Norm Doyle and Loyola Hearn aren't on the greatest terms with Danny Williams anyway but it is interesting to see the premier's comments, at least as attributed to him by VOCM.
"It's a vote that may be the federal Conservatives' best hope of bringing down the Paul Martin Liberals, but Premier Danny Williams wants this province's MP's, be they Liberal or Tory, to vote with the government. MP's will vote on the federal budget next Thursday. Williams says a vote against it will be a conscious decision to vote against the Atlantic Accord and he'd prefer to see the Accord passed as soon as possible."
Expect the calls to Open Line from the two boys in Ottawa to become increasingly shrill in their denunciation of the Liberals for putting the offshore money in the budget bill in the first place.
Politics is about hard choices, Loyola.
Just think of it like you did in 1985 when you voted in favour of the clawbacks.
UPDATE: CBC Radio's version of this story has a slightly different take on it. The Premier is not worried about losing the offshore money, in part because of an unsolicited letter from Stephen Harper that pledges "to follow through on the accord", as CBC puts it.
Let's see the actual letter, please.
Wade Locke was quoted in a CBC TV piece last night saying that since the NDP and Conservatives supported the deal all along, there really wasn't a problem. Maybe he misspoke. The Conservatives initially did not support the Williams proposal.
As for the current guarantee, then, I find this quote a little curious:
{"I can say categorically, as premier of this province, that if the Conservatives or NDP form the next government, then I'm prepared to go through the exactly the same process that I went through the last time," Williams says.}
Why would the premier need to go back through the same negotiating process again if the current deal is already assured?
As for Norm Doyle, here's what CBC attributes to him:
{Norm Doyle, the MP for St. John's North, said he had considered voting for the budget because of the accord provisions.
However, he said a separate bill should be introduced.
"We could put it through immediately," Doyle said Thursday.}
Norm Doyle knows this just is not true; not even close to being factual and accurate.
A separate bill would have to be introduced from scratch thereby resetting the process to the beginning. It would take as long or longer to get a separate bill through as it would for people to vote for the current budget bill. Norm knows this. Loyola knows it too. They know their position just isn't true.
What they are presenting is a media line that avoids having to deal with the fundamental fact:
Their leader wants to bring down the government today - before any approval could be given to this province's new offshore revenue. It doesn't matter whether the offshore money was a separate bill or in C-43 as it is now. It will die one way or another if Doyle's Conservatives and the Bloc partner up to defeat the government.
Following the logical implication of the premier's comments, he will likely have to start from scratch re-negotiating a deal with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
