Columns and Letters

Scuttle: The Ho-hum 2018 Rebellion

-by Bill Dunphy

    There’s nothing like a palace coup to liven up our otherwise boring county council. But as it turned out they can’t even do a scandal right.
    Seemingly out of nowhere, four councillors decided among themselves to try and depose Warden Betty Ann MacQuarrie at a special meeting of council on Friday. The group, which included John Dowling, John MacLennan, Jim Mustard, and warden wannabe Alfred Poirier, cited concerns such as MacQuarrie not showing leadership, misrepresenting council to the news media, and of particular concern was of her attending a meeting in Halifax with Rodney MacDonald and Ben Cowan-Dewar, supposedly to discuss the prospects of a golf course in West Mabou, without informing her fellow councillors of what she was up to. In her defence, the warden insists she did tell them, even though none of them remember her doing so. This happens all the time with married couples.
    With the council room gallery packed with MacQuarrie supporters, many taking in a council meeting for the first time in their lives and ready to go to war for the Mabou-Port Hood representative, the attempted palace coup fizzled. When push came to shove, the vote went by the wayside.
    So what started out as a four-alarm fire ended in a gentle wake-up call from the hotel receptionist, leaving us all shaking our heads and wondering what was the point? What made the whole schmozzle more confusing was that a mandatory two-year review of the warden’s performance was coming up in November. The dissenting councillors could have easily enjoyed the summer break, coming back in September and biding their time until November, then achieving what they set out to do without all the acrimony and resentment that will undoubtedly follow in the wake of this failed rebellion.
    Leadership is difficult to define. Literal definitions include words like decisiveness, awareness, focus, accountability, empathy, confidence, optimism, honesty, inspiration. But it’s often the intangibles that define a leader, things like charisma, the ability to rally the troops against a common enemy, and the ability to get things done. A warden or mayor in municipal politics seeking an example of leadership need look no farther than how Billy Joe MacLean represented Port Hawkesbury as mayor for nearly 30 years. Love him or hate him, you always knew where he stood on an issue and he got things done for Port Hawkesbury.
    We always want our leaders to be better and for someone who was new to the job, like MacQuarrie, we can accept a few missteps that are bound to come along. If I was to offer her some advice, should she show interest in continuing on as warden, then I would say don’t ever be seen as a fence-sitter. Rightly or wrongly, take a stand and live by it. Don’t be saying things like, “I will have to be very careful of what I say to the press; maybe avoid the press altogether.” Learn how to use the press to your advantage. Back in 1985 while working at The Scotia Sun, which had a great rivalry with The Reporter at the time, I would wait until just hours before our deadline and call either Billy Joe, who was the MLA then, or Port Hawkesbury Mayor Almon Chisholm, getting one to say something juicy then go back to the other and say, “Do you know what he said about you/the town/the neighbour’s cat?” And bingo, we get the exclusive front page story and they get press coverage.
    Some politicians wouldn’t say poop if their mouth was full of it. They learn how to talk without saying anything. Nobody likes these people. Other politicians think about what they’re saying and say it for a purpose. When council was debating a $15,000 grant to the airport in Port Hawkesbury, MacQuarrie quipped that the airport was Port Hawkesbury’s and “Margaree is ours.” I think she knew full well that this was an erroneous statement, but said it just to get under the skin of Dowling. Margaree will never be a municipal airport, unless a private business like Cabot foots the entire bill to develop it.
    I will, however, take the warden to task on a statement she made to CBC Radio that aired Monday on Information Morning. A reporter, referring to some signs people carried in the gallery that gender bias was behind the rebellion, asked MacQuarrie if she felt she was being attacked because she was a woman. In her response, she said, “Men and women think in a different way. Men do rush to decisions and women like to completely analyse it before the decision is made.” Really, Betty Ann? Now that’s an example of not thinking through what you are saying. A generalization that sweeping is sexist and totally baseless. And if former Warden Duart MacAulay had said women rush to decisions while men “completely analyze” it before making a decision, then you can be sure Gloria LeBlanc would have had his testicles for garters.
    There is solution to this brouhaha, and one that needs to be discussed before the next municipal election. We, the constituents, need to elect the person who will lead council. The current system requires the six councillors to meet after the election then decide among themselves who will be warden. As it turned out in 2016, the vote was tied 3-3 between MacQuarrie and Mustard, and MacQuarrie got the job when her name was pulled from a hat.
    By having the warden’s position voted on separately from councillors, the entire electorate has an opportunity to vote for a leader they believe will lead council, and the county, based on their election platform. If Billy Joe had have had to rely on the love of council to keep him in the mayor’s chair all those years, it would not even gotten as far as a draw from a hat.
    Hopefully come September our council members can start the new session with a laugh and get right back to work governing our county. And instead of seeking MacQuarrie’s ouster in November, start working on the process that would require her, or Mustard, or anyone else in the constituency, to run for the position of warden separately in 2020.
*****
    Still with rebellion, last week I made the case...again...for Inverness to hold a plebiscite on seeking town status. The current system of sending one person to Port Hood to fight with five people who love Inverness only for its tax base has resulted in years of neglect. And it shows.
    I threw out some numbers, basically off the top of my head, with the rider that if anyone wants to educate me, then by all means, show me the light. District 6 councillor John Dowling (Port Hastings, Judique, West Bay) took me up on it and provided me with a breakdown of taxable assessment values for each district. For anyone checking the county web site, the general operating budget is for 2017-18 and does not show the 2018 taxation values.
    Long-winded that I am, I am quickly running out of space this week to go over the numbers thoroughly, and also, since I just received it on Monday, I will save my analysis for next week.
*****
    The terrible accident that befell Inverness businesswoman Anne Stoupakis (see her letter in this week’s issue), along with my critique of sidewalks, streets, and parking lots following a day in a wheelchair, should be a main agenda item for all of us Shean Co-op members when the annual general meeting is held next month. It’s lucky we weren’t sued and I don’t believe a sign telling shoppers not to take the little carts out of the building will save us if someone does and suffers a fall like Anne did.


 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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