Paul Wells is a well known national journalist, now writing for Macleans. You remember Macleans, the staple of every coffee table in the land. Pretty to look at. Maybe read, if the Sears catalogue had had the print rubbed off its pages by endless flipping.
He spent the better part of last week In St. John's talking to just about anyone and everyone he could. He managed to land a one-on-one interview with Premier Williams all in aid of giving Macleans readers a better understanding of "what Danny wants".
There's no telling what the local reaction will be to his piece; I, for one am looking forward to it when it hits the newsstand here, likely on Wednesday.
In the meantime, check out his blog under the title "Inkless Wells". Todays' installment, is called "Danny Williams impeccable timing". Aside from pointing out that a raft of other issues are dominating the national agenda these days, Wells does take one of the Premier's pet issues and challenges it head on. Premier Williams (and his supporters like Rex Murphy) is fond of claiming that our grievances here in The Happy Province are ignored nationally.
Wells quotes the Premier from a Board of Trade speech:
"The big question we have to ask ourselves here is, why are we waiting so long to get our promise fulfilled? If this were Quebec or Ontario or any other province, this wouldn't be happening. We're now into our eighth month battling away at this. And it's been a battle. And it shouldn't be.”
Wells notes:
"This quote sums up the very strong sense of many Newfoundlanders that they are uniquely put upon in Confederation. It's also nutty-nutty-nutbar. You really have to have been in St. John's for the last couple of decades to believe that Newfoundland and Labrador's demands are the only ones that go unanswered." He then gives a listing.
My personal favourite is this one. Apparently the Premier complained that money given to the 2010 vancouver-Whistler Olympics represents a case of other provinces being treated better than Newfoundland and Labrador. Those of us who live here day in and day out are familiar with the Premier's rather ... ummm..... ahhhhh... unique view of the world in which we all live. He sees conspiracies everywhere. He thinks that it is great that Ottawa saves billions in Equalization because Quebec gains hundreds of millions from Churchill Falls, while it is apparently the greatest injustice since Versailles when the same thing happens here.
Oh yeah, Paul suffered through an evening chatting with me and a bunch of others and yes, he does give this blog a nice word and a link. So I am returning the favour.