The Telegram has been running a series this week on the number of communities in the province where people can’t drink the water supplied by their local municipality.
Regular readers will know the issue as it first came up here in 2009, in 2011, and in 2013.
A couple of years ago, CBC was highlighting the problem. Your humble e-scribbler reminded the universe that giving people water fit to drink was one of those fundamental commitments the Conservatives made to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2003.
And it was one of those fundamental commitments that they failed utterly and completely to honour.
There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept, their leader used to say.
He was absolutely right.
Some will say the Conservatives only had so much money and time and things were that bad. Those people are either fools or liars or both. The Conservatives had the time and the money and things were never one tenth as bad as they pretended.
What they lacked was the intention.
They had other things they wanted to do instead of fix the drinking water.
That’s the only conclusion one can reach given that the Conservatives under four different leaders have had a dozen years and tens of billions of dollars. They have likely had more money at their disposal than all of the governments in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador since 1855, including the period of commission government.
The word “likely” is in there simply because your humble e-scribbler hasn’t been able to sit down and add up all the money spent by government between 1855 and 2003. Odds are, though, that it is correct. After all, the current crowd have accumulated more public debt during their time in office than the accumulated debt of every crowd that’s ever run the place from 1855 right down to 2003.
It’s only when you put everything in those simple terms that you understand the essence of the crowd who have run the place for the past decade and a bit.
The fact that the Conservatives completely, utterly, totally ignored one of the most basic elements of life is another very simple thing that illustrates precisely the nature of the crowd that have run the place for the past decade.
There’s no way to look at either of those things alone and not be left speechless.
Put them together and it just defies all understanding.
-srbp-