TOBIN AND VERGE : THE COLLISION COURSE
The anointment of Brian Tobin as Liberal savior and Newfoundland Premier is all but complete. The federal member of parliament for Corner Brook is leaving his post to replace another Corner Brook politician as premier. Perhaps he should take some counsel from Clyde Wells as to the nature of the opposition he will face across the floor of the House of Assembly when he finds his seat. Opposition Leader Lynn Verge is no pushover and she has the political scalps on her belt to prove it. The outgoing premier will remember well his ill-taken decision to challenge his former articling student in her incumbent Corner Brook riding in the 1989 election. Wells won the government but Verge won the seat. Only some fancy and vintage Liberal two-stepping opened up the Bay of Islands district for the brand-new and seatless Premier.
Now the same seat is to be vacated by the retiring Premier and it is likely to be the immediate home base of the former fisheries minister. This will place both Premier and Opposition Leader in adjacent ridings and it sets the scene for one of the most intriguing provincial elections in recent Newfoundland history. In fact the last election with this kind of dramatic appeal was the 1979 campaign that saw another Liberal Leviathan descend from Ottawa to the tarmac of Torbay Airport to lead the troops against the terrible Tories. That election ended unhappily for Don Jamieson and his party as Brian Peckford stepped forward at the head of the P.C. party and gained the first of three consecutive majority governments.
Now Tobin has the Premier's chair and the experience of working the back-rooms in Jamieson's 1979 debacle. He also has two years of being Captain Canada to go along with 15 years of federal cheque-writing expertise. Verge has 16 years of provincial experience as a sitting member and the reputation as a slayer of large political dragons. She will be the underdog in this fight but she has never lost a battle on the political hustings of Corner Brook. This will be a battle royal .