HE SHOOTS, HE CONFUSES

Sometimes, a star hockey player just has the touch. The puck goes in
the net: it seems to have eyes.

But the next season is a different story; it's not that there=92s a
different player on the ice, it's just that they aren=92t the same.

The goals don't come; a scorer=92s touch becomes hands of cement. The
player winds up losing the confidence that made everything look easy.

And that's when things go a bit weird.

The player tries a different stick, new gloves, different skates. When
things go a little bit right, the player starts believing in rituals --
tapping the goal posts, butting heads with the goalie, eating the same
pre-game meal, every time.

A coach might say the player's trying too hard. The fact is, there are
so many things going on, so many variables, that it's hard to know
what the wrong turn is. Things are going all over the place.

The player has lost touch with his art.

Well, it happens with governments, too.

And perhaps that's where we are with Premier Roger Grimes, and his
curious pronouncement that the federal government should legalize
marijuana and open up factories to produce the drug.

It's an interesting idea, but one that=92s going to stir up a hopeless
bees' nest. And it=92s being proposed by someone who doesn=92t even have a
voice in the federal debate about decriminalization or legalization of
the drug.

And he just didn't need to go there -- Grimes could have supported the
federal plan to deal with marijuana, or he could have stayed out of
the mix. Instead, Grimes will bring down on himself any number of
criticisms for an issue that he really shouldn't be criticized about.

His comments Thursday are yet another example of a government trying
to connect to voters it seems to believe it has lost. It's tough to
watch, because this is a government that has had people who knew just
what the public pulse feels like; now they're afraid they can=92t find
that reassuring thump. The government is active, but the activity is
frenetic, going in all directions at once.

Harbour cleanup, the proposed super-dump garbage facility for the northeast

Avalon, the new forestry deal with
Abitibi-Price for forestry leases, new legislation about fish pricing,
the mining act, and on and on. It's madly off in all directions.

There are announcements going everywhere -- seven ministerial
statements on Nov. 18 alone in the House of Assembly, 16 in that
four-day House of Assembly week. The administration seems intent to
stun the electorate with action.

But the overall effect isn't one of an active government; it=92s more
like ducking for cover when a crowd of gun-toting desperados rides
through town firing their pistols in the air.

Or like watching a hockey player who felt he had to shoot, every
single time he got the puck.

A coach might tell that player to calm down, back off, and try to find
the equilibrium again.

He might say, fix one thing at a time; focus on the parts of the game
that are going right and leave the rest alone to try and cure themselves.

It's not bad advice.