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| Left to Right: Bill Doody, Brian Peckford, John Crosbie, Jane Crosbie, and Beth Crosbie at the 1983 federal PC leadership convention |
The outpouring of praise in memory of John Crosbie,
who died on Thursday, has been such a flood of cliché and, in some cases,
fiction that it does a disservice to the memory of one of the most significant
political figures from Newfoundland and Labrador in the 20th
century.
Remarks by Edward
Roberts, Joe Clark,
and Brian Mulroney were closer to the truth of the man than most. Roberts once
noted that Crosbie wanted to be leader of anything he was ever involved with,
starting with the Boy Scouts. Certainly,
that is a testament to Crosbie’s ambition and determination, but in his
interview last week, Roberts spoke plainly of Crosbie’s considerable intellectual
talents that went with his ambition and determination.
Likewise, Clark spoke of the respect that
public servants and cabinet colleagues in Ottawa had for Crosbie both for his
ability and for the professional way he dealt with them. The politicians understood that Crosbie would
be tough to deal with when he wanted to get his way, but they understood that
Crosbie never failed to deploy the same fierceness in defence of the team when
attacked from outside. The bureaucrats appreciated someone who understood their
briefs, especially in portfolios like finance.
By contrast, Rex
Murphy, so long removed from Newfoundland and Labrador
physically and mentally that his writings on the province are a unique brand of
safari journalism, gave the National Post his trademark overwrought
prose. He appears, as well, to have used
an equally overwrought imagination to cover over the considerable gaps in his
memory of what actually happened now almost a half century ago.
The one thing Murphy got unmistakably right is to
credit Jane Crosbie for her role in John’s political career. Not to eulogise her before her time but Jane
is as much the political force, and understood as such, as John ever was.
People in Newfoundland and Labrador today who claim they want to get more women
involved in politics – many of them people who know nothing of politics in the
province and care even less about it – would do well to spend some time talking
to Jane Crosbie and others like her. To say that “Jane was every bit his equal” may
well sell Jane short, although the crucial part is that “the only difference [between
the two] being she chose the off-stage role.”
