But that what Corporate Research Associate's Don Mills did yesterday in Halifax.
It's possible, of course, that all three get Mill's quarterly omnibus results, but it is still curious to see his comments.
Well, more specifically, it's curious to see this comment:
"If Halifax withdraws from the bid, the consequences for this community will be devastating," Mills told a business audience of more than 200. "We will never get this chance again."Admittedly the context is different. He's accusing politicians of equivocating. Then he praises Danny Williams for leadership. But if "leadership" produces a situation on, say, Hebron, that matches exactly the situation Mills just described about Halifax, then leadership becomes as useless as its opposite.
Mills' polling can still show Williams being overwhelmingly popular, but the responses to that single question don't give the full picture on what is going on in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The media get a slam as well for reporting on the projected costs of the Halifax Commonwealth Games bid. There's a novel idea: slamming reporters for doing their job. That is soooo effective at generating the coverage you'd like to see.
There's other coverage of Mills' speech. CBC has it. There's also a more complete story in the Chronicle Herald that includes some of Mills' strong criticisms of Premier Rodney MacDonald.
This speech gives us some real insight into Mills' grasp of politics in Atlantic Canada and that should colour how we take his future analyses.
If Mills was really so clued in, then he'd know to thank his lucky stars he lives in Nova Scotia.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, he'd have a Premier showing "leadership" but if someone like Mills stuck his head up to criticise what the "leader" was doing publicly, he be slapped with a lawsuit before his ass hit his seat at the hotel. At the very least, the "leader" would be threatening lawsuits very openly and very publicly.
Mills might even be kissing his polling contract with government, good bye. Subscribers would dry up.
Mills should know when he's got it good.
He should also add a few questions to his omnibus so he can pick up a better view of politics in the Atlantic provinces.
___________________
Update:
From the comments section, this blog link on the Games bid being yanked.
There are accounts of the controversy at the Daily News, a column from the same paper that supports the cancellation based on cost overruns, from the Friday Globe and Mail, a story from Glasgow- also bidding on the games - that claims the Halifax bid was more than double the Glasgow bid, and this one from the Chronicle Herald.