PETER PICKERSGILL
The Beacon

Size matters. Those words came into my mind as I was standing on the wharf in North Sydney recently, looking at the Atlantic Vision. The latest, and some think greatest, addition to the Marine Atlantic ferry fleet. She was lit up against the starlit sky by the wharfside spotlights and a full moon. She is a huge vessel.
It was easy to imagine the sense of security that such vast bulk could instill in a nervous traveller, the notion that, come what may, a floating city this size cannot possibly come to harm, even on a wind-whipped night ocean.
No doubt that is what the passengers thought as they boarded the Titanic.
When we awoke the next morning in our cabin, the ship was rolling only gently and everything seemed on track for an uncomplicated landing at Port aux Basques.
But size matters.
The harbour at Port aux Basques is small, with a pesky island in the middle of it. The wind was blowing from the southeast, a direction that the Atlantic Vision doesn’t really like as she gently pivots her great length on the spot, with just room enough to spare, then backs in to the wharf.
We lost a little over an hour waiting for the wind of 35 km/hour to drop before the skipper manoueuvred the Vision gingerly into place and she was made fast to the wharf. An hour lost didn’t matter a great deal to us, but it was instructive to observe how size, whether large or small can be an asset or liability.
We were returning from two weeks away on the mainland and anxious to discover whether the second of the health care by-elections had been called. We had been delighted to learn via the internet that the first vote, in the Straits White Bay had gone against the government in spite of their eleventh hour discovery that size matters.
The tiny municipality of Flower’s Cove’s forceful and articulate refusal to be bullied was an inspiration. It sent a clear message to all those small towns and villages out around who were waiting anxiously to see if their turn would be next on an unthinking government’s chopping block. The death-bed repentance of the Williams government in restoring both the hours and equipment to the condemned clinics in Flower’s Cove and Lewisporte came too late. Bravo to the voters in the Straits, White Bay for saying in a clear and reasoned voice, “We may be small, but we count too. We’re voting No”.
Now the second by-election is on the horizon. It remains to be seen if the voters in Terra Nova district will respond to the message of the first: When it comes to rural Newfoundland and Labrador, the Williams government just doesn’t get it.
The two largest towns in Terra Nova are less than two-thirds the size of Lewisporte. If the Williams government thought Lewisporte deserved to have its clinic gutted, what chance is there for any kind of provincial infrastructure in Glovertown and Gambo? And for places smaller still?
It is possible that the Williams government can learn from their mistakes, but the initial signs are not encouraging. If they had learned their lesson, why would they put forward as their candidate in the by-election Sandy Collins, a relative of and assistant to Paul Oram, the surrogate bully for the premier who dropped the ball so utterly as Minister of Health? Sandy Collins either agreed with the clinic closure policy of his boss, or didn’t have the guts to try and make him see common sense. At a minimum, he should have read Mr. Oram his briefing notes. Aloud. Maybe Mr. Collins doesn’t read either.
No matter how you look at it, how much sense does it make for the Williams government to choose as a candidate the underling of a minister who resigned or was fired in disgrace? Maybe when the majority your government enjoys is this large, you think details this small don’t matter.
But size matters.
A recent lesson should have taught the premier as much. The announcement that Hydro Quebec was going to buy New Brunswick Power left the premier first gob-smacked, then white with rage.
How dare they? How dare they undercut all the planning for the development of the Lower Churchill? Particularly after the way they treated us in the first Churchill Falls deal?
The answer? Because they can. They made the premier of New Brunswick an offer he thought was too good to turn down and he went for it. Hydro Quebec will clear New Brunswick’s debt which their premier felt was too big for him.
Viewed from the perspective of a province as big as Quebec, it is not only manageable, but good business. And if it turns out to be bad news for Danny Williams’ province? Danny Williams? Isn’t he the angry fellow who told the world he didn’t need Quebec’s co-operation to bring electric power to New England? That he would build a line from Labrador under the Straits to Newfoundland, across the island, then under the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Nova Scotia and overland through New Brunswick to the States. He called it the “Anglo Saxon” route, because this way he could avoid dealing with anyone who speaks french. And he’s planning to use New Brunswick powerlines? The ones Hydro Quebec will soon own? I don’t think so.
Danny Williams? Mais oui! I remember him. He’s the little guy with the big mouth. He should learn to pick on someone his own size.
Because it matters.