Wakeham supports former culture minister amid rubber boot keychain criticisms

She followed government protocol. She didn't benefit personally from any of that. Premier Tony Wakeham showed no hint on Wednesday that he was disappointed in the actions of Minister Andrea Barber. Do you stand by your minister after she used public funds to enhance her brand at a solemn occasion in France this summer? My minister is one of the most passionate Newfoundlanders and Labradorians I know. Then-Culture Minister Andrea Barber led a delegation of 100 students to European battlefields in France this summer. including Beaumont Hamel. During the trip, she handed out souvenir keychains to the students that featured a tiny yellow rubber boot. Barber's prolific online profile features many videos and photos of her wearing similar footwear. Documents show that Barber directed the department to acquire the keychains, 150 of them, at a cost of just over $1,000. The sole-sourced contract went to a West Coast company with links to an unsuccessful PC candidate in last year's provincial election. Barber has refused to answer questions on the matter, but this Liberal critic says Barber should have handed out a more appropriate gift. We need a cabinet, we need ministers of the crown who we can trust to make appropriate decisions, to make good decisions, And this was not one. And this political scientist calls it a misuse of taxpayers' money. It suggests that the minister's first thought process is about her own brand and her own image. Barber came under fire during a speech in France when she struggled to pronounce the name of a battlefield where hundreds of Royal Newfoundland Regiment soldiers died in the First World War. Which included a memorial in Gallipoli, the Beaumont Hamel. The revelation that she also handed out taxpayer-funded trinkets linked to her signature footwear is also raising questions. What's happening these days is that a lot of very unserious people are being given very serious roles. We have a minister here that probably wasn't prepared to be a minister and has made a series of bad decisions. It was a judgment call. I don't think it was the right one. Barbara was shuffled out of the culture portfolio a few weeks after the trip to France. I don't believe that she has a patent on the use of rubber boots. But based on the Premier's comments, there's no sign she's getting the boot from Wakeham's inner circle. Terry Roberts, CBC News, St. John's.