Boxed In

My first thought after reading Dan Lett’s February 4, 2008 article was that Doug Schweitzer has just been boxed in.  Lett ponders whether or not Doug is in the game for the long haul or whether this is just a “career-boosting stop on the way to greater fortune in the private sector.”  This article would inadvertently seem to give ammo to the NDP should Doug leave anytime before the next election.  After all, it would reaffirm the stereotypes that Tories are all career opportunists hellbent on laying waste to anything if it is in their own interests to do so.

 

Doug’s performance in his new position should be evaluated on what he delivers for the party, not the timeframe he chooses to deliver it in.  Results are far more important than the tired notion of seniority ever will be.  So let’s put down the stopwatch and see what Doug actually achieves before judging him.

 

Lett coins the term “pit-stop professional” to describe someone whose employment isn’t predicated on perpetuity.  Would he also use this term to depict the endless litany of personalities that have come and gone from his very own paper?  Nicholas Hirst, Murdoch Davis & Andrew Ritchie are but a few that have come and gone in the past few years.  Are the "new faces" of the paper little more than lipstick and rouge if they aren’t around for the long haul, to use some of Lett’s own verbiage?  I would like to think Winnipeggers are getting the best quality newspaper the Free Press can deliver – should there be any reasons to think otherwise?