If Mr. McQueen wants to discuss representation, perhaps he would tell us whom the two new board members of the Port Authority represent. He could also tell us how Minister Baird got around to increasing the size of the board. He might even reveal why two new board members are needed on the board of a port authority that sits way down the list of Canadian ports in terms of shipping.

Mr. McQueen was at one time an operative in the prime minister’s office under conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney and that Mr. McQueen according to public documents is a contributor to both provincial and federal conservative parties. A conservative federal government appointed Mr. McQueen to his seat on the TPA board.

Questions arise. Was Mr. McQueen’s hand in Mr. Baird’s decision? Did Mr. McQueen sound the tocsin out of concern that his fellow federal appointees were losing control of the board? Did Mr. McQueen call on his Ottawa cronies to change the TPA’s Letters Patent to allow for these latest appointments? With his concern about Mr. Vaughan’s representation, who, other than an Ottawa elite, does Mr. McQueen represent?

Should Mr. McQueen deign to respond to this posting, I sincerely hope that he does so with comments that give some insight into the decision to add more TPA board members and how the appointments are in any way representative of anything more than conservative government machinations.

Bob Kotyk