared with you already. Again, I have shared that with you. It would be inappropriate for me (to be) suggesting anything further than what I already know."

Brian Flinn (The Daily News): "Should the former minister have disclosed all the pertinent information to you sooner than he did, such as the fact that he's being alleged to have fled the scene?"

MacDonald: "Well, again, I have told you what information he did share with me. Obviously, this evening he has made a decision to step down. I accepted his resignation, and we're moving forward."

---

quote:

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Education Minister Karen Casey got her knuckles rapped yesterday for sending out a Tory fundraising letter on her constituency letterhead.

The letter, promoting the Colchester North constituency association's annual "Turkey Draw," promises anyone who donates $100 will get a $75 tax receipt, plus a $25 gift certficate to a grocery store.

"This is an excellent fundraiser as the net cost to you is $0.00," Casey wrote.

Under Canada Revenue Agency rules, political parties can only give 75 per cent tax receipts for political donations.

Timberlea-Prospect MLA Bill Estabrooks pointed out yesterday that with the $25 gift certificate, that's a 100 per cent benefit.

"If you're getting a complete $100 receipt, and you're also getting a $25 turkey thrown in, that's a buy," Estabrooks said. "That, according to the Canada Revenue Agency, is illegal."

Premier Rodney MacDonald agreed with Estabrooks that Casey shouldn't be sending out Tory fundraising letters on constituency letterhead.

---

From the Chronicle-Herald:

quote:

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Another provincial Tory cabinet minister has been involved in an incident involving police that he didn’t report to the premier.

Officers pulled over Fisheries Minister Ron Chisholm two weeks ago in Dartmouth as he was driving with a woman they described to him as "a person of interest to them."

Mr. Chisholm wasn’t charged and drove away while the woman remained behind with police. But he didn’t mention the matter to anybody, including Premier Rodney MacDonald, he said.

... ...

After buying a coffee, he got back into his car, he said, and a woman wearing a hat and scarf beat on the window and asked for a lift home. Mr. Chisholm said he initially turned her down.

But she persisted.

He said he felt sorry for her because it was —30 with the wind chill so he agreed to drive her.

"She was pleading with me," the Guysborough-Sheet Harbour MLA said. "I gave in, I guess.

"I didn’t know who this lady was."

The woman, who he believed was over 25 years old, was directing him to where she wanted to go as they drove. They only got about a mile, he said, before police stopped them.

An officer took his licence and explained that they wanted to speak to the woman. Mr. Chisholm said he doesn’t know how the police knew she was in the car.

"I couldn’t tell you — I have no idea," he said.

... ...

"Was it good judgment on my part?" he said. "Probably not. But I guess if somebody asked me for a drive home on a cold night, I’d probably say yes again."

... ...

Mr. MacDonald stood behind his minister, despite having been kept out of the loop.

"He has done, to my awareness, nothing wrong," Mr. MacDonald said. "I take Mr. Chisholm at his word and I’ve always done so. He’s a good, honourable gentleman."

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Rodney's $500,000 Press Theatre

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Premier Rodney MacDonald's new $500,000 press theatre will help the government manage its message, a University of King's College journalism professor said yesterday.

"What's really going on here is control," Dean Jobb said. "Even if they really are telling the truth and that isn't their intention, I think it flows into that pretty quickly."

MacDonald told reporters Wednesday the government is building a theatre where politicians will face questions and hold news conferences. Cabinet ministers will no longer participate in media scrums in the hallway outside the cabinet office.

MacDonald said it will provide journalists with "more appropriate" sound and lighting facilities.

Jobb said it's hard to accept the premier is spending $500,000 to help the media, when his government charges reporters among the highest freedom of information fees in Canada.

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Jobb said it's much easier for political handlers to stage-manage events in the more formal setting of a lecture theatre. They can determine which ministers are available, control who gets to ask questions, and end sessions that get out of hand.

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http://responsevoices.blogspot.com

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Originally posted by StockwellDay:

The $25 gift certificates were from Sobeys. Was it a donation by a local Sobeys to Casey's constituency? Who organized the fundraiser? If it was illegal, will anything be done about it?

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Casey can't do the math if she thinks the net cost of the donation is zero- but providing misinformation to your donore doesn't break any rules.

Here's another one - we bought ATVs for kids!

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Premier Rodney MacDonald says he was blindsided by his government’s purchase of 66 kid-sized all-terrain vehicles, plus trailers to haul them, and has ordered that officials recover the $230,000 expenditure somehow.

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Department staff announced the purchase last Wednesday.

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Since the announcement, public reaction has largely been a mix of outrage and ridicule. Mr. Barnet had been defending the decision in the media, right up to Wednesday. But he admitted Thursday that buying the ATVs was a mistake and apologized.

"The public, in my mind, are always right," he told reporters during a scrum at his department. "I made a mistake. This program should not have been funded publicly. I believe it’s the right thing to train people, but it should not have been a publicly funded program."

The province has also committed $30,000 to the ATV association to provide the training program, but Mr. Barnet said he wasn’t sure what’s happening with that money.

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Mr. MacDonald said the first he heard about the purchase was in a media scrum after last Thursday’s cabinet meeting, the day after the announcement. It was on the front page of The Chronicle Herald on Thursday.

At the time, a reporter asked Mr. MacDonald about whether buying ATVs was a good use of taxpayers’ dollars. He told the reporter to talk to the minister about the details and went on to say that it would make sense to provide the vehicles as part of the training requirement.

"If it’s an investment of safety for our young people, the government’s willing to make it," Mr. MacDonald said last week.

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And according to this editorial in the Herald, (the previous quotes was from a Herald story... forgot to add the source) it might cause an election:

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NEW DEMOCRAT and Liberal MLAs used their majority on the Nova Scotia legislature’s public accounts committee to take an unprecedented step this week.

They voted to issue subpoenas to Premier Rodney MacDonald and a slew of his ministers (including Judy Streatch and Barry Barnet), demanding they give Auditor General Jacques Lapointe all the documents he says he needs to fully examine the government’s handling of its controversial and now defunct mentoring program for economic-stream immigrants.

The opposition parties are right to take a tough stance in backing up the auditor general. Last week, Mr. Lapointe’s first report found serious deficiencies in the program that charged nominees $130,000 for local business mentoring. These included a failure to provide genuine middle-management mentorships and the untendered award of an inadequate management contract.

But the auditor’s strongest words were about being denied access to more than 1,000 documents the government says are protected by cabinet confidentiality or (in the case of any advice on the management contract by Justice lawyers) client-lawyer privilege.

In some of the toughest language we’ve heard from a provincial auditor, Mr. Lapointe says this failure to produce documents is "undue interference" with his mandate and responsibilities to the House.

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If the government ignores the subpoenas, the opposition should be prepared to take the next logical step in showing they mean business.

The NDP and Liberals should serve notice that if the stonewall continues, they will jointly support a motion of censure and vote non-confidence in the government as soon as the House sits again.

That gives the premier three bad options if he doesn’t let the auditor do his audit.

He can meet the House in the fall and be defeated.

He can avoid calling the House and look afraid of facing the accountability music.

He can pre-empt being censured by calling an election – at a time when he and his party are running third in the polls.

None of these scenarios looks good for the Tories. What government wants to fight an election on why it shouldn’t be properly audited?

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It's worth keeping an eye on. This is the kind of purchase that would not be tendered. And Brooke Taylor is the kind of guy to mindlessly give the contract to a constituent or party person, just as he mindlessly hatched the whole idea.

You can count on the vehicles having been purchased from dealerships. And the margin on them is substantial- expecially with most of them hurting right now. Brooke Taylor would feel their pain.

[ 01 July 2008: Message edited by: KenS ]

Or maybe I should quit procrastinating and get some work done.

ETA: Looks like Tim Bousquet has actually put some FOIs forward in regard to this purchase. Good. He's a bulldog!

[ 02 July 2008: Message edited by: Briguy ]