So this week, the Ghiz government made another announcement guised under the umbrella of the Rural Action Plan. No, it's not a new industry, it's not an expansion of existing business or a major tourism development...they're moving a dozen jobs from Milton, PEI...a rural community by the way, to Tignish, PEI...another rural community. Is this the Rural Action Plan strategy? Divide and conquer?

I'd hardly call this initiative 'rural development'. There will be little tangible benefit beyond that generated from construction of the new facility, work which will likely go to a company outside the Tignish area anyway. Once you cut through the chaff, we can see this for what it actually is...it's a Lieberal vote-buying kit.

This is not about rural development and it's not about job creation. It's about retaining votes. Ghiz is shuffling a few jobs in the hope of shoring up a few shaky Lieberal votes in a vulnerable Lieberal seat (watch for more to come). Maybe he'll secure a couple dozen votes for LeClair, but in all likelyhood, it will cost Dumville a few dozen votes too, courtesy the displaced and/or uprooted employees (and their families) who are now working in Milton.

It's a relatively fast move following the radio gong show that I thought had Minister LeClair making a total arse of himself on CBC less than a month ago. During the Jan 29th airing of Paul MacNeill's radio call-in, On The Line, Minister LeClair's performance was perhaps the worst effort ever by an elected official to sound accountable. He certainly did not sound particularily knowledgeable or informed. He lacked details and he couldn't, or wouldn't, answer questions with any degree of certainty. Given the speed with which the Ghizvernment appears to have responded to the damage done to the government's credibility in that radio show, I wonder if the damage is worse than even I thought it would be.

Let's be fair too though, it's good for Tignish to get these jobs, but is it fair to take them from another area if for no other reason than the vote margin makes it safe to do so? I suspect it's also a move by government to shut up the Tignish Village Chair, who's been rather critical of the local MLA and the Ghiz government for ignoring the area. The big question is, will 12 jobs be enough? He was looking for 50.