"There’s a time to be silent, a time to be a diplomat, and there’s a time to be strong and boisterous."
Question Period at Province House on Wednesday became raucous and resulted in the ejection of two MLAs, as most of the QP time was taken up in questions to Health & Wellness minsiter Leo Glavine about the government's failure to provide adequate physicians in Cape Breton, about the failure to resolve the issues surrounding the epidemic of closures of the Emergency Room at Roseway Hospital and about the inability for the government to move forward on the construction of a new medical centre in Shelburne.
MacLeod was ejected for refusing to withdraw his assertion that Glavine had not told the truth in his QP responses. Belliveau was ejected for his out-of-order comments about citizens in Shelburne/Queens being fed up with government inaction on health care issues in the riding.
Within hours, the fracas evolved into a fractious debate on the Shelburne Exchange Facebook page. Several readers supported Belliveau's efforts and several others were highly critical of his actions. Some of the critical comments included; "turned his back on us while he was in office"; "Sterling gets a huge FAIL on producing results"; "Too little too late."; "The time to git 'er dun was when his government was in power."
Several Facebook readers pleaded for Shelburne citizens to take a positive approach to health care dilemma, with one reader posting, "In my opinion its time to put partisan politics aside show some support for the man who is trying to do something. The events and decisions that have led to where we are span 8 years and multiple political parties. To get out of this mess will require a focused and united effort from people of all political stripes. Its time to lay down our arms and unite, for the good of Shelburne."
When asked via email for comments about what provoked his expulsion, Belliveau had this to say, "There’s a time to be silent, a time to be a diplomat, and there’s a time to be strong and boisterous. The people of Queen’s-Shelburne have had enough of the hollow promises made by the McNeil government about health services in the region. Citizens in the riding want their voices to be heard. In representing them, I wanted to make sure my voice was heard yesterday in the Legislature.”
In response to an SCT request for information regarding recent efforts by Belliveau regarding health care issues, his office supplied SCT with the following record from the Provincial Legislature, which showed nineteen items in a three-week period:
STATEMENTS about ER closures delivered by Sterling Belliveau in the House of Assembly
Spring 2016
QUESTIONS about ER closures, asked by Sterling Belliveau in the House of Assembly