Ginger, get the popcorn!

Public Liberal energy policy feud fuels CPC/PCs

Policy is like sex.

Way better if you are doing it rather than just talking about it.

On Monday, Premier Andrew Furey released his latest letter to the Prime Minister asking for a change in federal policy on something or other. It was not an April Fools joke although given how often Furey writes these New Age Begging Letters to Ottawa and how often the Prime Minister ignores them, we could be onto an Internet meme soon.

Make no mistake: these are not serious letters. They are about Furey’s personal publicity, which is why he makes a point of telling everyone he has written on behalf of Haiti or handshakes after a hockey game or whatever furrows the brow of his social media team.

But even on that level, while the letters get him a few headlines for a few minutes, the thing about political communications - as opposed to celebrity image management - is that actions always speak louder than words. Fernando was right if your game is to be famous for being famous but it is not possible to be good politically just because you look mahvelous. People need to see you doing mahvelous things for them in order to get the real credit.

If you want to understand how celebrity image management doesn’t get you votes, ask Andrew Furey.

Seriously.

The Prosthetic Panjandrum of Port - au - Prince barely won the 2021 election against two bankrupt zombie parties. And his poll numbers for the past six months or so are equally unimpressive. People think he and his fellow Liberals are doing a crap job of everything that matters. And what’s worse, they even think Furey and his mates suck at stuff they don’t give a rat’s arse about. Furey and the Liberals should be making Danny Williams at his peak of 80% popularity look like a hated, hunted man. Instead, four of the country’s leading political operatives confuse him with some guy who scribbles for the Toronto Sun.

Not a good spot to be in but lots of politicians have been there or in worse spots and come back. It all depends on what they *do*.

Writing a letter is not doing.

It’s not even trying.

And as Yoda said: “Do or do not. There is no try.”

Now there are two things about carbon tax - the reason why Furey wrote his last three letters - that we should look at. The first is the policy itself. There is stuff he and the provincial Liberals could do and frankly should be doing.