By George Stephenson

OK, Hughie, this one is going on your permanent record!

Provincial Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen must be a true believer when it comes to that ‘50s-style, kid-scaring, future-threatening, high school bogeyman – the permanent record.

Yes, the permanent record, sleeping in some cold, dank cave waiting to strike when one least expects it, even 20 or 30 years down the road.

Come the next provincial election we should expect to see McFadyen’s transcripts from high school and believe that they are somehow relevant to his ability to be premier of Manitoba.

As they say on Law and Order, he opened the door.

When Premier Gary Doer appointed Andrew Swan to the cabinet in February, McFadyen had the typical, rote criticism of an Opposition leader, but added that Swan was a former classmate in high school and, well, “he didn’t do particularly well in English.”

Huh? He didn’t do well in English?

Well, there you go, the birth of a new way to determine political acceptability – the high school transcript. No matter that Swan went on to university and became a lawyer. At one time he supposedly was somewhat befuddled in determining when a verb is in the subjunctive mood. This obviously would leave anyone totally unprepared for, well, the rest of their lives.

No doubt McFadyen was trying to be humourous or provide some threadbare imitation of humour, but maybe his time travelling has some merit.

There’s no doubt what happens in public school has some effect on what happens to a person in later life. One could speculate McFadyen holds a grudge from high school because somebody back then stretched the neck on his sweater vest or kicked dirt on his white shoes.

If McFadyen ever becomes premier we should be demanding to see the permanent files on him and anyone he appoints to cabinet.

We should know whether the next minister responsible for the liquor control commission was ever involved in, if not organized, the end-of-year kegger. We have a right to be told how much school the minister of health missed because of the sniffles.
And the justice minister? Was he the bully or the bullied?

As for being premier, anything goes. It’s all relevant. Did they hang with the cool group? Jocks? Goth? Any piercings, visible or otherwise? Would they be more at home as part of the Breakfast Club or the chess club?

We already have a brief glimpse. In commenting on Swan’s supposed problems in English, McFadyen allowed that he had some difficulty with physics. And that should be troublesome for a politician trying to unseat a popular premier.

As Newton’s law of motion assert:

• An object that is not moving will not move until a force acts upon it.
• An object that is in motion will not change velocity (including stopping) until a force acts upon it.

So, until McFadyen becomes a force (beyond commenting on high school grade scores), the velocity of the current government will no doubt remain unchanged.

            Back to the books, Hugh.