Mr. Pallister's season in the sun

I can't resist commenting on the recent revelations that Brian Pallister, the Conservative Premier of Manitoba, is spending long, and increasing, lengths of time in Costa Rica, particularly during the brutal Manitoba winter. Manitoba is really not an important province, in the scheme of things, but such behaviour is unprecedented and has raised eyebrows around the country.

When I say "long", he spent 34 days in the balmy Central American country last year, and apparently he plans to go for 6 to 8 weeks this year. He must have enjoyed it. And this is not just vacation time, although even that would have been unprecedented. This is, supposedly, work time. According to his office: "The Premier finds it effective to spend time away from sessional responsibilities of his office in a space where he able to focus uninterrupted attention on policy documents, research material and speech-writing". I'll just bet he does. Also, he prefers not to use email while way on these jaunts, preferring phone and snail-mail, "to ensure that the urgent does not overtake the important" (whatever THAT might mean). Apparently, he would return to Manitoba immediately if there were to be some sort of an emergency, though, which is good of him.

Pallister won a landslide election in Manitoba last year, ending 17 years of NDP leadership. I can imagine a good many Manitobans rueing their little experiment with Conservatism right now.

UPDATE
It was -33°C the other day in Winnipeg, -46°C with the windchill. You could almost forgive Pallister. Almost, but not quite.

UPDATE
For a more detailed glimpse into how Pallister spends his tropical time, see here.