T.J. Burke’s missing blog
Let me say for the record that I think a lot of New Brunswick’s “Blogger General”, N.B. Cabinet Minister T.J. Burke. Since being elected in 2003, he’s matured as a politician, MLA and eventually as a Cabinet Minister. He leaves me with the impression that he’s the kind of guy who sits at cabinet meetings and when everyone else is nodding heads, he jumps in with, “New Brunswickers aren’t going to like this because….” I’m left with that impression because since joining the blogosphere, he’s written some great blogs. These aren’t regurgitations of Liberal news releases or self-congratulatory statements of how fine looking the Premier was today. These are clearly from the heart.
So I wasn’t all that surprised a few weeks ago when Mr. Burke obviously got his property tax bill and went “Whoa, this is ridiculous.” (actually the quote was that property taxes “suck”. See NB Taxpayer for his take.)
But now that plain lingo blog is gone. Zapped from his blog. Why? I have no idea. I can speculate that someone strongly suggested Cabinet Ministers shouldn’t be writing that their property taxes “suck” to he was directed to remove it. For some reason known only to him, the blog is now gone but I’m doubtful if T.J. thinks property taxes suck any less. He was right the first time and that kind of frank talk from our politicians is long overdue. I’m sorry to see he felt the need to remove the blog.
Update - The missing blog in question for your perusal. Why couldn't whoever put the pressure on T.J. to remove the blog realize they were just shooting the messenger and actually deal with the issue instead of wasting time to have it removed? The issue remains whether a Cabinet Minister is told to shut up about it or not.
