are square, not round.
That would be the bus of a government that just won a stunning election victory and yet now seems mired in mess after mess after mess.
The latest one - hospitals in desperate need of fixing up, a government report kept secret for two and a half years - is taken apart by the Telegram's editorial.
But after you've done with the editorial, take a look below to some of the comments. One comes from a fellow who says he's a manger with Eastern Health. He makes some interesting observations.
But the point is: he's making them, publicly.
Not so very long ago, public servants were deathly afraid of saying anything that did not conform to the tone from the top.
Heck. Public servants? Try just about anyone alive in the province. Who needed the phone calls at all hours of the day or night in which the person on the other end of the phone was able to recount in detail a private and supposedly privileged conversation among some tiny group or a board or what have you. There were times you'd have sworn the confessionals at the Basilica were bugged or the local priest was doing his patriotic duty by ratting out a dissident to the secular saviour's disciples.
Not so any more.
The news media are being a bit less wary in their remarks. The reporting is still solid and professional but there's less tolerance of bullshit.
Take for example, David Cochrane's comments on Here & Now's political panel. He pretty much stated it, as it was, right down to the comment about Wiseman burping up the existence of the report. Where Cochrane or Craig Westcott might have been the few to make observations openly that reflected less than positively on the current administration, the sharp stories are coming much more often and from others.
Things seem to be changing. It might just be temporary, but then again, there might be reasons why the administration seems remarkably unable to pull off the amateur poll goosing and pitcher planting of the old days.
That sounds like a topic for a weekend post.
-srbp-