HALIFAX - From the political opposition to the person in the street, Nova Scotians were wondering Monday what took Premier Rodney MacDonald so long to break off talks with Ottawa over the province's cherished offshore revenue deal.
MacDonald pulled the stunning reversal on Sunday, one day after a letter in a Halifax newspaper from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the federal government wasn't interested in doing any side deals just to win a few extra votes.
In response, an angry MacDonald accused Flaherty of "undermining'' negotiations with the province and called on Conservative MPs from his province to vote against a budget implementation bill, arguing it would alter the Atlantic accords on offshore revenues for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
But MacDonald's new hardline stance drew a less than enthusiastic thumbs up from some in Halifax because of the time it took for him to change his strategy.
"I think the premier needs to show a little bit more leadership and speak up earlier rather than being a follower,'' said Scott Ellison.
"It's a little late now ... but it would be nice to see him out ahead of the news instead of following it.''
Bev Hiscock agreed that MacDonald should have changed his tactics earlier.
"It should have been done a long time ago. He should have been fighting and urging the Nova Scotia MPs to vote against the budget right from day one,'' said Hiscock.
"It took him a long time coming around ... and it took a lot of coaching anyway,'' said Reg Forbes in a reference to maverick Nova Scotia MP Bill Casey.
Casey, the province's longest serving Tory MP, was dumped from the Conservative caucus last week after he voted against the budget bill, saying he couldn't support a document that altered the Atlantic accords.
"It's not lost on the premier that Nova Scotians are lining up four-square behind Bill Casey and his strong stand against this,'' said Michael MacMillan, a political scientist at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.
MacMillan added that the Conservative premier's switch would put additional pressure on Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, the province's only representative in cabinet.
"The pressures on him have been dramatically higher all along, and as long as he stays in cabinet the most he could do is keep his mouth shut and not make supportive comments on the government position.''
Nova Scotia's only other Conservative MP conceded this was a difficult time for Tories from the province.
"We're between a rock and a hard place,'' said Gerald Keddy.
Meanwhile, Nova Scotia's Opposition leader said MacDonald's change of heart on negotiations was the political equivalent to a deathbed conversion.
NDP Leader Darrell Dexter said Nova Scotians would see the move as coming "rather late in the game to be getting on the same page as almost everyone else in the province.''
But he also said simply being critical of the MacDonald's "mishandling of the file'' would not serve the province's long-term interests.
"The more constructive thing to do is to treat today as a point of departure for the province and to say what is it that we can do now to build a coalition of interest across the country,'' he said.
Dexter also thought pressure would mount on MacKay and Keddy to join Casey in speaking out for Nova Scotia.
"They should be speaking clearly on our behalf and not accept the role of being Ottawa's voice in Nova Scotia,'' he said.
MacDonald took his fight to Toronto on Monday where he made his case before a closed-door session with business leaders.
Afterwards, he said he would fight to restore what was a "broken commitment'' by the federal Conservatives.
"The most important court is the court of public opinion. I can tell you that the court of public opinion in Nova Scotia is that the federal government has broken a deal with Nova Scotians,'' said MacDonald.
MacDonald's changed tone drew a response of `I told you so' from Premier Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Williams has promised to campaign against the federal Conservatives over their "broken promise'' on the accords in the next election and noted that MacDonald has now joined him and Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert in the battle to keep natural resource revenue out of the new equalization formula.
"I told Premier MacDonald probably six months ago that Harper was not to be trusted,'' said Williams, who is also a Conservative.
"I think Premier MacDonald has finally realized that you can't deal with the devil.''
