There's a reason why Danny Williams has gone to ground in the wake of his meeting with Stephen Harper.
He said "yes to less", yet again.
[Aside: Where is the Premier anyway? ]
Turns out the provincial government is accepting the O'Brien formula and the Nova Scotia Equalization deal Williams lambasted only a few weeks ago.
So much for ABC.
So much for the Prime Minister being "petty and untrustworthy".
In hindsight some of the media coverage and Williams remarks about the Nova Scotia negotiations and agreement are laughable.
Heck, the arguments were laughable at the time, much like the ones put forward organizers of the Rally for Danny who claimed it was non-partisan and were likely planning to fight to the death to defend the honour of the Fatherland.
Guess a few people will be having a large portion of crow instead of turkey this Christmas.
The government's decision to accept the supposedly unacceptable goes a long way to explaining why the finance minister refused to release his own department's analysis of the federal budget impact back in May when the Telegram asked for it.
Interesting, in hindsight, though, how close to the truth some earlier remarks turned out to be:
The provincial government knew generally speaking what was going to happen on Equalization about a year ago when it was first reported publicly.
The Premier knew the 100% option was definitely off the table likely before he laced into Steve Harper last October.
He almost certainly knew what was going on (give or take a few details) last December when Loyola Sullivan came back from a finance minister's meeting and had to attend a news scrum with the Premier standing by his side.
What played out from March onwards has been pure political theatre designed to get people in Newfoundland and Labrador agitated about something 99% of Canadians don't understand.
In the end, the Premier will just do what he planned to do once the feds announced exactly what they were going to do in march: flip from one plan to the other to maximize the cash flows.
There's no way the Prem can lose cash. Under every likely scenario, the provincial government continues to make more. It was only just a matter of how much more. look at the 2005 deal. he settled for way less than he started out looking for. In the end - as he admitted himself - it came down to what the cash advance amount was going to be.
He's a smart guy. That's why he places the angles on the cash and plays the public like a violin.
Why else has he all but given up on the 100% option? He knows it's impossible to get.
Why isn't he looking to get the caps removed from the Accords? That's the part that maximizes the cash to the province. Likely because his administration already consented to amending the 1985 deal and therefore doesn't have a leg to stand on.
There really isn't any other explanation for his using the weak "Steve lied" argument instead of taking down the feds with an iron-clad example of perfidy.
In the end, there'll be some extra cash in the provincial treasury and no one will recall the current racket six months after the last polls close.
Playing to the galleries always works in the theatre of Newfoundland politics. That's why so many politicians do it. Danny Williams just does it better than just about any thespian we've elected to the office.
Sadly, though, treating politics like a sordid little melodrama is why the financial ending is always the same.
That's from Bond Papers this past May.
Sometimes, these things are so obvious it's scary.
-srbp-