Remember that slick scene from Taxi Driver in 1976 with Robert De Niro?
You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the @#$! else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well, I’m the only one here. Who do the #$%@ do you think you’re talking to? Oh, yeah? Ok.
Sound familiar?
People who don’t see Lord up close on a regular basis may not realize that he can be thin-skinned. He doesn’t shy away from taking on his opponents and his critics, and he sometimes doesn’t know when to pull back.
Jacques Poitras’ comment on the CBC election blog
Donald Savoie found that out first hand this week when Premier Lord took aim at him as a partisan Liberal who ‘wrote books on Frank McKenna’ and plant LJR’s funeral.
The widown of LJR was outraged and her comments were published in the TJ this morning (no mention in the TT of course but you can expect a rigorous defence of the Premier tomorrow’s We Say).
All I can say is that no one is off limits. Jacques Poitras follows a legitimate story – in his capacity as the CBC’s legislature reporter – and gets directly attacked by the Premier – even having his wife dragged into it.
Now Donald Savoie. The Savoie that worked for Mulroney. The Savoie who wrote a less-than-rosy review of the McKenna years (yes, Premier Lord you should actually read the book – it is far from a Hogan-esque lovefest). But from the tone of Lord’s remarks, it’s clear he never even read it.
All I can say is this. I have only met Donald Savoie a couple of times and as I have said before he is one of the brightest minds in Canada on issues of regional development and the process of governance.
But on one of those occasions, just after reading one of his books, I asked him if he would be writing the book on Premier Lord after he left office.
He said to me without hesitation that “there’s nothing to write about“.
Premier Lord would be well advised to listen to some of the criticism out there about his leadership. Rather than attacking the former Premier LJR and offending his wife, maybe he should reflect on Savoie’s comments.
Savoie has been quoted numerous times in the TJ (very little in the TT) making very good points for the government to consider (well before any election campaign) but these ideas fell on deaf ears.
And now in the middle of an election he is now a ‘partisan Liberal’.