Some Day the Sun Will Shine and Have Not Will Be No More (37 page)

Judge Binnie replied on March 28 on Supreme Court of Canada
stationary.

On April 25 I responded to his letter.

The comments of Judge Binnie at the conference referenced in the
Globe and
Mail
article and his statement in his letter are startling, given that
they come from a person who held such high office. Even though he states that
the
Globe and Mail
did not carry what he emphasized, he
does not deny saying what the paper says, and more galling even when
confronted with the evidence of Newfoundland’s position (a written document of
August, 1980), one that he should have read, given that he was working with the
federal government on the Constitutional File, and further, that he had no
evidence that I said what he alleged in the paper—he makes no attempt to
acknowledge he was wrong.

Cunningly, he moves from the position of “control” of the fishery in the
remarks quoted in the paper to “greater control” in his letter, rather than
forthrightly saying he was wrong on the point. Factually, this, too, is wrong;
to be utterly accurate, it was going from nearly no control to some control. No
small distinction! And it was not Newfoundland’s response, “That’s your problem”
at the time, as he continues to suggest. It was a preconceived notion that most
federal bureaucrats had about Newfoundland’s position. It was their attitude of
Newfoundland’s position, but it was not Newfoundland’s position.

List of Projects and Value

The first time I met John was when I ran for the presidency of the Green Bay
Liberal Association in 1968. John had attended the meeting of the district
association to elect an executive, these officers to be delegates to the
announced Leadership Convention of the party. Premier Smallwood was also in
attendance (as I relate elsewhere in this book) and took a characteristic
intrusive role in the outcome of the meeting. Strangely enough, John did not
intervene as one would think he would to ensure that the premier remained
objective rather than brazenly supporting my opponent in the election of the
president. Anyway, because of my disillusionment with Smallwood and the
dictatorial way the so-called new Liberal Party was being organized, contrary to
all the public statements Smallwood had made about it being a democratic party,
it was later that I joined Crosbie’s leadership team upon an invitation from him
to become involved.

This was a wonderful learning experience for me as I criss-crossed the central,
northeast, and eastern part of the island (Baie Verte to Clarenville) from late
June to October looking to attract people to the Crosbie campaign, get them
organized and attend nomination meetingsto getCrosbie delegates elected tothe
Leadership Convention. Crosbie at that time, and which is no doubt a shock to
many now, was a very poor public speaker. Even in a one-on-one situation he was
aloof, and that habit of closing his eyes while he spoke or someone was speaking
to him drove us campaign people crazy as we would hear people complain about
this weird behavioural phenomenon after the meetings that John attended.
Everyone knew he was a lawyer, must be
smart, was a minister in
the Smallwood government, and came from one of the most well-known merchant
families in the province, but to see this type of behaviour in one looking for
support seemed most unusual and downright odd.

I remember one sojourn with him in Twillingate/New World Island where we had
arranged for him to attend a meeting in order to assist us in gathering some
supporters in a very Smallwood-leaning district. That was a mistake. There was
simply no way we could compete here with the madly loyal Smallwood supporters,
whose antimerchant bias was on full display and who, even when confronted with
some solid arguments for Crosbie, would often cite his inability to give a
stirring speech. I remember our car ride back to Gander that night with John
insisting on driving at lightning speed over miles of dirt road. I thought at
any moment we would end up in a ditch or worse—crash into a utility pole or an
oncoming vehicle.

Concerning my later unfortunate incident with John where he insisted that he
had forgotten our earlier arrangement with the campaign, I tried to put it
behind me. Of course, I worked for him as a sort of executive assistant to the
Liberal Reform Group (after our agreement to continue to be paid was honoured)
from November, 1968, until the next June. It was here that I really got my first
glimpse of John up close. He was, and remained, as most people know, a hard
worker, many times involved in the minutia that should be left to others. And he
was stubborn. He came to most decisions, then, on his own, and then gathered
people around to agree with him and to assist in implementation. So, while I
kept in touch throughout that time with many of the wounded Crosbie supporters,
there was little research that I was asked to do. This was a shame, since here I
had an office on New Gower Street, a secretary, and time to assist more fully in
seeking out information and researching various issues that were coming before
the legislature.

My next encounter, of course, was serving with him in Frank Moores’s caucus
after the March, 1972, election. And from 1974 to 1976 I served in Frank
Moores’s Cabinet and saw John in action on that level. Once again John
distinguished himself for his hard work
but also for his
obstinacy: when he took a position it was impossible to move him away from it no
matter what substantive or political reasons given. This was always evident, but
I remember most particularly on the Labrador Linerboard issue, where he was the
lead minister, and the Brinco water rights issue. Interestingly, in his book
No Holds Barred
, John characteristically deals with these issues as
if he alone was involved, when in fact Cabinet ministers, the premier, and the
full Cabinet were party and involved with these important issues.

John left the provincial Cabinet in 1976 and ran in a by-election in October,
won and became a Member of the Progressive Conservative Opposition led by Joe
Clark. During his time as Joe Clark’s minister of Finance and Newfoundland’s
representative (1979) in the federal Cabinet, nothing stands out, except for Mr.
Clark’s commitment letter regarding offshore (a pyrrhic victory given the short
seven-month life of the government) and the fisheries matters which remained
unresolved. So the great hopes that we had for Newfoundland’s prospects with our
“fish and chips” ministers in Ottawa came tumbling down with the defeat of the
government in Parliament as a result of the budget of our very own John Crosbie.
I guess it is here that one sees demonstrated the hamartia as described
earlier—his obstinacy, and I guess at the same time Joe Clark’s as well in his
lack of leadership in not facing down his Finance minister.

Perhaps the two most interesting (at the time frustrating beyond belief)
incidents concerned two significant events: first, my leadership run, and
second, the first meeting as premier and he as federal minister.

My leadership team was very organized and we were lining up prominent people
who would support us. Frankly, we did not have that many. Ours was mainly a
grassroots campaign. But John Crosbie, given that I had been involved with his
leadership campaign against Smallwood, knowing that he was not enamoured with
most of the other candidates, and the fact that many of the people who had
supported Crosbie were supporting me, we figured this would not be a difficult
thing—only the timing. Well, it proved to be a very difficult thing. By the time
Crosbie did throw his support my way— after a personal visit from my campaign
manager, Frank Ryan, who
had also been involved with Crosbie—it
really was too late to have an impact. We had all the hard work done. One of the
major turning points was when three very prominent PCs came out supporting me:
Bill Marshall, Gerry Ottenheimer, and Dr. John Collins. These three individuals
were known as honest, bright, and very devoted Conservatives. They were to play
pivotal roles in my administrations. We were confident that with a good speech
at the convention, we would be in there competing for top spot. This is another
sad story in my relationship with John. Why he was holding out, I honestly do
not know. No doubt there was a tinge of jealousy since it was no secret that
John really wanted the premiership, not the position of federal minister for
Newfoundland. And here was a rural fellow, who had been one of a number of
campaign managers on his own leadership campaign, now challenging for the very
job for which he yearned.

With the leadership concluded and after taking over the reins as premier, the
federal election of May, 1979, produced a minority government but with the
federal Conservatives in the majority, Joe Clark as prime minister, for whom I
had campaigned in his successful leadership bid, and John Crosbie as minister of
Finance. It was customary (and in this particular circumstance assumed to be a
very pleasant affair) for the premier and the federal minister to get together
at an early moment to review the outstanding bilateral issues existing between
the two orders of government. The date was set and we were to meet in St.
John’s. There was a hitch. I was informed by my press secretary, Frank Petten,
that John (Mr. Crosbie) would meet me at a suite in Hotel Newfoundland. How
unusual! Another fit of pique, the stubborn streak? Of course, I let it be known
in no uncertain terms that there would be only one setting for the meeting: the
premier’s office at the Confederation Building. And, of course, John relented
and the meeting proceeded, as all meetings with like participants have proceeded
before and since.

John published a book in 1997 entitled
No Holds Barred
. I never read it
then. At the time I was tied up in some project that took up my time. I
remember, however, a number of people contacting me, asking if I had read the
book, since, they said, he was hostile to me. I sort of
passed
this off as John’s bluster and that was that. Well, of course, for this book,
given that I was to discuss John, I was forced to get his book and read it. What
a shocker. Stupidly, I had not read it, and therefore had not responded to the
many false statements, half-truths, and selected comments ascribed to me. It
really is an egocentric tirade: how good he was and how bad most other people
were. In retrospect, that was John. I emailed Alvin Hewlett, my former chief of
staff and former Member of Green Bay, the following:

I honestly did not realize that John could be so blinded, one-sided, and bitter
once he began to write about politics and people.

It’s a bit ironic to title a book
No Holds Barred
when it is so
obviously selected holds which are open and others which are not. John’s sudden
loss of memory or omission of his breech of trust to me, his late coming to my
leadership, his absence at a crucial meeting on the offshore with then Finance
minister Michael Wilson, the just-referenced meeting in my office, are some of
the holds that are barred. Yet he remembers I was elected secretary of the Green
Bay Liberal Association. By the way, it really was vice-president! When one
chooses such a title for a book, it’s open season I’m afraid.

And, of course, no one could make a political decision on their
own if associated with John, since he knew all. For example, in his book in
referencing the Green Bay Riding Association meeting where I was elected
vice-president, John goes on to say, “Like thousands of other Liberals he
followed me into the Conservative party” (p. 78). There’s the arrogance for
you—and untrue. I had joined the PC Party before John and at the time phoned and
told him so. Similarly, in speaking of his federal leadership plans, he says: “I
had made a point of getting Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford on my side . .
.” meaning, I suppose, there was work to be done to get my support (p. 209).
There was never any doubt about my support even if I was privately reluctant—he
was from Newfoundland and being loyal to the province and potentially having a
Newfoundlander prime minister far overshadowed other concerns at the time. And
John knew that.

The book is full of personal attacks. On page 239 he references “the
ruthlessness of Brian Peckford,” but shows an absence of evidence to
substantiate such an appellation. The greatest sin, you see, was to oppose John
Crosbie on anything. He took that personally because in his mind he was always
right, so how could anyone have a credible opposing view (not unlike Mr.
Trudeau)? Unlike both Moores and Mulroney, where it was possible to hold an
opposing view on one thing but work cooperatively on other things, Crosbie could
not engage in such activity. This, then, often led to hyperbole, such as when he
labels me on page 354 as “selfish and ungrateful.” Funny how Ottawa so quickly
federalizes people. Ironically, John had fallen into the Smallwoodian mindset of
Ottawa’s manna from heaven theme; we were given things from Ottawa, never
entitled to them. And don’t dare criticize on an issue if you had achieved
something for the province on another unrelated issue.

On page 55 he goes so far as to say he “wanted to wreak vengeance on them
[Peckford and Wells] and their miserable governments for their appalling
attitudes.” This is pretty strong stuff, since it is not much of a mental
stretch to conclude that he was also insulting the people of the province. It’s
reminiscent of his outbursts later in Marystown and St. John’s over the fishery;
Marystown concerning his support of some mainland corporate interests and the
other when he was announcing the northern cod moratorium as minister of
Fisheries.

On page 355 he states that I wanted to bar non-Newfoundlanders
from fishing for northern cod. Wrong! The policy was Newfoundlanders first,
because of the principles of adjacency and historic use, principles well
recognized around the world; if after this was achieved there were still fish
available, then other Canadians. He criticizes me for trying to get the best
deals possible for the reopening of the Come By Chance refinery and the Lower
Churchill. I plead guilty!

Need I say more?

Frank was different. Crosbie and Moores came from wealthy families, both drank
a lot—Moores, his Scotch, Crosbie, the dark rum— attended private schools in
Upper Canada, and were used to getting their own way. After that the
similarities ceased. Frank was easygoing where Crosbie was serious; Frank liked
a frolicking good time, Crosbie a no-show for such things; Frank his many women,
Crosbie devoted to Jane; and Frank an aversion to hard work, Crosbie attracted
to it.