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By JENNIFER DUNVILLE
dunville.jennifer@dailygleaner.com

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The Liberal government needs to come up with a positive initiative quick if it wants to win the next election, says a political science professor.

Don Desserud, a professor at the University of New Brunswick's Saint John campus who has been observing politics in the province for more than two decades, said public focus is on the government's mistakes, not on its accomplishments.

"It's been a problem that has plagued this government from the beginning," Desserud said. "They go forward with initiatives - some bold, some reckless - then they run into problems and are forced to reevaluate."

The newly appointed minister of education, Roland Hache, announced last week that he was freezing the education budget, including the Innovative Learning Fund, until he's had a chance to review his new file.

Teachers, parents and school unions have been left to speculate about whether the government will reinvest the $3.35 million from the innovation fund into the jobs of school support staff it cut recently.

Desserud said there's nothing wrong with a government admitting it's made a mistake.

But in this case, freezing the budget and reviewing the cuts looks more like damage control, he said.

"The public seems only to be focusing on the decisions that the government backs off on," Desserud said.

"The fact that the government is willing to reconsider its decisions is a sign that it's open-minded, but that's not necessarily what the public sees. I think they are seeing a government that is scrambling to gain back support by undoing what it did."

Desserud said the same can be said about the government's decision to cut ferry service in Gagetown and Belleisle. The ferries were supposed to stop operating in April as a cost-cutting measure introduced in the spring budget.

But in the face of intense public criticism, the Liberal government announced it would continue to run the ferries until a private operator is found.

"It's a tricky call because the advice would never be to go ahead with something when you think you're wrong, but it doesn't make the government look good when it has to change its position on something," Desserud said.

"The government has to find a balance by initiating something positive that is really going to get people standing up and noticing if it plans to win the next election."

Desserud said rehiring the school support staff might help, but doing something entirely different would make a bigger difference in public perception.

"I think, for example, that people would be excited if government came up with some massive job retraining program for the laid-off mill workers and forestry sector workers who have been hit the hardest during this (recession)," he said.

"If the government were to implement something that could get people back on their feet, I think the public would take notice."

But not everyone agrees that the Liberal government is in damage-control mode and losing public support.

Tom Bateman, a political science professor at St. Thomas University, said he believes the flip-flop in government decisions could be viewed as though politicians are listening and responding to public concern.

"Damage control is the negative spin, but I think the positive spin is that the government is responsive to the people," Bateman said. "They've taken some heat, heard the complaints and have adjusted accordingly."

With the recent cabinet shuffle, Bateman said he believes the government is trying to set a new tone.

"It seems to be trying to calm the waters a little bit," Bateman said.

"Some people will still consider this government to be in disarray, but I think others consider it fine tuning, and that it's doing a bit of trial and error under new economic strains."

Whether the government's change of heart on several issues is viewed negatively or not, Desserud said it has little time left to respond and make some changes.

The next election could be as early as this fall, he said.

"The government shouldn't be focused on gaining back the support it's lost, but looking for measures that are going to get new votes because in the last election the margins were so close it could've gone either way," he said.

"The government still needs some kind of home-run project, which it hasn't had yet. Something that's going to erase all the bad decisions it's made, and maybe win over the support of those who wouldn't normally vote Liberal."