Dear Diary: I have been called a lot of things in my life. A lot. Heck, one of the government Ministers that I used to respect has recently taken to calling me stupid by shouting it across the floor of the Legislature as I speak to Bills. But one thing that I have rarely been called is lazy. I have always believed in hard work. In the case of the Government, hard work could manifest itself in the form of bringing solid Legislation forward. Doing the work to consult. Doing the work to anticipate and close loop-holes. Doing the work to make sure that the Legislation works. Yet, sadly, instead what we are seeing is a series of weak Bills brought to the Legislature. The Government keeps saying we will pass this now and fix it later. This is not good enough. Nova Scotians deserve better. So we - as the opposition - are holding them to account and making them sing for their supper. And they dont like it. Hence, they call me stupid. They hurl expletives. They holler. They misbehave. And they misrepresent. A number of people in my travels this weekend have told me that they heard of Liberals lamenting that this darn opposition is delaying things. Well, no sir, we are not delaying things. In fact what we are doing is bringing attention to the incomplete Legislation that your party is trying to saddle Nova Scotians with. If the government were more effective with its Bill creaton, then the House could run more efficiently. It is cause and effect. As I write this I am reminded of a story that a constituent shared with me only recently. She lives in a very rural part of Pictou East and she told her husband that whichever candidate visited her house would have her vote. She was out and about one day and when she returned home her husband smiled and said, Tim Houston was here. Prove it, she challenged him. He produced my door knocker and she said, Well, Ill be. First politician to come here in years. She told me she voted for me and then before we parted she asked a friend to snap a picture of us so this time she could show her husband. Things are not supposed to come easy in life. The good things are always worth working for. And that certainly extends to the creation of Laws. If nothing else, maybe next time we will see good, complete Bills brought to the floor of the House to begin with ... instead of taking short cuts and assuming that they dont have to work for things. Because if you dont put the hard work in, we are willing to.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 01:40:36 +0000
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