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24 August 2010

Mr. Premier, what are you trying to hide?

Opposition leader Danny Williams would have a field day with the Old Man he’s become as Premier.

The younger Danny would be kicking the Old Man’s ass all over the political map.

Take, for instance, the billion dollar secret deal with Nova Scotia he decided not to tell anyone about and that both provincial governments are still not talking about.

The Chronicle Herald managed to find out from NALCOR that the application to a federal funding program is for $375 million. But…

The Dexter government declined to release the amount last week, but Nalcor Energy, Newfoundland’s Crown power utility, did disclose it.

Nancy Watson, spokeswoman for the Energy Department here, confirmed the figure. She said the province wasn’t going to release it because it’s preliminary and the project would eventually be subject to private bids.

She said officials here thought it "more sensible to not talk about things before we had the details in place."

Maybe what they are trying to hide is that this line to Nova Scotia is a lot less than the Old Man tried to make it sound like.

Details not in place.

“Preliminary” cost estimates.

Maybe the whole thing is just a ploy.

Maybe it’s Danny just setting up a pre-emptive excuse when the feds turn down this half-baked, incomplete “preliminary” application.

No matter how you slice it, the whole thing just makes you want to scream at Dex and Danny:

“Mr. Premier, what are you trying to hide?”

- srbp -