This week let’s turn our attention away from the two-year run of the off-Broadway play at the federal level, with two minority governments, floor-crossing, titanic leadership contests, party dancing, promise-breaking, mask-making and revelation, mystery and denouement. Instead, let’s take a a peek at Province House as it concludes one of its rare weeks with MLAs in the legislature.

The Premier appears to have adopted a CEO’s approach to his role as primus inter pares. This approach invites citizens to see the role primarily as “taking care of business�, to ensure that “the company� is better off at the end of the year than it is at the beginning (read the next election); that stockholders (read party members) have confidence in the direction of the firm; that consumers (read citizens) are still buying; that some good buyouts are being consummated with competitors (read provincial Liberals); and that the local franchise is getting preferential treatment by head office (read Harper’s Conservatives).

To this reading, apparently less than confident about the Premier’s judgment, the Tories appear to have added some flak catchers, some President’s men, to protect him from “knowing� what he might later have to admit he knew, providing him, that is, some “plausible deniability�.

The Premier, in this reading of his self-assumed role, appears steadfast in his belief that the breakdown of his marriage, whether revealing of his character or not, is just not relevant to his role as premier. What counts in the corporate world, he believes, are bottom line results. Personal matters, as long as they don’t impede the CEO’s performance, are simply irrelevant.

The Premier was questioned recently about the fact that the Legislature met less often than any other Provincial legislature in the country last year. (The point of meeting more often is, of course, to provide the Queen’s Loyal Opposition better access to the Cabinet in Question Period, for purposes of democratic accountability and political education). His response was to the effect that what counts is legislation, not how many days are spent in the Legislature talking. In the corporate world talking, central to democracy, is wasted time.

And the Fage affair seems to rely upon the “logic� of plausible deniability, even if it looks like it was being applied by sophomores.



The plan



It’s getting clearer what the Premier has in mind in this reading of his premiership. He’s leaving to his MLAs (the complaints department) the task of ensuring that consumers’ concerns are heard and responded to in a timely and personal manner, even if not always satisfactorily.

He appears to have bought the Liberal Party’s support at a deeply discounted price. He has provided the citizens of the province with a monthly reminder of his commitment to their pocketbooks, with the cut in provincial tax on home heating costs. He has given business what they most wanted this year; Sunday shopping. He’s cutting a cheque for university students to remind at least the Nova Scotians among them that he feels their pain.

He will have, before the end of what now passes as winter, a federal budget to spin and spend. And while he waits, he has surrounded himself with people whose job is to keep problems out of his line of vision in the hope that they won’t stick to him.

He’s hopeful that this will be enough, despite the decline in his personal popularity, to run a provincial election on the themes of “getting the job done� and “beware the socialist hordes.�



Will it work here?



Will this anti-politics approach work? Likely not. One reason is that we have a legislative opposition caucus in Nova Scotia that is skilled, knowledgeable, well led, likeable and committed to politics. The NDP caucus lives and breathes politics, with a sparkle in the eye and a fire in the belly that will serve it well in confronting the CEO and his flak-catchers. And with the Liberals swallowing a poison pill in their cooperation with the Tories, Provincial New Democrats’ prospects appear better than ever.

Second, Nova Scotians like politics, and especially the charm, good humour and democratic instincts of folks who are less than perfectly comfortable in CEO suits.

We’re convinced that character matters in politics. We have a press corps with a taste for the truth and we’re not quick to believe the plausible deniability strategy, even when it’s well handled, preferring our politicians to take their medicine.

It could be an interesting year.