Letterman invite hits all the wrong notes

Call me a stick in the mud, or maybe I’ve lost my sense of humour. But the Premier of Nova Scotia fiddling, step dancing and begging a U.S. talk show host to visit Nova Scotia? It’s an embarrassment.

I’ve spent a good deal of time pondering Rodney MacDonald’s latest excellent adventure, and it seems to be ultimately an opportunistic ploy to cash in on homegrown actress Ellen Page’s outstanding performance Jan. 3 on the David Letterman show.

She’s a natural with a huge career in front of her. The Premier? I’m not so sure.

He’s featured in a video that counts down a personal top 10 that was sent to Letterman’s people urging the TV icon to visit Nova Scotia after Letterman suggested to Page he’d like to see the province.

The clip is charming, and perhaps on one level a laudable effort to spur tourism interest south of the border and elevate the province’s profile internationally. But here’s the thing.

I can’t separate the joke from the agenda. MacDonald and/or his people latched onto a young actress’s rising star and hammered out a hokey top-10 that has a couple of yuks but is intended really to bolster a party’s flagging popularity. Full marks for creativity, but let’s recognize this for what it is.

Letterman isn’t going to come to Nova Scotia; we all know that. Tom Keaney, a spokesman for Letterman’s production company Worldwide Pants, said as much. Yes, they’ve seen the video, but say that Letterman has no plans to visit.

And what if he were to show up? It’d be a media circus, for sure, but would it do anything otherwise? Like improve the health care system? Minimize wait times? Give us better roads? Generate more money for social services?

Nova Scotians can make a blueberry grunt, according to the video, triple bypass surgery is free and we’re blessed with a Premier who fiddles reasonably well and can bust a move while doing so.

But we have also a minority government that totters along without a solid mandate and a political top dog who knows his days are likely numbered. Thus it’s easy to let it all hang out, toss a challenge to presidential candidate and bass guitarist Mike Huckabee, rosin up the bow and work hard to appear fearless and carefree.

It feels exactly opposite to me: desperate and ill-advised. Why, when this province is battling to find its voice and place in Canada and abroad, is Rodney MacDonald wasting his time courting a talk show host?

What would Letterman bring if he came to Nova Scotia? He’s a big name, recognizable as all get-out, but who would benefit?

You know who. And it’s not the rank and file, folks.

Give the Premier props for – if you’ll pardon the pun – ‘stepping out’ with his fiddle and trying something new. But for me, it won’t mean much to people who rely on leadership and good government to make it from one day to the next.

It’s just another case of a politician frittering his time away while the business at hand plays second fiddle.