Honouring Newfoundland Writers #nlpoli

Most of you have probably never heard of a fellow named Alonzo John  Gallishaw. 

John Gallishaw is best remembered in his native land for his brief service in the Newfoundland regiment during the Great War.  Wounded at Gallipoli,  Gallishaw was invalided out of service and eventually went back to the United States.  Born in St. John’s in 1890, Gallishaw had been in the United States at the time war broke out.  He was studying English at Harvard University, of all places.

He took up a teaching appointment and after the Americans entered the war,  Gallishaw enlisted in the American Army in January 1918.  He  took a commission and went to France as part of the American expeditionary force   That was Gallishaw’s hat-trick since he had enlisted briefly in the Canadian army on the war to Newfoundland in 1915.

“We are an island economy” and other nonsense #nlpoli

CBC’s On Point  this weekend delivered up some all-too-familiar conversation on the budget and a political panel talking about Judy Manning but sometimes you have to look closely at things to appreciate the value in public comments by politicians and reporters.

In an interview with David Cochrane, finance minister Ross Wiseman confirmed that he cannot even think about trimming government spending because the economy is heavily dependent on it.  Wiseman put the figure at about 30%.

Regular readers of these e-scribbles have know this for years.  What’s news in this is that we have a finance minister admitting it publicly.

A Celebration of Excellence #nlpoli

For the second day in a row, CBC Radio’s On the Go had a go at Frank Fagan, the newly appointed Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador.  Or as host Ted Blades described him on Tuesday, another old, white guy.

In Wednesday Blades decided to interview NDP leader Lorraine Michael.  Blades started out by asking if he had been right to bring “gender” into the discussion.

Michael responded by referring back to the Premier’s recent Ovations event.

There are at least a couple of things you can take out of the interview and the mini-flap that has erupted the Fagan appointment.

Putting selective “facts” on the splitting table #nlpoli

Premier Kathy Dunderdale wants to have a  “conversation” about the provincial government’s financial mess and the ways we might fix it. That’s what she told CBC’s David Cochrane in her year-end interview. 

One of the things Kathy wants to talk about is taxes, specifically the number of people not paying the bulk of the taxes the provincial government collects.

Kathy doesn’t really want to have a conversation, of course.  Kathy likes jargon.  She uses jargon a lot.  She thinks it makes her sound smart.  It never has.  Kathy uses jargon so much that It just makes her sound like someone trying to sound smart.