Bypass debate leads to 'tweet storm' from P.E.I. cabinet minister

A debate from the P.E.I. Legislature spilled over onto social media over the weekend, then back to the Legislative Assembly Tuesday as the Opposition accused Transportation Minister Paula Biggar of "trolling" and even threatening one of its members.

"Late night tirades on social media usually are a President Trump thing," Opposition Leader Jamie Fox told the House, "right down to lashing out with personal attacks to try and change the channel on issues."

'Tweet storm' began early Saturday

According to the Opposition -- and time stamps recorded by Twitter -- the "tweet storm" began in the wee hours Saturday morning and continued throughout the weekend.

Last week the Opposition said government paid 650 per cent above the assessed taxation value on a piece of land purchased as part of the Cornwall bypass construction project.

• Province paid 650% above assessed value for bypass land: Opposition

At 12:07 am Saturday, Biggar sent her first reply to tweets the Opposition had sent out earlier in the week, including MLA for Kensington-Malpeque Matthew MacKay in her responses.

The tweet that the Opposition raised concerns about in the legislature came after some members of the public got in on the discussion. The tweet is no longer available on Twitter, but CBC did obtain a screen capture.

'Late night veiled threat,' says Opposition

"In fact, one of the tweets the minister deleted, by the end of the weekend, appeared to threaten a member of this Assembly saying to the member of the public: I don't get mad, I get even," Fox said during question period Tuesday.

"Do you condone members of your Cabinet making late night veiled threats on Twitter?" he asked acting premier Alan McIsaac.

Note the 'lol,' says minister

It was Biggar herself who responded to the question. "As I reported on Twitter, that was also followed by an lol which is 'laugh out loud' and it was not directed to the member from Kensington-Malpeque," she said.

"It was, indeed, in regard to some discussions that took place in this Legislature that were inaccurate information," she explained. "As minister of transportation, I was accused of mishandling the purse money in regard to land purchases, which I felt the honourablemember, who is a real estate agent, also would know the difference."

In a private tweet to a CBC reporter she said the "I don't get mad I get even" tweet was meant as a "private joke," although MacKay said he wasn't in on the joke.

Keep debate in the House

Eventually the acting premier waded into the debate in question period, saying he himself wasn't a Twitter user, but that question period was "the area where we can have a great discussion and we can clarify any feelings we may have or misunderstandings we may have."

"When you are tweeting sometimes, the smiles don't come across," McIsaac told MLAs. "You don't get an idea of what was, perhaps, really meant. I would encourage each and every one of us, when we have a discussion with things like that, instead of following up online, follow-up in the House and we can clarify all those issues."

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