From CBC’s The National and the panel review of 2009, comes Chantal Hebert’s assessment of the most under-reported story being the Hydro-Quebec/NB Power deal.
You’ll find it about half way through that vid. A specific clip should turn up shortly and that link will go up instead, but for now you have to scan through the full vid of The National. [Update: and here it is.]
The thing is splitting the Atlantic provinces, according to Hebert. It raises questions about national policy in several different ways. Andrew Coyne and Rex Murphy quickly chimed in to add to the assessment. All noted the absence of any federal party leadership on the issue since it has implications for national economic policy and the free flow of goods and services across the country.
Chantal Hebert hit a particularly sore point that remains under-reported within the under-reported story, namely the split within caucuses over the issue. The Liberals especially have a problem with Quebec and New Brunswick members of parliament going one way and the Newfoundland crew taking “their orders from you-know-who” in Hebert’s words.
How true that is, and if the panel had noticed Michael Ignatieff ’s comments when he was in St. John’s a couple of weeks ago, they’d have seen a much bigger problem facing Ig and the federal Liberal caucus down the road a ways.
Meanwhile, in another corner, you-know-who is leading his provincial Conservative troops back to their ideological home in the Conservative party after a brief sojourn in the petulant box.
Wonder what that means for some of the crowd in the Liberal caucus who’ve been taking their orders - as Chantal put it – from “you-know-who?”
-srbp-