Compulsive

We hardly needed another reminder of how far removed from reality the federal Cons tend to be. But the CP offers one anyway, reporting that Con MP Gerald Keddy couldn't even accept a personal compliment from Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald without taking the opportunity to pretend that Canada's No-Credibility Government had done something it hadn't:

Nova Scotia's premier is contradicting comments from federal Conservative MP Gerald Keddy that a deal on offshore oil and gas revenues is near.

The MP from the province's south shore made the comment on Tuesday to The Chronicle-Herald, after Premier Rodney MacDonald went out of his way to thank the federal politician for his hard work on the Atlantic accord.

Several hours after MacDonald's speech to the Bridgewater and Area Chamber of Commerce, Keddy said: "I think we're very close (to an agreement). I think the premier realizes we're very close."

"The worst thing that could happen right now is to raise the rhetoric rather than lower it."

However, on Wednesday the premier said he was surpised to read of Keddy's views because the province has not made progress on the controversial file.

"I was quite shocked, to be quite honest with you, because we haven't made progress in a couple of months," he said following a cabinet meeting.

Of course, given Keddy's apparent lack of credibility when it comes to the status of negotiations, it shouldn't be long before MacDonald has to start wondering as well whether Keddy has been working as hard as he may have claimed. But it's all the more clear that MacDonald is right not to trust Deceivin' Stephen and his crew - and that there's every reason for Nova Scotians generally to follow suit.