The first response is in to the latest round of begging letters to Ottawa, to quote Jack Harris, and if Danny William endorses any federal leader this time out, Jack's likely to get the nod.
Jack Layton said "yes" to pretty much everything Danny Williams asked for.
What a shock.
The first letter begs for cash.
The reply begs for votes.
Anyway, Jack Layton's NDP will campaign to restore air force training in Goose Bay which would be exactly the training Jack Layton campaigned against in 1994 and his party has worked against federally since then.
Layton even lifts a page from the 2006 and 2008 Conservative election platform, promising to create a "territorial defence battalion" - whatever that is - in St. John's.
Jack even agrees to get involved in a thinly disguised request for financial assistance to a troubled private sector land development on the island's west coast. That would be the "Air Access" bit of the begging letter.
Apparently unregistered lobbyists for private companies don't bother the Orange crew when votes are at stake.
Ethics, schmethics.Take power out of the hands of lobbyists and ensure all decisions are made in the open by:
- Obligating lobbyists to file annually a declaration of their political work.
- Toughen penalties for violations of the Lobbyists Registration Act.
- Ensuring lobbyists’ fees are disclosed and profit-based contingency fees banned.
Talk about desperate. The NDP war room must be quickly hiding all those posters railing against corporate welfare bums.
Jack is a bit cute, though.
He complete ignores the Williams demand on Equalization, just giving a short, vague comment. That's okay, Bond Papers readers already found out about the Orange Rod.
Layton praises the equity stake in offshore oil now owned by the province but neglects to mention that an NDP government would busily suck away more cash from the corporation to Ottawa.
So Layton stands a good chance of getting Danny's blessing.
Of course, since Williams has already endorsed - and then shagged over - first the Liberals and then his federal brothers and sisters in the Conservatives, the New Democrats are pretty much the only ones left of the major parties he hasn't introduced to his own shaft.
-srbp-