Anyone ever see a letter to the editor from Dr. Noel Cadigan taking a politician to task for referring to someone as a traitor?
Doubtful you’ll find one.
But Cadigan found a problem with the use of the word “crackie” in reference to health minister Jerome Kennedy. For those who don’t know, a crackie is a common enough term in colloquial Newfoundland English for a small, yappy dog. It’s also a common-enough term in Newfoundland politics.
All in all, it is relatively benign.
So benign in fact it that a letter from anyone complaining of its use – save from an elderly maiden aunt who was born in the reign of Queen Anne – stands out.
Cadigan isn’t that pompous, most likely, nor is he quite as sensitive as the letter suggests. Rather he is using the coded language of current Newfoundland politics. Note the lecturing, condescending tone of the letter in the fashion of a prissy school master lecturing an errant lower form boy in a public school.
Note as well the pointed reference to what the Telegram ought to be doing instead of offering critical commentary in an editorial.
Sound much like Paul Oram?
You get the picture.
-srbp-