The year: 2004
The issue: Premier Danny Williams legislates public servants back to work and his caucus votes to impose a two year wage freeze on them.
Unknown at the time: At the same time, members of the House of Assembly gave themselves a bonus payment of $2800 bucks, a fact kept secret until the province's auditor general ripped the lid off. Danny Williams didn't take the cash but he didn't stop it from going to others, either.
What Danny said about Reg:
“I don't like to use the word liar. But he's misleading and he's wrong and it's dishonest. Now that's as close as we can come."
What then NDP leader Jack Harris said about Danny:
"I’m surprised and dismayed that the Premier would launch such an attack. There is a strong body of opinion that government is exaggerating the nature of the province’s fiscal situation. And it’s pretty clear that the Price Waterhouse Report’s assumptions for the future were extremely negative. There’s also no doubt the Premier used these numbers to frighten the public and try to build support for drastic measures by government...”.
Frighten the public?
Oh dear.
Such nasty words.
-srbp-