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There has certainly been no shortage of controversial decisions emanating from the Shawn Graham Liberal government since the Legislature reconvened for its spring session. Undemocratic health reforms, eliminating parental choice in French second language education, drastic cuts to silviculture, not to mention increasing our provincial debt. Yet through all these announcements and the controversies that have followed, there has been one constant: the absence of Shawn Graham from the debate.

FILE

Premier Shawn Graham speaks to reporters on heath care and UNBSJ.

Not once since the debate on health reforms began almost four weeks ago has Shawn Graham stood in the Legislature to explain or defend his government's plans. Every time a PC MLA asks the Premier why he has allowed his Health Minister to seize absolute control of the health care system and eliminate democratically elected boards, the Premier remains in his seat and allows the Health Minister to answer.

We have seen similar events with respect to the government's French second language education reforms. When PC MLAs ask the Premier why he has allowed his Education Minister to eliminate French language education in anglophone schools prior to Grade 5, the Premier chooses to remain in his seat and allows the Education Minister to answer.

Now to be fair, this is not something that just began three weeks ago. Ever since Shawn Graham became the Premier he has bent over backwards to distance himself from the negative aspects of his government. Other examples of this include the government's decision to scrap the HST Rebate, the $60 million grant given to the Caisse Populaires, and of course the disappearance of private personal health records.

The last time the Premier did roll up his sleeves and get involved in a debate, he ended up causing more anger and resentment than there was in the beginning. The Premier's performance during the post-secondary education debates last fall was not strong. In the end, he had to admit that he and his government made a mistake and he was forced to create a second PSE task force to review the work of the first. While we are waiting for the second report the Premier continues to be in damage control mode. He has tried to get out of trouble by freezing tuition fees for a year. Of course this will help universities, but community colleges are still being ignored by this government. There is no plan to help community college students with their financial troubles. There is no plan to help community colleges with their infrastructure challenges. And there is no plan to address the skilled labour shortage that is being driven by private industry. The province keeps focusing on importing skilled labour from India and China while refusing to fulfill their promise to create 12,000 new community college seats that will provide more training and employment options for New Brunswickers.

Looking back at the history of our province, I would suggest that we have had some strong governments and great leaders, of whom my two favourites would have to be Bernard Lord and Richard Hatfield. Based on what I have read, Shawn Graham would likely point to Frank McKenna and Louis Robichaud as his mentors. I can't help but think how none of the political leaders mentioned above would have allowed their governments to needlessly go down such a divisive and controversial path as Graham is doing now. When it was necessary to take tough decisions, these former Premiers stood up and provided leadership.

Now I can appreciate that being Premier is a tough job. Essentially you are the CEO of a $7 billion organization and there are mountains of information that must be processed quickly every single day. But it appears to me as though Shawn Graham is more interested in shaking hands, cutting ribbons, and posing for pictures than he is in explaining and defending the decisions his government has made. New Brunswickers expect a Premier that will stand up, provide leadership and participate in the debate, not someone who will sit on the sidelines because it is the easy thing to do.

Of course this begs the question, if the Premier is not interested in leading the province through tough times then why did he run to be Premier?

Robert MacLeod is a Sussex area businessman, President of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick and Chairs the Board of Directors of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. For more information please visit www.pcnb.ca.