Beware of crazy eyebrows

Kelvin Parsons, Opposition Natural Resources Critic and MHA for the District Burgeo-Lapoile, really showed us, and this government, what he's made of.

First a bit of background: on Monday Premier Danny Williams appointed his good friend, Bill Fanning, the CEO and chief operating officer and general manager of Spectrol Energy Services, to the Board of the Bull Arm Site Corporation.

Mr. Fanning is not only the Premier's business colleague (Premier Williams is a major shareholder in Spectrol), he is also the trustee of the Premier's business assets, including his oil and gas related business assets.

Bull arm is the largest oil/gas related infrastructure facility in the province and will be the center of any oil/gas development work in the future.

You can just imagine all the different ways that this creates conflict of interest as the Premier maneuvers his business interests, through this appointment, into a position of advantage.

One would think the official opposition would be all over this like white on rice.

But one would be wrong.

Instead, Mr. Kelvin Parsons merely complains that the appointment is "questionable". Apparently it's not reprehensible, self-interested, self-gratifying, self-enriching, self-advantaging, morally wrong, approaching corruption or any other of the possible accurate descriptions he could have used.

It's merely "questionable".

Then he really drove the nail in the coffin with the sparkling CBC radio interview this afternoon where he let loose a thundering condemnation that this appointment "raised eyebrows".

I guess we better all watch out for those raised eyebrows. I bet those raised eyebrows are used to devastating effect in the House. Little wonder the Premier puts off opening the House as late as possible - he's afraid of those raised eyebrows.

If this matter is "questionable", then are you planning to actually ask the questions? Or is merely pointing out that one could question the appointment, if one was inclined to do so, sufficient to deal with this issue?

Or has the matter been laid to rest with a single arch of those nasty raised eyebrows?