The Virus of Ambition

Thomas Mulcair is anxious to portray himself as hugely available as the next prime minister of Canada. He hasn't been getting too much news coverage lately. So what does a leader of the Official Opposition do when interest in his governing capabilities and skills has waned? Why, take advantage of public relations opportunities that present themselves to remind voters that he's there, and prepared to lead. Since it is obvious that the current Conservative-led government has failed so miserably.

Serendipity seemed to beckon Thomas Mulcair, through a cataclysmic event that brought dreadful tragedy to a small town in Quebec, the very province where the NDP made their astonishing break-through to leave the Liberal Party in the dust of public apathy and the NDP a rising star outvoting the Bloc Quebecois in the tenuously inflated popular appeal of a national party prepared to deliver a majority vote of 51% to sovereignty.

Since the catastrophe of a trail derailment occurred in Lac Megantic, it was on NDP political turf, and the appeal to Mr. Mulcair of slagging the government, holding it responsible, through an accusation of funding cuts for safety obviously seemed irresistible. Except that regulations have not been eased, nor has funding, and now Mr. Mulcair has backtracked, denying that he ever made any such allegations: "I've been prudent not to draw the exact link", he recused himself. "You won't find that quote from me. It doesn't reflect anything I said."

It's just that the PQ virus got the better of him; much as Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, slyly implies that it is she and her party and most certainly not the federal government that has the best interests of Quebecers at heart, and it is her heart that is broken; the rest of Canada be damned and left behind in an independent Quebec, too long arriving. Partisanship at the crudest, most vividly inappropriate time, self-serving and nasty, coming back to bite his hind-end.

In France, to solidify his bona fides, as an upcoming colleague to socialist President Francois Hollande, just in time to witness France upset by a train wreck at Bretigny-sur Orge station on Friday, a week following the tragedy at Lac Megantic.  In Paris, Mr. Mulcair held his counsel, raised no allegations of government malfeasance in allocating responsibility for the deadliest train crash in France. Where President Hollande did not in fact, appear on the scene, but remained in Paris.

Paul Chiasson/The Canadian PressPrime Minister Harper meets with firefighters on Sunday, July 7, 2013 in Lac Megantic, Que.

Unlike Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who did indeed travel to Lac Megantic to provide whatever solace he could to the townspeople, assuring them that the federal government would do its part to aid in the town's reconstruction, and expressing his profound condolences. The president of the SNCF rail authority, Guillaume Pepy, offered his regrets as well: "The first thought we all have is one of solidarity toward the victims".

Six people dead, dozens injured when the train carrying 385 passengers derailed and crashed into the station at Bretigny-sur-Orge, some 20 kilometres south of Paris -- too distant for President Hollande to make an appearance.  A metal bar connecting two rails had become detached at points 200m outside the station, according to a spokesperson for the French state rail company.

"It moved into the centre of the switch and in this position it prevented the normal passage of the train's wheels and it may have caused the derailment", said SNCF's general manager for infrastructure, Pierre Izard. Causing carriages to be tossed off the tracks, one of which mounted a platform as the train passed through the station at 137km/hr (85mph).

An accident, but clearly preventive maintenance was an issue here, although ongoing investigation will surely come to a more concise explanation for the crash. Just as will occur at Lac Megantic. Mr. Mulcair's initial claims of government responsibility appear to thoroughly ignore the reality that due to legislation enacted by the government and greater vigilance by rail companies accidents have been greatly reduced in incidence over the past few years.

This one was obviously an accident waiting to happen; a confluence of too many issues, each of which represented a fault of some kind. The engineer who passed off lightly a comment made by a taxi driver noticing unusual exhaust from the train's steam exhaust with oil droplets, presaging the fire that erupted shortly afterward. That the train was parked on a main line on a steep incline with no derailment device on the track.

This investigation too will track the events that culminated in the tragedy that hit Lac Megantic. It will validate that there was human error, there was mechanical failure because the air brakes should have held, and perhaps some of the mechanical brakes were faulty, and surely the crude oil should have been shipped in better-armoured conveyors that would not pierce so readily? In the end, a tragic, perhaps unavoidable under the circumstances, accident.