Patronus' Return from Parliament and an Appellate Court

...well maybe of the "model" and "moot" variety respectively, but hey, it's a start. The paucity of blog-related productivity this week resulted from my co-organisation of the wildly successful revival of Nova Scotia Model Parliament to my very first opportunity to represent an allegedly heartless financial institution on appeal at Dalhousie Moot Court.

Alas, in returning to my daily ritual of sifting through the multitudinous online news publications piquing my interest, I found a Toronto Star article reporting Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara's dramatic production at a House of Commons subcommittee last week.

In case you haven't been following Ontario politics recently, both the minister and Premier Dalton McGuinty have, like the 13-year-old kid in the schoolyard picking on the 9-year-old kid on crutches, have been attacking Newfoundland vicariously through Ottawa on account of the recent deal inked to give that province as well as Nova Scotia full access to both provinces' offshore resource revenue (which present the single biggest opportunity in decades to wean both provinces off the teat of federal government largesse).

While I expect this from a provincial government dominated by such B-team players, I am disappointed that Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory is crying the same tune. What is even more distressing are his comments about federal Conservative Leader Stephen Harper:

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, who also testified before the committee, said it is obvious that none of the federal parties is standing up for the province. "There's nobody up there who seems to be trumpeting Ontario's case," said Tory, expressing "surprise to the degree to which I don't talk all that often" to federal Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

Never mind that attacking his federal cousins offers no discernable political benefit to his provincial party. Never mind that the lacklustre governance of the Ontario Liberals offers a permanent target to attack for electoral gain. Never mind that Harper's support for an offshore deal for those Atlantic Provinces will eventually result in less dependance on the revenue redistribution on which they currently depend and which is primarily funded by Ontario.

Not only is it bad form to attack the federal leader of your party--it's even poorer form to do so when the reason for which you attack him is one which will free your province from the very fiscal shackles you so decry.