I remember Romeo LeBlanc as a quiet, scholarly, unpretentious gentleman. The first time we met was nearly thirty years ago when he was Minister of Fisheries. The next time I was introduced to him by my father in a shopping aisle at the Shediac Coop.

In 1959 he became a full-time journalist as a public affairs correspondent with Radio Canada in Ottawa. A year later he was promoted to the Press gallery. My father was a member of the Press Gallery at the time representing the Toronto Star. They would both go on to work for the late Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.

In 1965 Romeo was founding President of the CBC Radio-Canada Foreign Correspondents Association. That year he was posted to Washington, where he was accredited to the Pentagon and the White House and accompanied President Lyndon Johnson on his visit to Vietnam.

While Mr. LeBlanc was Governor General, some New Brunswick friends and I were invited guests at Rideau Hall. I remember being taken into his office. He seemed embarrassed by its opulence but he was a gracious host. When Mr. LeBlanc came back to New Brunswick, a bunch of us would meet occasionally at his Grand Digue home for dinner and conversation. He often helped with the cooking but more significantly he would actually serve his guests. I used to marvel at this guy – former Cabinet Minister, Senator and Governor General, quietly serving dinner to a bunch of friends. He loved to talk politics. He was a great listener and he respected the opinions of others.

One time, he told me about his early days going to school. At the time, he was unilingual French, placed in an English-only school where he had to learn English to access his coursework. Over time, he became perfectly bilingual and went on to excel in school graduating from l'Université St-Joseph, Memramcook (predecessor of the l'Université de Moncton) with a Bachelor of Arts degree and later a Bachelor of Education. After teaching for a few years, he went on to study French Civilization at l'Université de Paris (Sorbonne). Ironically, he capped his career as Chancellor of l' Université de Moncton.

Understandably, Mr. LeBlanc was very sensitive about language but he was also very respectful of other people's language. For example, he would always address me in English, regardless of who else might be in his company. In a group of people, if one of them was English-speaking, he would include them in the conversation by speaking English or translating when it was appropriate. It was only in his later years as his health faded that he would revert back to his first language in mixed company.

Romeo was good man and proud of his kids. He was particularly supportive of his son Dominic's career in politics and loved to hear the latest political gossip from Ottawa. As he loved his children, he was revered by the fishing community. Romeo LeBlanc was Canada's longest-serving fisheries minister. On July 23, 1975, Roméo LeBlanc made national headlines by closing Canadian ports to Soviet fishing vessels and warning Spain and Portugal that the same could happen to them. It was a thunderbolt.

After much huffing and puffing The Soviets came to agree with Canada and supported a 40% catch reduction below 1972/73 levels and the two governments finalized a bilateral fisheries arrangement in May 1976. Poland had concluded a bilateral agreement a few days earlier and Spain and Portugal followed suit in June and July. These countries together with Norway accounted for 88% of the foreign fishing off Canada and they had agreed in advance to accept extended jurisdiction.

Mr. LeBlanc helped create Canada's 200-mile fishing limit and helped shape the international Law of the Sea on fisheries. In 1976, the United States announced that it would enact a 200 mile limit in March 1977. On November 2, 1976, Roméo LeBlanc beat them to the punch and announced that the Canadian Government would extend jurisdiction to 200 miles as of January 1, 1977.

Conservation and resource-management under Mr. LeBlanc's stewardship created strong growth in the fishery in the late 1970s and early 1980s and he won a lasting reputation as a friend of the fishermen becoming known as the "Minister of Fishermen".

Roméo LeBlanc's life took him from a small hamlet in New Brunswick, Cormier's Cove, to Rideau Hall as Canada's 25^th Governor-General. He was the first Acadian to become Governor General and the first Maritimer to hold that office.

Romeo LeBlanc was a great Canadian and an outstanding representative of the Acadian people. He was a little boy from Cormier's Cove, near Memramcook who left a large footprint. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com

The global financial crisis, recession, rising unemployment, corporate restructurings, credit crunches and government stimulus are the order of the day in the United States, Canada and around the world. They are also the order of the day in New Brunswick. If you put stock in the letters to the Editor that I read in New Brunswick's daily newspapers, residents of this province are oblivious to all of the above. Everyone wants more and nobody seems willing to accept cuts or freezes or changes to their lifestyle.

Our own media, opposition politicians and public speakers criticize the Government at every turn. Loan guarantees that preserve jobs or enable growth are characterized as bailouts. Doctors resist wage freezes in a below zero inflation environment. Teachers resist the notion of one extra student per class so teachers' aides, classroom interventionists and librarians can be set adrift. Fishermen want help because market prices have fallen. Forestry companies seek bankruptcy protection to enable them to reorganize their businesses and on it goes.

So what's really going on here? Are people just afraid and lash out from their point of fear? Did the notion of "self-sufficiency" create unrealistic expectations? Do people resist cuts to services because they are delivered against a backdrop of tax-cuts and the unfortunate perception that strategic investments in corporate sustainability are nothing more than bailouts for the wealthy? Do people resist change because change is being delivered in the middle of a "perfect storm"?

I think the answer will be found in all of the above. Fear does strange things to the mind often leading to unexplainable behaviours. Self-sufficiency is an unexplained concept so it is easy to blame for all that ails you. Tax-cuts are perceived as benefits for the wealthy so why should I give up my librarian to put money in someone else's pocket. People tend to view corporate investments or government-assumed corporate risk as bad unless it is their employer who is being helped. People perceive their "entitlements" being sacrificed to someone or something else. There is also a bit of "shoot the messenger" going on here, inflamed by the personalities of some who speak for government.

In my view, all of the above has combined to create the perfect storm. Global events have combined to fashion an underlying fear of the future. Some of the bedrocks of our economy have crashed – think General Motors, Chrysler and Fraser Papers here at home. Crisis in the global financial industry has caused our banks to tighten their credit requirements and made it more difficult and sometimes impossible for businesses to borrow money to finance their operations or grow their business.

Governments are losing tax revenue as sales decline and people lose their jobs. Government expenses are growing as demand for employment insurance and social assistance increase. Government spending is increasing as businesses find themselves in desperate need of help, pension funds require underwriting and the government attempts to stimulate the economy with new investments in infrastructure. None of this is self-inflicted or the fault of this government or any other government with the possible exception of the now departed Bush government.

The playing field has changed since 2006. The future is not as clear. Challenge has tempered optimism. Change has become fearful. Barack Obama has shifted the conversation from war to the economy, from growth to re-structuring, from desperation to hope. We have to get on the same page, do our part to fix the problem and then move back on the path to a more prosperous future. Today's challenges are everybody's problem. Preserving what's most important is essential but whining about the loss of non-essentials is counter-productive.

That begs the question: Is there anything that the Government of New Brunswick can do to re-kindle the spirit of New Brunswick and gain the full confidence of its people? In my view the answer is yes.

First acknowledge there is a crisis and explain that things are not and cannot be "business as usual". Second, acknowledge that while self-sufficiency is still the goal of this government, some of the measures that will lead to self-sufficiency may have to be put on hold for awhile. Next shuffle the cabinet to enable the following: (i) a suspension of tax-cuts until such time as the recession is over and the provincial deficit starts to decline (ii) prioritize spending to address, in order of priority: people, education, health, job protection and economic growth and (iii) find a way to better communicate to the public, interest groups and people in general what is happening in the world, in Canada, in New Brunswick, why it is happening, what can be done about it and what we are doing about it.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com

The NDP won an unprecedented victory in Nova Scotia this week, winning a majority 31 of 52 seats in the Provincial Legislature, the first time the NDP has been elected to form a provincial government east of Ontario.

The historic win by Darrell Dexter's New Democratic Party ends a decade of Progressive Conservative rule in Nova Scotia. Their share of the vote was 45.26%, with a whopping 54.3% share in Metro Halifax. The big downer in the election is that voter turnout appears to have declined from 61% to 59%, even though advance polls attracted 17% more voters this year than in 2006.

It would appear that two things helped the NDP to win its majority – voter determination to turf out the Conservative government (the change factor) and the apathy of voters (likely Conservatives) who stayed home, particularly in north eastern Nova Scotia (Antigonish, Colchester, Cumberland, Eastern Shore, Guysborough, Pictou, Truro) and the South Shore (Chester, Lunenburg, Shelburne)
where the Conservatives have been entrenched for decades. The NDP won 13 of 16 seats in these two regions of the province.

This is the first time since 2003 that Nova Scotia has had a majority government and it is the first time ever that more than 20% of the seats in the Provincial Legislature will be filled by women. Nine of the twelve women are NDP and they will likely play a significant role in Dexter's cabinet.

Are there any lessons for New Brunswick in this election? One might think so. It seems clear that Nova Scotia's voters wanted change. Historically, the NDP have not been electable in this region. Nova Scotia desire for change was more powerful than voter's concerns about the NDP. Dexter's platform was thin on promise. He wants to keep hospital emergency-rooms open and reduce wait times. He wants to remove the GST from home energy costs (oil, gas, electricity). He promised to provide up to $15,000 to university and college graduates who choose to stay in Nova Scotia.
He promised to create 2200 secure jobs.
He also promised to fix rural roads and live within the Province's means i.e. balance the Budget. In effect, nothing dramatic by way of change, he just promised not to ruffle feathers.

Compare that to New Brunswick where people are up in arms because contracts to build portable classrooms shuffle off to Buffalo (i.e. Ontario), where public servants have agreed to wage freezes while others refuse, where classrooms are losing teachers' aides and libraries are losing their librarians in the name of fiscal prudence. In reality, they are being sacrificed to ill-timed tax-cuts, public sector pension expenses and the stimulus spending necessary to help soften the impact of global recession.

The combination of a $300 million charge to underwrite public sector pension expenses, reduced tax revenues and the millions that will be invested in New Brunswick's stimulus program will produce an estimated deficit in the 2009/10 fiscal year of $740 million. The Government promises to reverse that situation and balance the budget in four years.

Some argue that tax-cuts will attract people and investment to New Brunswick; that tax cuts will help stimulate the economy and offset the loss of wage-increases for public sector employees. Let's examine these arguments. People are attracted to a location by secure, high-paying jobs and living considerations, not tax regimes. Investors are attracted to a location by a combination of tax regimes, low cost labour, skilled labour, availability of natural resources and proximity to markets.

Lower taxes are a great thing for tax-payers but lower taxes will not get the province out of its deficit circumstance. The question then becomes personal. Will lower taxes compensate public servants (read doctors) for wage freezes? Consider that a person with taxable income of $100,000 a year will save $3,076 over the next four years from cuts to our provincial income tax. A 2% wage increase for the same person could put $3,636 after-tax dollars in their pocket over the same period. Six of one, half a dozen of the other! Folks, let's resolve this issue and move on.

The bigger issue for me is the damage to our education system that could result from the removal of teachers' aides from the classroom or the damage that could be done to literacy by removing librarians from our schools, by closing libraries or by consolidating the libraries of three or four schools into one. Most kids will not or cannot travel to another school in search of a library book or material for a class project.

Kelly Lamrock points to the province's "dire financial situation" as reason for these cuts and promises to restore the lost support positions if "revenues start growing again. That's not good enough. Our kids can't wait.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com