Paul Wells: An unprecedented avalanche of public contempt got the fake inquiry turned into a real one. The question remains, what was Ottawa thinking?
There’s something satisfying in watching a house of cards collapse. It’s reassuring to be reminded that there is, in fact, a level of absurdity that is unsustainable from people who depend on votes for their positions.
As often happens with unwise structures—a faulty bridge, the Hindenburg—the collapse was quick and spectacular. Questions from journalists calling in to Thursday’s announcement by Furey and Blair were real stumpers. I’m told “Who asked you to do this?” was a particularly low blow. Furey was big enough to admit the answer was “no one.” By Friday, at his regular COVID-19 news conference, Premier Stephen McNeil was feeling the outrage and.
A Halifax colleague suggested a cat might have McNeil’s tongue because Nova Scotia receives $4 billion a year in federal transfer payments. My own theory is that we were being given a runaround. If Blair could appear with Furey and swear he’d make the RCMP cooperate with a fake inquiry, he could bloody well ensure they’d participate in a real one.
It worked. Nova Scotia’s nine Liberal MPs had signed, or been presented as having signed, a letter endorsing the fake inquiry on Friday. Tuesday morning the CBC reported that one of them, provincial New Democrat turned federal Liberal Lenore Zann, now said she hadn’t been consulted on the federal response and disagreed with it.
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