NS Politics: NDP hides Donkin comments, claim Conservatives

[SYDNEY, NS] — The gloves are clearly off in the 2009 provincial election campaign. The latest example of the end of niceties involves a Progressive Conservative allegation that the NDP does not support the opening of the Donkin Mine.

The claim relates to comments made by NDP MLA Howard Epstein at the Ecology Action Centre debate in Halifax, May 26. During that debate, the Conservatives claim Epstein told the audience he thinks “the mining of coal quite clearly has a history of danger associated with it, and ill-health along with the environmental implications. So I would say we are going to have to look very hard and carefully at any underground mine.”

The video of the debate is now available on the Youtube website, but Epstein’s comments can’t be found on it. The Conservatives say the NDP arranged the videotaping of the debate and then withheld comments on the Donkin mine from it. The situation shows the NDP want to hide their position on the mine, according to Cape Breton West MLA Alfie MacLeod in a draft of a press release sent to the Cape Breton Post by Glace Bay PC candidate Tom MacPherson.

“The Donkin mine is a major economic initiative in Cape Breton and the Halifax-based NDP want to stop it,” said MacLeod.

Cape Breton Centre MLA Frank Corbett, who is the NDP’s energy critic, has not seen the video in question, nor has he talked to Epstein about what he may or may not have said during the debate. At the end of the day, he said it is only comments from the leader of the NDP that matter. “It is Darrell Dexter’s position and mine that we support the opening of Donkin Mine. It is as simple as that.”

Corbett called the whole situation the work of desperate politicians trying to make things up at the end of the campaign. “The Tories did this last time, brought up things where they take a quote out of context and see what happens with it. I’m here to tell you as the energy critic, as someone who grew up in a coal mining town, that we support unequivocally the opening of Donkin Mine.”