Mighty Casey struck from caucus

The game of political ping-pong being played on Parliament Hill is showing no signs of slowing down. The latest MP to fall victim to the Prime Minister’s wrath is Cumberland Co. MP Bill Casey.

Casey said if the signature of the federal government is no good then there is a serious problem facing our democratic process. He was referring to the Atlantic Accord, which was retired premier Dr. John Hamm's crowning achievement for his years in office.

In February 2006 in Halifax, Stephen Harper told a crowd of Tory faithful that his “friend” John Hamm should be lauded for his “hard work” in bringing home the document that was to secure Nova Scotia’s financial future with the promise of keeping all offshore revenue without the risk of federal clawbacks later on. Harper told the audience that without the work of Bill Casey and others, the Accord would not have been signed.

No matter how you slice it, when federal finance minister Jim Flaherty announced that the Atlantic Accord as we knew it was dead, he made it sound as if Nova Scotia was left in a much better position. With a lot of smoke and mirrors and a healthy dose of rhetoric, the finance minister made many in vote-rich Ontario and most in the Western provinces happy.

Funny, too, how MPs say one thing and mean something else. Pictou MP and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay told the national media, “we will not throw a member out of caucus for voting his conscience. There will be no firing on budget votes as we saw with the Liberal government.”

MacKay was under pressure from opposition parties last week to stand firm on this statement, yet he remained mute while his fellow cabinet ministers spoke for him. MacKay was undoubtedly told to keep quiet on the issue by his boss lest he risk taking a seat next to Casey in the political hinterland.

With Casey now out of the Tory 'Family Compact', his only choice, he said, for the next election will be to run as an independent. As such, Casey must give up his nice office for a cubbyhole somewhere in the recesses of the Parliament Building, and he has already taken his new seat at the back of the Gallery.

Canadians are weary of the lies. Voters are showing their dissatisfaction through polls indicating that the Tories, federally and provincially, are in doubt of forming a majority government anytime soon.

Predicting the mood of the electorate is risky business, but Atlantic Canadians have waited too long to enjoy the riches we deserve. Casey voted against the budget, claiming his constituents should get the bill of goods they were sold. He was promptly kicked out by the same man who praised him just over a year ago.

Harper may have won the game for now, but Atlantic Canadian voters have an uncanny ability to set the stage for the rest of the country with ballots reflecting the nation's political mood.

Unfortunately, the biggest losers in this latest showdown on the Hill are, as always, the constituents. As an Independent, Casey no longer has access to constituent information. “The Conservatives cut off all our contacts to our constituent files,” he said late last week. “We have 738 people out there with disabilities, who need health care, who need pensions, and we can’t access any of them.”

This reflects the reality of how this province is viewed by the federal lot currently in power.