St. John's east Connie candidate and anti-equal marriage campaigner Norm Doyle has a slick new website.
It's a nice piece of work.
Except for the bits Santa might have some problems with.
The claim: "Norm Doyle stands up for Newfoundland and Labrador."
During last spring's efforts to pass the Atlantic Accord bill, Norm put Party before Province. Oh yeah, I know he pounded away at everyone else to do the same, but when push came to shove, Norm just couldn't shy away from Stephen Harper.
When given the choice, Norm, like his old pal Loyola Hearn put Harper before Hamilton Avenue.
In order to get some of the heat off, Stephen Harper came up with a two step, so that Norm and Loyola could vote for the Accord before they voted against it by bringing down the government.
So intense was the heat on Norm last spring that he even resorted to blaming the whole thing on unnamed "Liberal spin doctors in St. John's". You can find a lengthy post on Messrs. Hearn and Doyle and their offshore two-step in the May 2005 archives under the title "The why incision".
Things got so bad that Norm was running from spin point to spin point trying to escape the pressure put on him by the Fair Deal people. He claimed the offshore bill would have been delayed five weeks if Harper had forced an election in the spring.
At the same time, Harper himself said it would be more than a year to get the bill back on the table.
Even Danny Williams turned against Hearn and Doyle over the whole fiasco.
Norm Doyle stands up for Newfoundland and Labrador.
Except when Stephen Harper tells him to sit down.
The claim: That Norm attended negotiations between the Government of Canada (of which he is not a part) and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (of which he is not a part).
Specifically, Norm quotes his old pal, provincial finance minister Loyola Sullivan:
"I attended just about all the meetings in St. John's and Ottawa on the Atlantic Accord file and I can assure you that few people worked harder to make this a reality than Norm Doyle."
Now the Connie typing pool will quickly point out that Loyola Sullivan doesn't actually say that Norm was at the meetings. But ya know, for all Norm accuses other people of using "spin" - another word for lies and bullsh** - he sure can play cute with the English language when he wants to.
There's a pretty clear implication in Sullivan's words and, as they did back in May, Doyle is hoping people won't notice the truth as he spreads something other than the truth.
Norm didn't attend any of the official meetings on the Accord. He wouldn't be allowed in the room. Other than that all he did was wrant and rave about what a great job he was dooing standing up for Newfoundland and Labrador.
Then Steve told him to sit and he sat.
Truth is, Norm had nothing to do with getting the offshore money.
Not a thing.
His only role in the Atlantic Accord was in 1985. That's when he and Loyola Hearn voted in favour of the clawbacks contained in the original deal.
Everything else, as Norm would say, is spin.
I'd call it bullsh**, but then I'm funny that way.