One of my longstanding pet peeves as an on-again off-again political hack and observer of Newfoundland politics is the proliferation of the term “a good district man” in reference to our elected officials, particularly MHAs. (Leaving aside the fact that I’ve never actually seen the equally unnerving term “good district woman” in print anywhere, I’ll state for the record that if I did, I’d be just as peeved by it.)
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with being a “good district” anything, but every time I challenge anyone (usually reporters) on the meaning of the term, I rarely ever get a response.
I’ve seen it in newsprint, plastered on blogs and more recently tweeted on Twitter. It remains a stable throwaway phrase for just about every radio talk show host to grace the fabled chair at VOCM.
Sometimes it’s to suggest a person returns phone calls. Other times it’s a consolation title for being one of the few who don’t make it into this province’s gargantuan cabinet circle. During the Members’ Allowance scandal it was even offered up as an excuse for expropriating government monies to fill the pockets of needy constituents – playing the part of Robin Hood, if you will.
But I digress.
What got me thinking about this peeve this weekend was a piece in Thursday’s Western Star.
To wit, an article outlining the Town of Howley’s inability to use provincial gas tax credit funding to upgrade its water supply system. Nobody really questions the need for this infrastructure upgrade, but the Town’s proposal falls outside of the eligibility criteria set for the program. It cannot use gas tax credit money as a substitute for its ten per cent required contribution to an otherwise 90% provincially funded infrastructure program. The Star reports MHA Darryl Kelly’s reaction as follows:
MHA Darryl Kelly said he is aware of the problem and is trying to find a solution.
“One of the problems is that they want to use it as their 10 per cent, and that just can’t be done in that program,” said Kelly. “Their proposal unfortunately did not meet the criteria, but we are asking the province to look into it.”
I suppose this is what makes someone like Mr. Kelly a good district man.
And this is where my own sense of logic (which admittedly may be completely off base with everyone else’s) simply goes berserk.
Darryl Kelly, like all of his colleagues, is a legislator. He represents his district in the House of Assembly, which you’ll be forgiven if you lost track, is a legislature. It legislates things. And where it does not legislate things, it legislates the powers necessary to regulate things, and to establish programs and their criteria.
Which the begs the question – is the job of an MHA, particularly a government MHA, i.e. a legislator, a good district man, to pass legislation or to circumvent it? Undoubtedly the Town of Howley, in search of an infrastructure upgrade that’s 90% or 100% paid by the province would dearly love, in this instance, to have a Member willing to put his shoulder to the wheel to circumvent the rules. Hence the commitment on his part to continue “asking the province to look into it”.
But if Mr. Kelly or any other of his colleagues on either side of the House thinks the eligibility criteria for the gas tax program is unfair, isn’t the logical action of a legislator to pursue changes – legislative, regulatory or otherwise, that would reflect the kind of funding program he would rather see in place? Isn’t any other course of action just a pile of hypocritical self-serving bullshit?
Nearly two years ago I raised this issue at length with the Members’ Compensation Review Committee. Few of my comments on this particular point made it into the final report, as they likely fell outside of the Commission’s narrow mandate.
As I said then, in the wake of the Members’ Allowance scandal, far too much attention has been paid to what MHAs may have spent money on, with little focus at all on the roles of Members in our system and the generally accepted practice of using public money to curry favour with the electorate.* With mere weeks to go before an election is officially underway, expect the good district men (and good district women) to be earning those accolades in spades.
*see MHA job description should be more closely examined, committee told, The Telegram, Friday August 7 2009 p. A7 (not available on line)
