Be not deterred

In her righteously indignant parting snot-o-gram to her detractors, Liz Matthews lashes out at politicians who dare to, umm, politick:

The Opposition will attempt to claim victory; but on the contrary, they have shamefully created this debate for political purposes. I would have hoped that if Ms. (Yvonne) Jones was sincere about wanting a qualified person for this position she would have made a legitimate attempt to find out about my abilities as opposed to spreading inaccuracies. I can only hope that in this — an election year — those who are qualified, energetic and passionate about making this province a better place will not be deterred from taking part in the political process by the unnecessary negativity that sometimes occurs.

This "unncessary negativity", of course, is to be contrasted with its equal but exact opposite, entirely necessary negativity.

Like, say, on April 7th, 2003, when former PC MHA Fabian Manning got up in Question Period, and asked:

Each Member of the House of Assembly has the opportunity to hire a political assistant. Some members who are a part of Cabinet have the opportunity to hire more than one. The Premier, the Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the NDP, all have the right to hire their political staff as they wish. Civil service positions on the other hand, Mr. Speaker, should fall under rules and regulations of the Public Service Commission. To do otherwise is an affront to the union movement and an insult to career civil servants.

Contrary to remarks made by the Premier in a March edition of The Telegram, that the Liberals have not used contractual positions as a way of stacking the public service with Liberal supporters, I have to admit that just the opposite of this statement is true.

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Premier today why his government continues to ignore the Public Service Commission and continues to find jobs for loyal Liberal supporters in the public service without going through a competition process?

Or, as former PC MHA Ed Byrne asked a month later:

Mr. Speaker, last week we saw the appointment of the former Public Relations Director of the Premier’s office to the Bull Arm Corporation. While the Public Service Commission is not necessarily involved in the competition for such political appointments, it is normal procedure, I would think and I would assume that it is, that in appointing somebody to such an important position that some sort of search would have occurred to ensure that the skills set that you wanted, to ensure that the corporation achieved its objectives and goals in terms of attracting business to that site, were achieved.

I would like to ask the Premier this question today: What sort of search did you undertake, as Premier of the Province, to ensure that the skills set that you required to keep the Bull Arm site up and running and going and attracting more business is the one that you got?

In 2011, an election year, it is a threat to our very democracy when the opposition cries foul over patronage appointments.

So, what was it when the current government, then the opposition, did the exact same thing in election year 2003?