Don Desserud nails it in this morning’s TJ:
“I have never had a sense of what Bernard Lord thinks New Brunswick is all about and what kind of province it should be,” Desserud says. “You clearly knew what Louis Robichaud thought this province should be, and you knew what Frank McKenna thought this province was supposed to be and the same, I believe, for Richard Hatfield. I’ve never had that sense from Lord. He seems to be more of an incrementalist. He’s more interested in tinkering with the system and fixing things rather than big vision items.”
This has been my position since about day 201 of the Tory administration in 2000. We definitely do not need ‘incrementalism’. We need visionary leadership. Incrementalism is slowing dragging us down.
Alec Bruce’s column in the T&T also makes a few key points. Talking about the plan to bring back workers to New Brunswick, he says:
Most of the job growth in New Brunswick over the past few years has been in the public sector (hardly compelling evidence of a robust, diversified workforce), and in the white-collar clerical, unskilled blue collar, part-time, and self-employed segments of the private sector.
All of which begs a bigger question. If the premier (assuming he is successful at the polls this month) succeeds over the next four years in repatriating 2,500 workers to New Brunswick, what does he think they’re going to do with themselves once they’ve touched down? Toil behind a grill at the local Burger King? Make beds and clean toilets at a quaint country inn?
Rude & raw but right on the money. Bruce is emerging, in my mind, as having the best sense of economic issues in the province. Of course if his views were opposite of mine, I might have a different opinion :-).
A Letter to the T&T this morning from a Miramichier states:
I believe that the time has come for rural New Brunswick, and especially the riding of Southwest-Miramichi, to end their dependence on the forest industry and develop industries not related to forestry.We have wallowed along, depending on forestry to effectively meet our needs, for the past 100 years or so, but have failed.
The huge surpluses being enjoyed by our provincial and federal governments should be returned to the taxpayer in the form of new industries that pay decent and permanent wages to its employees. The practice of giving millions of dollars in forgivable loans to the giants of the forestry sector must end.
We are sick of hearing this verbiage over and over, and would love to hear some really honest and effective economic news for a change.
I don’t know this Lorne Amos Sr. of Gray Rapids, but I understand his point. Too bad the government doesn’t.