An ex-Premier scorned #nlpoli

Not content merely to discuss his nomination of Elizabeth Matthews for a seat on the offshore regulatory board, Danny Williams took some pretty heavy shots at his former cabinet members on Monday in a 10 minute interview with the CBC’s Chris O’Neill-Yates.

In my opinion, Elizabeth Matthews – of all the women I have met in politics including my ministers – was the most competent woman I had come across.

Williams went further. 

He claimed to have significantly advanced the place of women in politics in the province during his term of office.

Williams claimed he was instrumental in getting Joan Burke and Kathy Dunderdale nominated, claiming that “in those days it was more of a man’s world.”

You don’t have to read hard to between the lines to see Williams was making a very pointed jab at two key cabinet ministers in his administration.

The fact he is full of crap  - as if 2001 was the political stone age in this province - is largely irrelevant.

Interesting too that he mentioned a recent comment about the fact there are very few women seeking office in this election.

Great minds think alike, eh?

But that comment about Matthews and the implicit idea that Dunderdale and Burke owe their place to Williams is not going to sit well with a great many Tories.

Heck, it was so bad that even talk show caller and Danny fan Club charter member Minnie H burned Bill’s ears on Monday night calling Danny down to the dirt for his remarks.

Whatever Dunderdale and company did to Danny after he left, the Old man is certainly going to claim his pound and a half of their hides, one way or the other.

Payback is a mother.

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Danny, Gary and Steve: old inconsistencies die hard

Apparently your humble e-scribbler isn’t the only one who found it amusing that an anti-Harper former premier is campaigning in pro-Harper country for a Conservative who doesn’t share the Old Man’s animosity toward the prime minister.

Well amusing here, but out there apparently it struck one Tory leadership candidate as politically stunned-arsed:

PC party leadership candidate Ted Morton says his friendship with Prime Minister Stephen Harper will soothe the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta, while saying rival Gary Mar’s political alliance with outspoken former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams won’t do the province any good.

“I don’t think what Gary’s done in the last couple of days of palling around with Danny Williams is the right step,” Morton told the Herald’s editorial board on Tuesday.

As for Williams, this is the same guy who tried to secretly interest Hydro-Quebec in buying an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill, putting redress for the Upper Churchill to one side, while at the same time publicly lashing their collective perfidious Franco-hides.

Of course, two years after Kathy Dunderdale pissed Danny and his crowd off by letting the secret slip, the local media have still not reported on the five years of secret talks with Hydro-Quebec.

Two years later.

Not a peep.

Apparently the facts don’t fit the official narrative.

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Chumba-dumba

Leave to the ever charming labradore to remind everyone that the financial mess Danny Williams left behind is actually something he made clear he would do in 2008.

The quote is one your humble e-scribbler completely forgot about but reading now three years later it is the kind of thing that makes chills run up and down your spine:

As you pay down the debt it also gives you the ability then to bring it back up. It’s no different than if you paid down your line of credit at the bank or pay off your car loan, it gives you the ability to go borrow a little more, take a little more if you need it. So, that money will be used, for example, that, that surplus that’s actually going on the debt, though, will also be used to fund, you know, the settlements with the unions. I think the public sector settlements are going to cost us in the range of a half-billion dollars a year forever. So, that money will sort of go, go towards the public sector workers, which is, which is good, though, from an economic perspective because now we have this whole new infusion of eight percent and then four, four, and four into the economy and that’ll help drive our own economy, as well.

You pay debt down and then rack it up again.  You’re never gonna pay it down.  That riff is shamelessly pirated from labradore but you have to acknowledge humour and genius wrapped into one.

But while he stayed on the debt thingy and noted that the public sector union’s benefits would only be a third of the total $37 billion Wade Locke talked about, there’s another angle to that which you can see if you want to open your eyes to it.

So much of what is driving the economy in the St. John’s region over the past seven years has been public sector spending.  That what an integral part of Williams’ political plan and one of the ways he helped create the illusion of some sort of economic miracle.

As we’ve seen this past week, these financial chickens are coming home to roost.  The fundamental political fraud that lay as the foundation of Williams’ political fortune is crumbling.

No wonder he practically ran from the Premier’s Office last Christmas talking about how it was important to know when to leave.

Instead of running the province into the ground he can now have someone organize rallies of school children at a local hockey rink so they can chant his name just like the old days of local politics.

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Give Danny the money

Your humble e-scribbler is no fan of handing public cash to private sector companies for any reason.

And make no mistake: when Danny Williams claims the provincial government would make its money back 20 fold on the hockey team, he is as full of shite as he has ever been.

But here’s the thing:  giving taxpayer cash to private business is what Danny and his crew love to do. It is not new government policy but since 2003, the Conservatives have handed out money hand over fist in a way the province hasn’t seen in maybe 50 years or more. 

Few project, if any, have been unworthy of their dole and more often than not the cash goes with no strings attached.

The provincial Conservatives have been generous with everyone’s money:

• A boot company pocketed $8 million on a promise to expand its production and hire more people in the province.  They chopped workers instead and so far there’s no word on whether or not they will have to pay any of the cash back.
• A bankrupt paper company that government was still willing to talk to even after their financial state made the news.
• How about half a million in cash, free, for setting up a marine engine service centre in a land-locked city?
• Cash and tax breaks for a television show.
• Cash and grants totalling $4 million for a shelter-making business on the Burin Peninsula.
• The provincial government stepped in to pay $30 million so AbitibiBowater didn’t have to pay their pensioners in this province.
• Emera and Muskrat Falls:  free power up front and a huge discount on any extra power they buy.
• Any place other than Newfoundland and Labrador will be able to get Muskrat Falls power for less than cost:  Dunderdale said so.
• A software company got an interest free loan for $325,000 on the promise it would create work.  18 months later the company shut its local office.
• SAC Manufacturing:  $675,000 four months before the company closed.

With that litany of give-aways a half million for Danny Williams is absolutely nothing.  Surely Williams or one of his companies can qualify for programs under Williams’ old business department or the aptly-named InTRD crowd Dunderdale used to run.  There are so many pots of cash with so many vague or non-existent rules that the provincial government could actually underwrite a substantial part of Danny’s plan.

The only serious question is why Dunderdale won’t do give Danny the cash he wants.

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Monday? Back to “No!”

Kathy Dunderdale told reporters on Monday that she was clear in her answers before.

That explains why she was back again for a third day trying to find her position on cash for jock straps.

To recap, the provincial sports minister said on the first day he was open to considering a proposal.  day Two, Kath had him unequivocally reject it.

Kath then said she and her minister had only looked at a preliminary proposal with no details and so they rejected it.  If, however, the jock straps would send along more paperwork, she’d have another look at it. 

In case you’ve lost sight of the government’s position in there it has been yes, no, and yes, and each of them equally firm, final and unequivocal.

So there you have it.

Well, that’s the end of it until something else happens and Kathy changes her mind yet again.

Let’s not forget, by the way, that this is the same Kathy Dunderdale who had some difficulty telling people what happened back in 2006 with Joan Cleary and the public tender act violations.  Dunderdale claimed the Act wasn’t involved when – as she later admitted – it was.

And, if you think this story is over, just note that in his Tuesday afternoon scrum on the whole project, Danny Williams did two things worth noting.

First, he admitted he is behind this project, putting his own money into the venture. A couple of days ago he was holding himself out as just a facilitator.

Second, Williams notes that he’s the guy who got Kathy her job. That’s a none-too-subtle hint.  Someone said once Danny Williams will be enemies with everyone at some point.  Looks like it Kathy’s turn.

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More give-aways, sez Williams

Talk about pissy.

Danny is not happy over the provincial government’s refusal to fund his latest pet hockey project.

The multi-millionaire thinks taxpayers should give public cash for free to his little project because “the numbers add up”. That’s not surprising since the multi-millionaire businessman made public subsidies for business a key part of his “no more giveaways” policy while he was Premier.

Of course, if the numbers actually added up, Williams’ proposal would not a single copper of public money of the kind he apparently now wants and previously championed.

Here’s how the Telegram quotes Williams:

“I’m a hockey fan and I believe in this, and I’m a business person and I believe in driving the economy,” he said. “But you know, different premiers have different agendas, and that’s all I can say. It’s not fair for me to second-guess her on that basis, if her decision was based on a good, proper due diligence. But my understanding is that it was less than 24 hours before this was turned around."

Funny thing for Danny to point out at the end, don’t you think?  After all, your humble e-scribbler noted exactly the same unseemly haste on the Hill to distance themselves for Williams’ little “ask”.

The Dunderbunnies may have gotten to the right answer – no public cash for rich private sector corporations and individuals – but they certainly got there with 24 hours of getting the cash ready for a hasty hand-over.

And not surprisingly, Danny is pissed off and letting everyone know it’s personal.

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Tit rejects suck: no taxpayer cash for hockey franchise after all

On Day One, sports minister Terry French was laughing and chuckling as he talked about the possibility he’d be forking over cash to help his former boss bring a hockey franchise to Mile One stadium.

French knew a fair bit about the request but – as this quote from CBC shows – he didn’t have anything concrete:

I haven’t seen what they are looking for yet. I know they’re obviously looking for something. They tell me they will need the province involved in some way, shape or form

You can find much more on the story, including quotes from Danny Williams in the Telegram coverage:

“People want hockey here in the province, and basically I was involved in it before, so you know the people have asked me to get involved to see if we can bring a team here,” Williams said.

“If, in fact, the city and the province want the team then, you know, I can get it for them. But if they don’t want it, then it’s not going to happen, “ Williams said.

He said a travel subsidy from the provincial government — in the range of $500,000 annually — could potentially be a deal breaker.

By Day Two, French looked a lot less smiley.  Based on no more concrete information than he’d had the day before, the new answer to the hockey subsidy was “no”:

"We decided that we wouldn't go down that road," said French outside the house of assembly in St. John's.

"[We decided] that committing money to a professional hockey team was not the right place to be. We had said no to people previously so the decision was easy."

Williams is reportedly “deeply disappointed”.

So what happened?  That’s a damn good question.

Both opposition parties rejected the idea flatly from the start, noting that the provincial government had turned down health-related requests claiming they didn’t have the cash. Public opinion hadn’t firmly settled on the issue  - as a CBC streeter suggests – but if any national trends are a good judge people aren’t too keen on giving cash to professional sports teams.  The Tories own polling shows that health care is a major issue for the public so perhaps that connection by the opposition was enough to frighten them off the subsidy idea.

The dramatic flip-flop suggests the provincial Tories are extremely jittery in an election year.

Now politically, there is usually no problem with flip-flopping on issues so long as you flip or flop in the same direction as the electorate.

The problem comes when flipping and flopping becomes a habit or when you say one thing one minute and something else the next.

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Show us the tit and we’ll suck it: AHL franchise edition

Tourism, culture and recreation minister Terry French told the House of Assembly on Tuesday that he expects to receive a request from the municipal corporation that runs Mile One stadium for cash to help lure an American Hockey League franchise to the city. Check the CBC online story here.

Former Premier Danny Williams – a multi-millionaire  - is reportedly part of a group that wants to bring the Manitoba Moose from its current home in Winnipeg to St. John’s. Update:  While CBC says Williams is keeping a low profile, the Telegram seems to be getting access to him.

French said he learned of the request from St. John’s city councilor Dan Breen. Interestingly enough Breen didn’t make any reference to looking for provincial tax cash when he spoke with CBC Radio’s St. John’s Morning Show.  In fact, Breen likely left the impression with listeners that the city wouldn’t be backing a franchise if it involved taxpayer cash.

"We want to have an anchor tenant," Breen said."We want to do it within the subsidy, and we're committed to doing it within the subsidy that we're offering to St. John's Sports and Entertainment at the current time."

The city gives Mile One Stadium a $1.25 million annual operating subsidy in addition to other financial support. 

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US diplomatic cable reveals Emera “trepidation” about talks with Williams on Lower Churchill

A cable from the American consulate in Halifax relays concerns that Emera had about negotiations with Danny Williams on the Lower Churchill.

Dated 15 January 2010, the cable is a summary of a meeting between the American consul general and James Spurr, a senior executive with the Nova Scotia-based company. The cable is available from Wikileaks.

Emera and the Lower Churchill: "Are we being used here?"

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¶4. (SBU) Closer to home Spurr talked about another possible venture for Emera: transmitting power from the proposed Lower Churchill River project in Labrador to New England. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland-Labrador (N-L) have an MOU to explore this option which would require the construction of sub-sea and overland power lines to transmit the power. Money issues aside, there would be technological challenges to overcome in this scenario. However, Spurr emphasized that with Emera's experience in dealing with transmission systems, natural gas pipelines and its knowledge of regulatory processes, it would not be an impossible feat. The unknown factor, as Spurr explained, is N-L Premier Danny Williams. Spurr explained that N-L had been the victim of bad resource deals in the past which have left Williams very cautious if not suspicious in his business negotiations. Given that legacy, Spurr remarked that he and his senior colleagues are equally cautious in dealing with the premier, with knowledge it makes more financial sense for N-L to do a deal with Quebec than with them. In fact, Spurr indicated he wouldn't be surprised if William ended up doing just that, and leaving Spurr and colleagues to speculate that Williams might be using them to exert more pressure on Quebec to offer a better deal for N-L.

That would have been a pretty savvy guess for Emera, given that in September 2009 Kathy Dunderdale revealed publicly that she and Williams had tried unsuccessfully for five years to lure Hydro-Quebec into taking an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill.

Conventional news media in Newfoundland and Labrador have never reported Dunderdale’s comments or made any other references to talks with Quebec despite the audio of Dunderdale’s comments being readily available.

In 2010, as part of his political exit strategy, Danny Williams signed a term sheet with Emera that could lead to development of a dam at Muskrat Falls. Under the deal, Emera will receive 35 terawatt years of electricity from Muskrat Falls in exchange for the cost of building a transmission line from Newfoundland to Cape Breton. In a conference call with reporters at time the tentative deal was announced, Emera executives’ comments suggested they had balked at earlier versions of the deal in part because the cost of power from Muskrat Falls was too high.

The current proposal is based entirely on the sale of power within Newfoundland and Labrador at full cost plus a guaranteed rate of return for the provincial government energy company. Premier Kathy Dunderdale acknowledged in the House of Assembly earlier this year that Muskrat Falls power will be too expensive to sell outside the province except at discount rates.

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Dunderdale’s leadership woes deepen

Bad enough that Danny Williams is pissed at Kathy Dunderdale.

It’s worse now that everyone knows it.

Things took a slightly worse turn Thursday when Dunderdale faced a scrum of reporters all interested in this problem she’s having with her patron. She tried to put a brave face on it, right down to expressing her shock that he had decided to jet off to somewhere else rather than attend.

The story’s even turned up in the Globe and Mail. 

That would be another downside to the whole thing, incidentally.

But that’s not the end of it.

Dunderdale felt compelled to assure the universe that Danny Williams – the fellow who frigged off last December in a manner Dunderdale herself said was shocking – could rest assured that he had “the full support and loyalty of caucus, cabinet and the party.”

What party leader of any consequence would pledge her unflinching fealty to the guy who used to have her job?

Next thing you know she’ll admit she really is taking orders from him and that he is now able to fulfill a promise he made long ago:  to be premier but not take a salary from the government for doing the job.

Kathy Dunderdale has serious political problems that her Stacy and Clinton make-over won’t fix.

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More of the same…

But different.

A good first step is how the Premier described her first meeting with the Prime Minister.

But she was bit vague on the destination piece.

Headed somewhere but not sure where the frig that might be.

Solid leadership!

Kathy Dunderdale had a courtesy meeting with Stephen Harper.

20 minutes.

Very much routine stuff for those familiar with these things and never the chance to get into detailed discussions on anything.

Lots of vague talk from Dunderdale about stuff but very little concrete detail.

She knows the bus is moving and she knows about the doors and seats but where the driver is headed?

We’ll get back to you on that bit.

But it is good to get rolling in this new bus and new driver who is dissimilar in a differential way from the previous occupant of the conducting position.

Dunderdale’s list of things she mentioned in the meeting are the same things her predecessor used to rattle off so it’s a bit unusual to hear her talking about things as if there’d been some radical change of direction in the province.

Oh.

That was the point.

But then Dunderdale said she is “in the same place’ as her predecessor.

So things are the same.

But different.

It is a new relationship but she wanted to hear some acknowledgement from the Prime Minister of those “legitimate aspirations” of her tribe and that he “understands” those things and is the prime minister of the whole country, then things will be different.

So that would mean things are still just like they were with the former premier.

But not.

Somehow.

Like in a meeting with federal cabinet minister Peter Mackay, Dunderdale talked about a multi-billion dollar megaproject for which Dunderdale sought a federal loan guarantee.

Which must be somehow different from the times Danny went to Ottawa looking for a hand-out to build a megaproject.

So things are the different.

But the same.

And firstly and fore mostly, she wants some respect.

Never heard that before.

And there wasn’t any talk about the fishery.

Ditto on the sameness file.

So in a last scrum question about the relationship, Kathy made it clear that her predecessor could “articulate” his views clearly and that things were different now, as she embarked on some kind of new path, a yellow brick road to respect for the “legitimate aspirations” of the crowd of people down this way.

Sounds all very familiar, right down to the bit about not being sure exactly where things are going and the inability to articulate specific details.

But God does she spit Quebecish gibberish like “legitimate aspirations.”

It’s all fit to make you aspirate your breakfast.

Projectile aspiration.

Given Dunderdale’s load of bafflegab and pure bullshit, such aspiration would be perfectly legitimate and likely most respectable.

Plus ca change.

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Political blarney stone gone

Danny Williams’ political backside used to be like a blarney stone on legs.

Any politician of any stripe loved to kiss Danny’s hind bits in hopes some of Williams’ magic would rub off.  

The latest sign Danny’s butt is out of visible power comes from Jack Layton.  The federal New Democrat leader now claims he can get a better indication of what is going on in the province by meeting with ordinary people.

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Williams to head Rogers sports empire?

Is that why he left office so suddenly?

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Tweet-date:  From a tweet by CBC's David Cochrane (@CochraneCBCNL) earlier on Thursday:

@edhollett raises the persistent Williams to Rogers rumour on his blog. I called DW's people on this two weeks ago. They say "Not true." 

Have yourself a tacky little Christmas

So far Danny Williams’ parting finger to the taxpayers of Newfoundland and Labrador is going over like a fart in church.

People are showering something but it isn’t the love Danny wanted.

For some reason, normal people don’t like the idea of the guy taking a war memorial and using it as the backdrop for his political Christmas cards for a job he just vacated.

And by all the signs people in the province are genuinely fracked off about it.  In this corner, the post from Monday rocketed to wind up as the top post of the past 24 hours by a two-to-one margin.  Over at CBC’s online story, the two negative-for-Danny options  - “It’s inappropriate” or “It’s disrespectful” -  are together getting about 2,000 of the 4453 votes that were cast up until about 1845 hours local time.  More people have actually chosen the supposedly neutral choice – “It doesn’t matter to me” – than have selected the Danny-loving choice.

Danny’s fanboys are more than a bit peeved that this story is out there and that people aren’t loving the Old Man as much as they are supposedly supposed to.  They are trying every line from “it’s no biggie” to blaming the media. There’s some original stuff for ya.

The poor little darlings are clearly in a lather. 

And well they should be.

Their hero, the fellow for whom they have embarrassed themselves in public for almost a decade, frigged off on them with hardly any notice. One minute he was there;  the next he was in Florida soaking up the rays.  One minute they were happily clicking away at the VOCM question of the day, the next thing the talking points are gone and  he’s buggered off  leaving them to deal with this little embarrassing piece of egotistical excess. You’d be fried too is suddenly you were the guy at his high school reunion sporting at mullet at age 50.  That’s what the fanboys are looking like these days.

But truthfully there’s really no surprise at the tacky choice for Christmas cards.

Really.

Anyone on the Premier Danny Christmas card list got at least one other Yule-turd greeting besides the one they got this year. In 2009, the card  was a piss-poorly photoshopped shot of Hisself near Churchill Falls.

Remember the big Atlantic Premier’s meeting there last fall?  Danny waging war against the evil foreigners?  Invoking the spectre of Churchill Falls?

If you didn’t know better, you might be fooled into believing this shot was taken at the same time.  Take a closer look at the shot, the lighting and the edges of the Danny-figure and you can see he was cropped and dropped. The effect winds up looking like John Wayne walking into the sunset on a Vietnamese beach at the end of The Green Berets.

The fanboys can only hope this is the least embarrassing little mess the Old Man left behind.

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Williams’ disgraceful Christmas cards

Danny Williams is sending out a batch of Christmas cards – presumably at taxpayers expense – identifying himself as the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador even though he quit the job last week.

What’s worse, the tasteless cards feature a shot of Williams from his good bye news conference using a war memorial in the Confederation Building lobby as a backdrop for his face.

The text inside the card reads:

"I have been so honoured to be your leader for the past seven years. Thank you for your continued support. I will miss you all and will never forget you. I wish you a very Merry Christmas, peace, happiness and good health. Danny Williams, Q.C., Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador."

Williams is shown standing in front of the display holding the province’s official copy of the Book of Remembrance for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who paid the supreme sacrifice during the First and Second World Wars. 

The book is a duplicate of one on display in the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower in Ottawa.
They are described officially at the Veterans Affairs Canada website:

The Newfoundland Book of Remembrance commemorates the men and women of Newfoundland who gave their lives in defence of freedom during both the First and Second World Wars – before Newfoundland became a province of Canada on April 1, 1949. Those listed are from all three branches of the military – the Navy, Air Force and Army. The book includes memorials to First World War campaigns, including Gallipoli and Beaumont-Hamel, and Second World War campaigns, including North Africa and Italy, and Northwest Europe. The Newfoundland Book of Remembrance, containing more than 2,300 names, was installed in the Memorial Chamber of Parliament in 1973, and a replica was placed in the Confederation Building in St. John's.

Since the photo appears to be from Williams’ announcement, the cards could only have been prepared after he knew he was leaving the job.

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Separated at birth: delusions edition

Vanity Fair’s got Randy Quaid.

Paul Wells decides to go to two objective sources to sum up Danny Williams.

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Hubris

On Friday, Danny Williams will head to Government House and resign as Premier, just as eight others have done before him.

Danny Williams was a superlative tactical politician, the likes of which one seldom sees anywhere in Canada and certainly one has seen very rarely in this province.

That was his singular strength and for seven years he campaigned relentlessly to sustain his cult of personality. That cult then gave him license to pursue his own political agenda free of any interference by a thriving, healthy democracy.

Craig Welsh, the townie bastard,  put it aptly:

And what I mean by "he can get away with doing it" is that the premier's popularity is such that he could strangle a baby in the middle of the Avalon Mall parking lot with the assembled provincial media in attendance and there would be people that would say the baby had it coming.

It’s a graphic image.

It is a disturbing image.

But it is an accurate description of Williams’ political influence.  He could say things that were patently,  demonstrably false and people would accept it unquestioningly. Supposedly cynical and sceptical media types were not immune from his powers of persuasion, despite what Danny liked to pretend. Some were known to leap to  defend him.

Danny Williams was right because he was popular and popular because he was right. That he could create and sustain that preposterous notion and have it accepted by so many people is the sum of his political genius.

That was no mean accomplishment.  Danny Williams ranks with the likes of Joe Smallwood, W.A.C. Bennett and Maurice Duplessis.  Anyone who looks on that accomplishment  - cultist worship 40 years after the last of the old demagogues held power – cannot fail to be impressed.  That Williams was able to spread that cult of absurdity to the national level amongst business, academic, editorial and political leaders in a G-8 country at the start of the 21st century is truly astounding.  

Instead of recognising that stunning achievement, people are crediting Danny Williams with a bizarre range of things; but the list, whether compiled at home or across the country, breaks down this way.

• They credited him for things he didn’t do:  Williams promised a raft of things from openness and transparency in government to sound fiscal management.  He just didn’t deliver on any of them.
• They credited him for stuff other people did:  the oil and mining windfalls came as a result of deals put together by premiers before Williams. Of that $70 billion Williams talked about in his goodbye speech,  the lion’s share of it came from deals delivered by Clyde Wells, Brian Tobin and Roger Grimes.
• They credited him for stuff that hasn’t happened yet:  let’s see Hebron in action before anyone breaks open the champagne.  It will likely work out fine but both the earlier reviews of Hibernia or Churchill Falls turned out to be wildly inaccurate, albeit for different reasons.
• They credited him for stuff that doesn’t exist.  There is no deal to develop the Lower Churchill. What else can anyone say to that sort of thing except note that Williams had them all playing his tune more completely at the end than ever before?

The things that Williams did do, like a one time transfer payment from Ottawa in 2005, have been swollen by the cultist chanting to the point of absurdity. 

And what of Danny Williams’ future? 

Well, in all likelihood,  he and his accomplishments will go the way of other politicians’, including those long-ago strongmen in whose ranks he clearly belongs. There is an inky abyss, a vacuum that awaits them all.  It is a cross between Limbo and Purgatory, a living death for the egotistical and the once-mighty.  Where once throngs sang their praises, there is only silence.

Five days after Williams announced his resignation, people still cry for his departure.  Five weeks from now, they’ll be more concerned about Christmas credit card bills and if politics excites them, they’ll be watching the race to replace him.  Five months from now and the province’s election campaign will be well under way.

Five years from now, people will struggle to remember that guy who parted his hair down the centre of his head.  The collective amnesia on which Danny Williams built his cult of personality will swallow him as surely as it swallowed his predecessors.

Who the gods would destroy, they would first make proud.

 

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Other reading:  Robert Rowe makes the point as succinctly as anyone might in a letter to the Telegram.

Williams might have instilled some sense of pride, however defined, in Randy Simms and others, but no dear leader did that for me. I had it before Williams, during Williams, and I’ll have it after Williams. I have never suffered from any sense of inferiority or poor second cousinism to other Canadians.

True pride cannot be grafted onto a people in Kim Jong-Il style. It is not fostered by belligerence. It is not waving a flag (nor lowering it, for that matter) and it is not the jingle in your pocket. Rather it is a feeling in your guts — deep in your guts — and I’d like to think we have always had it. That’s a gift Premier Williams could not give me. What we did not have was wealth, and I suspect Simms has conflated these issues.

With my gratitude for the effort, I wish the premier a jingle in his pocket and good health in the future.

Update:  Edited to eliminate an awkward sentence.

Energy analyst doubts Muskrat Falls economics

CBC quotes Toby Couture, an energy specialist with with London-based E3 Analytics:

"The investment case for selling that power to New England is actually not looking very good, partly because they have more than enough natural gas — cheap natural gas — to meet their own electricity needs for the next decade, at least," Couture said in an interview.

Nalcor boss Ed Martin disagrees but doesn’t say how he plans to overcome the economics of Danny Williams very expensive project. 

You can get an idea of the expense of the project from earlier Bond Papers posts:

• Muskrat Falls = expensive power, and
• Fear and loathing on the energy campaign trail

As for what sort of windfall Martin may be counting on, consider that taxpayers in Newfoundland and Labrador will be shouldering the cost of this enormously expensive deal and, in all likelihood passing on the savings to energy consumers elsewhere. That’s an idea floated around these parts before Danny Williams announced his retirement.

And in case you thing Couture is wrong, some very influential people agree with him.

Maybe this all doesn’t matter because the Muskrat Falls was a vehicle for Williams’ retirement and not a way to build a generating plant.

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An Ibbitson Inanity Hat Trick

“Mr. Williams can take credit for negotiating the deals that led to Voisey’s Bay…”

That’s a pretty tough trick since the deals that led to the development were signed before Danny Williams took office in 2003 and he had nothing to do with them.

John must have fact-checked with Rex Murphy who recently had Williams in office in the late 1990s.

And, as with the rest of Ibbitson’s safari – population and math -  the remainder of this article is no more accurate.

- srbp -

A satirical look at the Old Man

In a placed where open confrontation is suppressed, humour sometimes takes a cutting edge.

Take a look at this post over at thescope.ca and give a listen to a mock traditional song about Danny Williams.

Sounds wonderful, right?

Then look at the lyrics:

Sure he’s as good as God,
He bought back all the cod,
Now the money’s flowin’ free,
There’s a dollar in it all for you and me.

…

I bought three new Skidoos but winter is dry and I got nowhere to go,
But I’m not worried cuz I knows next year Danny’s gonna bring back the snow.

Now he’ll take care a ya,
He invented Hibernia,
He lines our pockets with the nickel and oil,
Sure he even knows the fella from Republic of Doyle.

Then take a look at any piece in the conventional media the past couple of days  - local or mainland – and the realise that the people who wrote the equivalent of “He invented Hibernia” and “he brought back all the cod” weren’t making a joke.

- srbp -