MP Seamus O’Regan says Premier Andrew Furey’s vacation at John Risley’s fishing lodge is much ado about nothing.
The trip was in July of last year, a few months before the first chatter around lifting the moratorium on wind projects, which happened this spring.
Risley is behind one of 31 such proposals currently before government.
O’Regan doesn’t deny how it all looks, but says it doesn’t matter as long as the proper process is followed.
He says he won’t “crucify” people for optics, noting the program is following meticulous, above-board stipulations which should be the focus, “not who fished with who.”
Furey is defending the fishing trip he took with his father, Senator George Furey, the Speaker of the Upper Chamber, saying it was on their dime and private time. Risley was also there at the same time for at least one day, but the premier insists they did not talk about wind projects.
Meanwhile, an associate professor of political science at Memorial University is criticizing Premier Furey’s defence of the trip.
Kelly Blidook says the Premier’s response shows that he doesn’t feel like the transparency of his actions, which include energy interests and Liberal donors, is warranted.
Blidook says the only reason he can see for that is the Premier not wanting people to be aware of an ethical problem he’s creating. He says Furey is giving the impression that he has done the province a favour by becoming premier and people should be thankful regardless of how he behaves, which calls into question whether Furey is “cut out for the position” because he doesn’t seem to grasp that there is a problem.