Harper, Williams Displaying Symptoms of Conservative Foot in Mouth Disease

Unless you've been living under a rock (or possibly in Toronto) you have heard that Danny Williams, premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, does not like Stephen Harper. I'm not sure "Steve" is all too fond of Danny, either.

For those of you emerging from under the rock (no Newfoundland puns intended) the storyline goes something like this:

Newfoundland finds lots of oil. Newfoundland makes plans to develop oil. Suddenly their economic outlook brightens.
Ontario and Quebec take economic hits in manufacturing. Western provinces are booming as usual.
The Maritime provinces remain in their constant precarious state (the culture of defeat, according to Harper).
Earlier this year, Harper decides to revamp the equalization payment formula to reflect the changes noted above. Danny doesn't like it.

I can understand how Williams feels. After years of barely keeping her head out of the water, Newfoundland and Labrador was set for a substantial financial windfall. Time to pay off some of that crippling debt, do a little infrastructure work, and hey, maybe even have a little fun. I feel the same way when I look at the opening line of my income tax statement.

Of course, I can see the other side of the coin as well. The old debate about have/have not provinces has been kicked, beaten, flogged, buried, exhumed, beaten some more, and re-buried more times than I can count. More importantly, federal transfer payments aren't really an issue in this election. Well, except to Danny Williams.

Part of me finds this personal vendetta amusing, but overall I think it's damaging, particularly to the Conservative party. Danny Williams may be a conservative provincially but he was, until he started this mess, a frontrunner to follow Harper as leader of the federal Conservatives. Maritimers like him, and a great number of former Maritimers now living in western Canada like him as well. Standing up to Harper brought him positive attention on a national scale in March. He knows how to make money, he knows how to speak, and he knows how to make enemies.

This current ABC campaign is anything but positive. Not only does it foster the deep rifts separating Canada's diverse regions, it has the potential to cause rifts among Conservative supporters.

The only reason Stephen Harper was able to form a minority government (outside of the best Liberal attempts to bury themselves in scandal) was the joining of the Canadian Alliance and PC parties. If the NDP, Liberals, and Greens were one party, they would hold a majority. The numbers are simple. What Williams is doing might separate that successful union.

Who knows? Maybe that is exactly what Williams intends to do. Perhaps he wants the Reform Party to head west on a wagon train and take the reins of the PC movement into his own hands.

All I can hope is that he knows what he is doing, because he is standing on very thin ice.