The political dynamics of Muskrat Falls #nlpoli #dip-o-crites #cdnpoli

The people of Labrador who have now occupied the work camp at the construction site are exercising the only political influence they have in the only way they have been able to influence events thus far on this project.

There'll be a post later in the week to run through how we got to this place.  For now, let's just understand the political dynamics right now. People ignored by everyone else in discussions about this project have taken the only action they knew how to take. This is one of those disjointed protests that happens every once in a while.  It has a life of its own.

Outsiders see it from their own perspective.  Remember that as you see New Democratic Party politicians federally and provincially or local townie celebrities or mainlanders professing their undying solidarity with the indigenous people of Labrador in their fight against blah blah blah. Yeah. Whatever.

In 2010 and in every year since then,  these same people sided with the people building this project in Labrador. They backed the project despite the fairly obvious lies the proponents told, despite the many financial problems with the project, and despite the environmental problems including the problem with methylmercury. These folks had other interests then and their actions now are driven by interests other than the cause of the protesters.

Layton’s Legacy

As far as Jack Layton’s political legacy goes, Shakespeare got it wrong.

The good he did will not be interred with his bones.

Jack Layton was a man of good will who sought to do good in politics.  You’ll hear lots of that in the days ahead from all sorts of people.

There’s more to those comments, though, than the easy cynicism that even the most miserable bastard who ever lived will be borne to his grave by mourners hailing him as the greatest saint who ever lived.

For Jack Layton, the praise is sincere.

The loss is real.

The grief is genuine.

The pain, palpable and deeply so.

Jack Layton was a reminder that men and women of good will can make a difference in politics, for all the right reasons. 

The good that Jack Layton did will not go into the grave with him so long as those of us who remain act with that in mind.

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Politicians and illness

A day or so after Jack Layton told the country about his latest health crisis, CBC Radio’s noon-time show opened their phone lines so people could call in to talk about Jack Layton and his struggle with cancer.

Regular host Ramona Dearing chatted with Nancy Riche.  They were respectful and serious, as one might expect.  Some people called in to say nice about nice things about Jack.

And then after about five or six calls something very odd happened.

Well, actually didn’t happen.

No one called in to attack Ramona and the Ceeb for daring to discuss Layton’s personal business.  No one insulted and abused people for calling in to wish Jack a speedy recovery.

And that lack of abuse quickly spread to other media.

That is worth noting for a couple reasons. 

First of all, it puts paid to the excuse offered by long-standing apologists for the narcissist who used to be the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador that the shitstorm of anti-media commentary in the wake of Danny’s heart surgery was just a spontaneous outpouring of disdain for reporters who had gone just a bit too far.  It was a very focused and pretty obviously organized bit of political theatre by a crowd known for their amateur dramatics.

Second of all, what Layton did and what happened afterward are what we have come to expect in this country of politicians.  We expect them to be frank and disclose illnesses that could affect their work.  Layton really didn’t have much choice in this case.  His cancer seems to be serious enough that the treatment will take him off the job for weeks.  The telling bit is that while might have successfully hidden his prostate cancer, Layton chose not to do so.  That is the key part:  he did the right thing.

We, the voters, showed that we can do the right thing, as well and act in a mature and responsible way.  Ultimately, we can lay aside partisanship in order to show some common decency and a touch of humanity.

Not everyone can do that, of course.  Just this past week, an articulate and thoughtful woman decided to try her hand at politics.  Pam Pardy Ghent announced she wants the Liberal nomination in Bellevue district.

Since coming back to Newfoundland and Labrador with her family, Pam’s been a reporter and a commentator. *

She also took a provincial government appointment to a board. That one ended rather sadly when she made a Facebook comment that the narcissist’s coterie decided was a bit much.

Pam would be a fine candidate regardless of what party she opted to run for. But there are still a few admirers of the Old Narcissist who just couldn’t resist reminding us of how much the province has matured since last December.*  They ran her down to the dirt online – anonymously, of course – mentioning only the one pathetic episode that came after her facetious comment bout the narcissist’s wedding tackle.

Incidentally, have a bit of fun and read one of the more popular posts from 2010 on how the Old Narcissist might finally leave office.  it is one thing that your humble e-scribbler raised the issue at all.  It is another that some people took issue with it.  One commenter of the anonymous variety – he uses a fake name - insisted Hisself would sail in triumph through an easy victory in October 2011.  Another who uses his own name and who is a fine fellow, couldn’t believe the Old Man would use Muskrat Falls as his legacy. 

But to get back to the state of the world these days, note the fact that the childish anonymous comments don’t happen as often as they used to.  Once upon a time, not so very long ago, you could hardly read anything political without Hisself’s legion of anonymous arseholes – there is no polite word for them  - spewing their bile everywhere.

Not so any more.

And that is a very good sign that the political disease that once gripped this province is fading fast. Regardless of which party comes out on top in the fall, we will hopefully see some healthy political maturity.

So to Pam, good luck in the fall election.

And to Jack, fight hard knowing that you are in the thoughts and prayers of millions of Canadians.

There is always a reason for hope.

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* edit for sentence structure and readability

Layton will cave

Just a gut feeling.

Jack Layton will not trigger an election this spring.

Forget the tough talk.

Heard it before.

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Layton renews call for Conservative-style tax cuts

On a visit to St. John’s Monday, federal New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton renewed his call to cut taxes from home heating:

Layton called for the federal government to cut taxes to home heating in this year’s budget, and he called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to extend a program to provide subsidies to people who make their homes more energy efficient.

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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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A leaf from Harper’s political playbook, by J. Layton

Jack Layton and the New Democratic Party want the federal government to drop the goods and services tax on home heating costs.

Layton had a wonderful story to go with his call, as recounted by Aaron Wherry at macleans.ca:

“Mr. Speaker, Frank Rainville is a senior in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario who told me about how his bills for basic utilities have gone up by $20 a month just this past month because of the government’s HST,” the NDP’s Jack Layton reported a short time later. “He asked me how he could cope with heating bills when he has to turn the thermostat on because it is cold up there. The fact is heating bills are going up all across the country and working families are struggling right now. Will the Prime Minister show some leadership, join with us and work to take the federal sales tax off home heating fuel now?”

Yes, folks, Jack Layton and his fellow new Democrats are standing up for the working poor, people and fixed incomes and all sorts of downtrodden, hard-done-by people. Well, at least that’s what the die-hard Dippers out there will tell you.

But just think about it for a second. Mr. Rainville is going to have to cough up an extra $20 a month for heating thanks to what Layton has taken to calling the Harper Sales tax.  Rainville’s on a fixed income and that 20 bucks will come in handy.  Even though Layton’s little HST cut is aimed primarily at voters in Ontario and British Columbia where the HST is very unpopular, there are plenty of Mr. Rainvilles throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and the same cut to the heating costs will help them out, too.

Yay, Jack.

Well, not so fast.

These sorts of blanket tax cuts – the stock in trade of conservatives  - have the wonderful effect of cutting costs and they have the even more wonderful effect – from a Connie perspective of helping rich people proportionately more than people like Mr. Rainville. In St. John’s someone in public housing will get a break, but the person down in King William Estates or one of the other swankier neighbourhoods springing up in St. John’s East will just love the cut on heating oil or electricity that it takes to make their blimp hangers all the more cozy in the cold January night.

If Jack Layton really wanted to help people on fixed incomes, he’d go for something other than a blanket tax cut. Layton and his crew would offer rebates or  - better still - tax breaks tied to income. That way the people who need the help the most could get it and those who can well afford to heat their massive homes can carry right on doing so while footing the bill for their choices.

And actually the problem is not just with giving a disproportionate big break to the wealthy – as the NDP idea would do – or carrying a huge public deficit while helping out the wealthy.  That’s all bad enough just as it is bad enough that the average Republican looking at this scheme would embrace Layton as a discipline of Karl.  

Jack Layton’s tax cut idea is also damned poor environmental policy. Canadians don’t need to be rewarding energy inefficiency or giving people the chance to consume more energy.   An across-the-board tax cut does just that.  It potentially makes the NDP vulnerable on the left from the Greens, but there seems to be a conscious effort in the NDP thinking that they should just look for more votes in places where they can fight Conservatives, like out west or in a couple of ridings in Newfoundland.  That’s pretty much in tune with the NDP position on the gun registry as well.

Now the NDP position isn’t all bad.  They do want to bring back an energy efficiency incentive program.  That’s a great idea and coupled with a targeted tax break scheme, it would be a progressive social policy.

Unfortunately, this isn’t about progressive social policy:  the New Democrats are playing politics like Stephen Harper.  This HST thing is just Connie-style retail politics.

And politically, it is a sensible  - if monumentally cynical - thing to do if you want to get elected.  Jack Harris in St. John’s East will win re-election handily with such an idea.  All the well-heeled people in his district will love his conservative policies while the people on fixed and low incomes will get a bit of cash to make them happy too.  Over in St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, the same thing applies even if there aren’t as many people with giant houses there.

Basically these sorts of Conservative-looking policies might help sagging New Democrat fortunes in a place like St. John’s where, as bizarre as the idea might seem, Conservatives will vote New Democrat if they can’t vote Connie for some reason.

It might work.  Too bad for Jack Layton and the New Democrats there likely won’t be an election for some months yet.  By the time people head to the polls federally, this sort of thing will likely be long forgotten.  But in the meantime it is interesting to see just exactly how much influence Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party have had on Canadian politics.

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Jacks and the Auditor General

What is it about Dipper leaders named Jack and their problems with having the Auditor General check over their expense claims?

Here’s Jack Layton using a worn out excuse that hasn’t been tried since well before the spending scandals in legislatures in St. John’s, Halifax and among Jack’s political brethren in Westminister:

"Well, those are already audited, so I don’t know why wasting money on a second audit of something that has already been audited would make sense," he said.

Yep and there were audits in the House of Assembly too during the peak of the spending scandal.  Layton should ask his defence critic Jack Harris who, as it turns out, is the former leader of the New Democrats in Newfoundland and Labrador. Here’s what he had to say in voting for a government bill that proved to be a key foundation stone for the spending scandal:

Similarly, we have a new provision which requires an annual audit of the accounts of the House of Assembly which I think is appropriate; that there be accountability through an annual audit.

That proved to be so incredibly effective, as a subsequent review by an Auditor General revealed. Heck, Jack Harris’ old bench mate wound up going to jail for his part in the whole business.

The days of the kind of unaccountable political privilege the two Jacks  and the rest of the Ottawa Dippers are clinging to is long over.

A little sunshine in dark corners goes a long way to killing off any untoward activity that is taking place, the glare of public scrutiny also helps to keep it from taking root.

Imagine what might have been prevented if political donations were scrutinised more closely.

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The Cruel Shoes

The picture says it all.

Suddenly, Jack Layton is suddenly not so keen on an election.  He’s talking about making parliament work, about working with the Connies.  You know, the sort of stuff Jack and his householders used to chide the Grits over.

An unusually media-skittish Mr. Layton said little Saturday during an event in Toronto, but what he did say lowered the temperature somewhat.

“I think that everybody involved would want to see us co-operate in the House of Commons and get some results for people — especially those that are struggling right now: the unemployed and people being left behind,” Mr. Layton said as he inched away from reporters at an archway opening in Toronto.

“So that's going to remain our preoccupation.”

Looks like the real preoccupation will be getting the shoe that’s on the other foot out of Jack’s ass.  Hint:  it went in via the mouth while he was shooting it off before.

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The whole story sometimes hurts

Cleary. 

Ryan Cleary.

Wannabe (N)DP candidate Double Naught 1.5

License to shill.

Wasting no time in turning his attention to his latest dream job, former journalist Ryan Cleary is now writing letters to the editor of the local paper to poke as his political opponents, that is his opponents should he win the (New) Democratic Party nod in St. John’s South-Mount Pearl.

The subject: federal money for a new provincial penitentiary in Newfoundland and Labrador.

So, the federal Liberals are disappointed about the lack of action on Her Majesty's Penitentiary ("Lack of action on penitentiary disappointing: MP," Aug. 12 Telegram) and would do more to make a new prison a priority? That's surprising, considering the party totally ignored a direct question about their commitment to a new prison leading up to the October 2008 election.

Now for those who don’t know, this is an old chestnut from Tory campaigns past  that has become legendary in the local world of political efforts to buy votes with public money.

Originally, it was supposed to be a federal prison in the province built entirely with federal money and handling prisoners doing more than two years of a sentence. 

Since it was first tossed out in the early 1980s, the idea has morphed to its latest version in which the provincial government  - in the interim flush with oil cash - wants the federal government to pay 70% of the cost of building a new provincially-run prison.

Danny Williams included it in the most recent version of his now trade-mark schtick, the begging letter to Ottawa.  That’s the phrase that comes from the way  (N)DP member of parliament Jack Harris described this sort of stuff:

Some politicians think we gotta treat Ottawa like Santa Claus and write him begging or something...or when Joey was around it was "Uncle Ottawa" maybe he'll do us some favours.

Cleary apparently doesn’t agree.

It seems that the supposedly independently minded wannabe Dipper MP  endorses the approach of a provincial government going cap in hand to the federal government for money to do what the provincial government not only should do on its own but clearly has the cash to do on its own.

But if Liberal leader Stephane Dion didn’t talk about that particular issue in his response to the begging letter from Danny Williams, what  - pray tell  - did Jack Layton of the (N)DP offer?

Well, he sure didn’t jump at the chance to cost-share a provincial prison on a 70/30 basis with the feds picking up the larger bit.

Nope.

Layton committed to finding an “acceptable funding arrangement”.  That’s it.

An acceptable funding arrangement could be anything from having the province bear the whole load to having the federal government pay only enough to represent the handful of prisoners that are held in provincial custody awaiting transfer to federal custody.  That wouldn’t likely be 70%, incidentally.

No wonder Cleary didn’t make any reference to the letter Jack wrote. His party isn’t really any better than the crowd he’s trying to poke.  Well, at least when it comes to answering people that come begging to Uncle Ottawa.

Sometimes the whole story is just too painful to write, even in a brief letter to the editor.

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Jack's coming back

Jack Layton, whose campaign signs are popping up all over St. John's South-Mount Pearl is coming back to campaign for Ryan Cleary, the guy running in Jack's place.

He'll be in St. John's this Sunday, October 5.

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Layton to Danny: Anything you want

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.

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Layton/Harris/Cleary promise to boost federal taxes on provincial OilCo

Newfoundland and Labrador's new oil company - doing work offshore as partner on the multi-billion dollar Hebron and White Rose projects - will be paying more corporate taxes to the federal government under a New Democrat federal government.

According to the Telegram, Layton hit one of those points during a campaign stop in St. John's on Friday:

Layton said one promise he is making is a rollback on corporate tax cuts to banks and oil companies, which he says both the Conservatives and Liberals have supported.

Layton used the example of Exxon, but evidently he didn't realise the provincial government under Premier Danny Williams is now one of the oil companies he plans to tax more heavily.

In a separate campaign appearance, Layton pledged to "honour the Atlantic Accord", apparently in reference to the 2005 federal transfer side deal between the federal and provincial governments. 

But his blanket pledge also included the real Accord, the 1985 deal signed by Brian Mulroney and Brian Peckford that establishes joint management of the offshore between St. John's and Ottawa and which sees the provincial government collect 100% of royalties from the offshore as if the resources were on land.

Under clause 41 of the 1985 Atlantic Accord, provincial or federal Crown corporations are taxed like all other companies:

Crown corporations and agencies involved in oil and gas resource activities in the offshore area
shall be subject to all taxes, royalties and levies.

OilCo, the oil subsidiary of the province's still unnamed energy corporation, is incorporated like all other corporations in the private sector, even though its shares are owned 100% by the Crown.  The company also isn't a Crown agent.

While in St. John's, Layton also pledged to transfer federally-owned shares in the Hibernia project to Newfoundland and Labrador "over a period of time" [Telegram story on Layton at Memorial University, not online.  CP story here.]

Those shares, representing 8.5% of the project, would also be handled by the province's energy corporation.  They would also be subject to the NDP's increased taxation.

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Layton shafts Williams on key ABC demand

Jack Layton's promise to "honour the Atlantic Accord" doesn't meet one of Danny Williams key ABC demands and would deliver nothing in new federal transfers to Newfoundland and Labrador under the 2005 Williams deal with Paul Martin.

Williams is seeking to have the province's revenues from offshore oil and onshore minerals  - likely $2.0 billion this year - left out of the formula used to calculate Equalization transfers from Ottawa to the provinces.

Canadian Press gets it wrong:

Premier Danny Williams estimated the difference between the accord and the Tories' revised equalization plan was $10 billion - a sum he recently demanded Ottawa pay over 15 years.

The $10 billion number comes from the pledge made by both Stephen Harper in 2006 to drop non-renewables from Equalization. The estimated value to the province came from projections by a Memorial University economist. The actual value of the Harper 2006 promise Williams is looking for now would be considerably more given the current high prices for oil and minerals.

Harper didn't deliver in 2006.  His government instead went with a revised Equalization formula based on recommendations from an expert panel. It's that failure that ignited Williams' anger at Harper.

In 2006, Layton promised only to deliver an Equalization formula with "A better measure of fiscal capacity."

Evidence of Layton's confusion between Williams' demand and the 2005 deal is in the estimated value of the new Layton "commitment, said by Canadian Press to be worth $400 million according to NDP researchers.

Under the 2005 deal Layton referred to on Friday, the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial government will receive extra federal transfers to offset declines in Equalization coming as a result of growing oil money.  But the extra cash comes only as long as the province qualifies to receive Equalization in the first place.

The provincial government won't qualify for the federal transfer this year, hence it won't be entitled to cash under the 2005 deal. 

Layton's commitment won't actually involve any new cash transfers either.

As part of the 2005 deal, Newfoundland and Labrador received an advance payment - essentially a credit against future earnings under the deal. That money won't be completely exhausted this year by the time the province goes off Equalization.  The credit in the account is considerably more than $400 million.

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Another bad day on the campaign trail

Federal leader New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton and former provincial party leader Jack Harris have trouble blithely dismissing Ryan Cleary's opinion about New Democrats or about the need to maybe remove Newfoundland and Labrador from "Confederation's death grip". [h/t to nottawa]

Scroll down in the nottawa link and you find another bit of the story as it unfolded, when Cleary scrummed:

the principles of the ND party, NDP, NDP best reflect who I am and what I stand for. I believe that Jack Layton is the best leader in this country to bring us all together. To bring Newfoundland and Labrador into Confederation.

To bring Newfoundland and Labrador into Confederation?

Evidently, Cleary missed at least one little piece of history.

 

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Bad timing? No. Just bad Layton policy

Forget the appalling timing of Jack Layton falsely accusing NATO forces of indiscriminately killing Afghan civilians on the same day that terrorists killed six Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter.

No.

Focus instead on Layton's accusation.

He could have focused on the real problem, namely the terrorists. It's not like he used to criticize the terrorists whose suicide bombers slaughtered more innocent Afghan civilians than Canadian soldiers.

Or it's not like Jack criticized the terrorists who deliberately infiltrated Afghan villages when attacking NATO forces just so that they could produce the Afghan civilian deaths Layton is concerned about.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is rightly criticizing NATO forces but unlike Layton, Karzai is not crassly politicking over the bodies of the dead. Karzai doesn't want the Taliban to win. The same can't necessarily be said of Layton.

And before the e-mails and comments come from NDP supporters taking exception to pointing out the appalling comments Layton made, consider Layton's own releases and their shameless partisan appeal.

From the one on Afghan casualties:

In the upcoming by-elections, voters will finally have an opportunity to have their say on Canada’s involvement in this mission.

The choice is clear.

They can vote for parties that got us into this mission, extended this mission, or who want it to go on another two years – or they can vote for the NDP.

And then from the release issued an hour later on the deaths of six Canadian soldiers:

Canadian soldiers never die in vain when they are killed in the line of duty. All Canadian soldiers deserve our utmost respect for their willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Yeah, Jack, they do die in vain. Every single time a Canadian politician issues a pair of releases like these.

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