Surgeon Urgently Required

I’d like to put out a request to any surgeons out there. If you have experience in complicated proctology procedures, you may be urgently required on Parliament Hill. It won’t be an easy surgical procedure to remove Minister John Efford from Paul Marten’s rear end, but it’s worth a shot. Nothing else seems to work.

Since being elected to his Federal seat, I’ve lost track of the number of times Mr. Efford has sided with the Prime Minister in direct opposition to the desire, and even begging, of members of his riding and by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in general.

For example, he failed to support fishers when the topic of having Cod added to the endangered species list came up in the House. A move that would ensure the death of the fishing industry in the province. Once cod made that list, you can forget ever catching one again, not to mention fishing for other species in areas where the cod would be protected and might possibly be affected.

How about the Atlantic Accord and offshore royalty negotiations? I remember Mr. Efford telling the provincial government and the people of the province back in September of last year to accept the deal being offered because it was the best we were going to get. Thankfully the Premier didn’t listen and did get a better deal.

Then there were his statements about the move of the agriculture research station. According to John it was a done deal. It wasn’t and isn’t. The station will continue thanks to the fighting of provincial and municipal leaders.

Just this past week Mr. Efford was the only Newfoundland and Labrador MP to vote along the party line on the topic of same sex marriage. Don’t get me wrong, I personally don’t have an opinion on the topic one way or the other. Never the less, it seems odd to me that all of the other NL members, including those in the Liberal Party voted with the Conservatives, while John voted the other way. When these other members were questioned on why they voted the way they did they stated that they had checked with their constituents and were voting for what their ridings wanted. I may not be an expert on politics, but I do know this province and I would be willing to bet that if the majority of people in these other ridings were against the Liberal direction, John Efford’s riding was as well. Did he even ask them or did he just ask Paul Martin which way he should vote?

These are just a few of the more well known examples of how Mr. Efford has abandoned his people in favor of his pal Paul. There are many others. I heard John Efford speaking after the cod issue came up in the house, and his only defense was, if he were to speak out against the party line he would lose his seat at the cabinet table and then he would be no good to the province. Well Mr. Efford, if you aren’t going to speak up for your province, then what good are you even if you are at the cabinet table.

Get a backbone Mr. Efford. Start doing what you were sent to Ottawa to do and if you need any help getting yourself out of the situation you are in, hopefully we can find a surgeon to remove you from it. It’s either that or the electors will, and with the current political landscape, I suspect that within the next couple of months they will.