25 Oct Progress

The June 9 general election saw a new party take power in Nova Scotia. It bears comment that, to the best of Contrarian‘s knowledge, not a single highway worker lost his job as a result, and this non-massacre occurred without notice.

On September 20, 1978, the day after John Buchanan defeated Gerald Regan, many highway workers didn’t bother to show up for work. It went without saying that Tory sympathizers would take over their jobs.

The next time government changed hands, in 1993, Liberal hacks were so infuriated at John Savage’s refusal to cleanse highway garages of Tory hires, they eventually hounded him out of office in favor of the more patronage-amenable Russell MacLellan.

John Hamm wisely resisted partisan bloodlust when he took power in 1999.

Ten years later, it doesn’t even occur to anyone that a highway foreman’s job might depend on party affiliation.