Tory MLA’s tantrum leaves bitter taste

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/02/2012 (5327 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Being angry — about what, you can’t be sure — is a lamentable posture for any politician to adopt.

Consider the actions last week of Tory Hydro critic Reg Helwer. Manitoba Hydro announced appointments to its board of directors and chief among the changes was the promotion of Bill Fraser, a member of the board since 2006, to the position of chairman. Helwer blew his gasket over this news. Why he blew his gasket is a long story.

The Tories are fresh off a bad beat in last fall’s provincial election where, despite a huge surge in votes, they did not win a single additional seat. Now, they are clearly looking for reasons to be outraged. Helwer attacked the appointment, not because he has any problem with Fraser — whom he described as “competent” and possessing “integrity” — but because the NDP appointed a man previously involved with Manitoba Telecom Services.

A former assistant deputy minister of finance in the 1980s, Fraser went to work for Crown-owned MTS in 1986. He became CEO of the telecom company when the then-Tory government abruptly privatized it in the mid-1990s.

The privatization of MTS continues to be a source of NDP outrage, and a liability for the Tories; the spectre of this deal was used to great effect in the last provincial election campaign, when the NDP persuaded many Manitobans that given another chance at governing, the Tories would privatize Manitoba Hydro. The Tories have no such plan and have done just about everything they can to dispel the notion, to no avail.

So, infuriated at the NDP’s fear-mongering over Hydro privatization, Helwer howls when the hated NDP appoints the former CEO of said privatized Crown to be the chair of a board he has sat on for more than five years.

“The hypocrisy is absolutely incredible,” Helwer said in a Tory release. “The NDP and their union allies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on deceptive advertising to create fear among Manitobans while lying about the Manitoba PC plan for Hydro. Then Selinger turns around and appoints an instrumental player in the privatization of MTS as the chair of Hydro. ‘Two-faced’ doesn’t begin to describe (Premier) Greg Selinger.”

Helwer has drawn such a long bow to justify his tantrum that only the bitterest of the bitter in the Tory caucus could follow that logic. Helwer seems to have no sense of the disservice he is doing to Fraser, who clearly deserves better treatment.

Fraser is a born and bred Winnipegger, and an accomplished public servant and executive. He was a man who enjoyed Tory favour when they ruled the province. Notwithstanding the politics of privatization, he had a key role in taking MTS from a Crown to a successfully traded public company.

It was Fraser who penned the prescient deal to purchase the naming rights for Winnipeg’s downtown arena, now known as the MTS Centre. As a result, MTS has become closely aligned with the hottest political and commercial commodity in this city, the Winnipeg Jets. Helwer went on to criticize other appointments to the board, particularly those with a close association to the NDP. These include: polling guru Leslie Turnbull of Viewpoints research, an architect of the NDP’s four majorities; Eugene Kostyra, former NDP finance minister and adviser to former premier Gary Doer; and economist John Loxley, one of Selinger’s closest political advisers. These appointments, Helwer said, amount to “ideological follies” on Selinger’s part.

Ironic, isn’t it, the way some people throw around allegations not realizing they are engaged in the same behaviour they find so abhorrent?

It has always been a particularly weak position for opposition critics to criticize government for things they would do in a heartbeat were they to win an election. Helwer knows full well that to the victor go the spoils and the political appointments. It should be the official Opposition’s chief responsibility to worry about the quality of the appointments to the board, not their affiliations. Especially at a time when there are legitimate questions about Hydro’s performance.

The Public Utilities Board recently rejected Hydro’s general rate application and lambasted the utility for not accurately calculating the impact of its multibillion-dollar dam-building campaign on domestic electricity rates. When the PUB decision came down last month, Helwer was succinct and to the point in criticizing the NDP government for its management of the Hydro file. It’s a sign that, free of the bitterness from last fall’s election defeat, Helwer can be an effective critic.

The Tories are leaderless and absent of a clear brand. However, even they must realize the road back to power is not paved with obtuse arguments and bitter rants.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca