'I should have spilled my guts'.
herald.ns.ca
Chisholm's '76 drunk-driving conviction creates political storm
By Cameron MacKeen and Brian Underhill / Staff Reporters
NDP Leader Robert Chisholm was forced Friday to defend his failure to come clean about a 1976 drunk-driving conviction.
The revelation that Mr. Chisholm refused to disclose the charge when asked about three weeks ago if he had broken any laws threw the NDP campaign off track just days before Tuesday's election.
"In hindsight, I guess, I should have spilled my guts and told . . . all the details, but frankly, and I don't mind telling ya, this is not something I want to spread around," he said in an interview Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the day he was continually asked about the matter after releasing campaign statements on accountability and transparency outside Province House.
"Perhaps I should have been more forthcoming," Mr. Chisholm repeated over and over in response to reporters' questions.
The incident happened, he said, when he was 19 and was driving back to a Bedford residence after a night of drinking.
"I made a huge mistake, and I paid the price for it," he said of the conviction that led to a six-month suspension of his licence.
In addition to not revealing the conviction when asked in a metro newspaper's leaders survey whether he had broken any laws, he also previously declined to tell this newspaper whether any NDP candidate had criminal convictions.
"I'm not at liberty to release it and neither is the party," he had stated.
That fuelled speculation the NDP leader was trying to cover up his past, something he denied Friday morning.
Mr. Chisholm did not want to speculate on what impact his reluctance to disclose will have on his credibility at a critical point in the campaign.
"I don't think it does, but Nova Scotians will have to decide. You know as I said before, I'm not very happy or very proud of the mistake I made; it's a big mistake, it's a huge mistake."
The reaction from two political scientists on the impact the revelation will have on the NDP campaign was mixed.
Premier Russell MacLellan and Tory Leader John Hamm have "accused the NDP of trying to play with a blank deck and I think this will just backfire against" the NDP, said Acadia University's Agar Adamson.
But University College of Cape Breton professor Jim Guy did not think the matter will become a major campaign issue.
"My feeling is this is really a minor incident in Robert Chisholm's political career."
The allegation also sparked accusations of Mr. Chisholm being a hypocrite because the party had prevented Derrick Burton from gaining the NDP nomination in Cape Breton North in part because he had a drunk-driving conviction.
However, Mr. Chisholm said it was not the conviction that disqualified Mr. Burton's candidacy, but the fact he did not reveal it in confidential NDP disclosure forms that all prospective candidates must file with the party.
"I've disclosed through the confidential disclosure forms that the party completes. I made that (disclosure) as I expect other candidates to do," the NDP leader said.
Mr. Chisholm, who seemed deeply embarrassed by the charge, said he was reluctant to talk about the conviction because of the message it sends to young people.
"I have a daughter 11 years old and I'm very concerned about how I conduct myself and the kind of role model I am for Nova Scotians," he said.
Mr. Hamm said he's not interested in the private lives of his political rivals.
"In the last four days of the campaign, we should be talking about issues," he said Friday.
"We should be talking not about a mistake that Mr. Chisholm made as a teenager, because all of us made mistakes as teenagers."
Mr. MacLellan said the people of Nova Scotia will be the ones to judge Mr. Chisholm, not him.
"I've been saying for a long time what I think of the NDP," the premier said in Digby. "I don't think it's appropriate now for me to comment."
But later in the day, the premier decided to talk about it after all, making reference to one of the NDP's campaign slogans. "I've heard the line: 'Why should we believe you now?' " he said.
"We could now ask the same."
NDP activists were downplaying Mr. Chisholm's failure to disclose, but acknowledged he should have been more up front about it.
"It's the Bill Clinton thing all over again," said Kevin Ball, constituency president for Chester-St. Margarets.
"It may have been stupid, but it's really nobody's business. It has nothing to do with his ability to be a capable premier."
Mr. Chisholm also failed to disclose the fact he got a speeding ticket in 1995 in Barra Head, Richmond County, when asked earlier this month if he had broken any law.
In the survey, Mr. Chisholm's only response was: "When I was 16, I had just gotten my licence a couple of months before, and I got stopped for speeding. My dad had one of those great big Chrysler wagons with a 400-horsepower motor. Enough said."
With Amy Smith, Christine Doucet, David Jackson and Steve Maich, staff reporters |
