A culture of indifference

It was surprising enough when Bernard Lord chose to go on the offensive over Michael Malley's departure from the NB Cons rather than doing his best to ignore the story. But Lord's sudden, public response seems all the more out of character in light of the conclusions from New Brunswick's ombudsman about Lord's government:

"Although it is my hope that our recommendations will be taken seriously by the government, based on last year's experience, I am not optimistic," Bernard Richard writes in the 2004-2005 report, released on Monday.

"We practically had to plead with departments to provide us with responses to last year's recommendations and, when some finally did send us their comments, they were, to say the least, disappointing, or to put it more mildly, perfunctory."...

"In the case of our right to information recommendations and our attempt to obtain all relevant information from the Department of Family and Community Services when investigating complaints there, no one bothered to respond."

Predictably enough, Lord hadn't yet responded to Richard's report by the time CBC wrote its story.

It's hard to blame Richard for his skepticism as to whether or not the province's Cons will break their pattern of unresponsiveness. If only Richard had the ability to directly shift the balance of power in the Legislature, maybe he'd at least be able to push Lord into an angry attempt to justify the government's lack of action.