The Telegram editorial this hot summer Wednesday nails down another aspect of the House of Assembly spending scandal, namely the unwillingness of members to disclose their expense claims.
Perhaps those same politicians have forgotten the most important adage of all: that actions speak louder than words.
Here's the fact - we offered the province's MHAs an opportunity to show that they weren'’t involved in constituency allowance misspending.
Not one MHA felt confident enough to actually have public scrutiny of the propriety of their constituency spending.
Like it or not, any MHA who decides to hide behind the Speaker's legal opinion will have earned the reputation they wear.
The Telly will not be winning any friends in the House of Assembly with this editorial, but then again, editors don't make their money saying things that arecomfortablee all the time.
As the host of one radio call-in show noted this week, it's ironic that all those faithful, loyal and unquestioning supporters of the current crop of politicians praised a local newspaper whenever it slagged Liberals and took up the cudgels on the Premier's cause du jour. These same people are now turning savagely on the same paper for printing stories that are - explicitly or implicitly - critical of the Premier.
The Telly-torialists make an oblique reference to The Independent in the editorial this week. While the Indy has not exactly been scoring coups with its coverage and in some instances has provided inaccurate and incomplete information, at least they have asked a few questions. Hopefully, it hasn't poisoned the well of information out there nor has the Premier's savage reaction deterred others from asking simple questions.
The Telly editorial today makes the point simply and eloquently when it points out that when it comes to disclosure (the congenital twin of transparency), actions speak far louder than mere words.
