Fixing the date or fixing the election #nlpoli #cdnpoli

Arguably,  Justice Gillian Butler’s decision in a six year old case on the special ballot provisions of the provincial election law is one of the most significant political events in recent years.

Butler ruled the special ballot rules are unconstitutional since they deny an individual’s right to vote under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Introduced in 2007 with unanimous support of all members of the House of Assembly, the special ballot rules allow people to vote at least four weeks before an election exists.

Among the first critics of the special ballot rules was Mark Watton.  He represented the Canadian Civil Liberties Association pro bono as an intervener in the case Butler heard.  In 2007,  though, Watton wrote a letter to the editor of the Western Star and later published it on his now-defunct blog nottawa.  SRBP reproduced it from the print edition.

The fight against the special ballot laws took four years to get to a court and another six for the case to end in a decision but the fight was worth it.

Most people likely haven’t read Watton’s letter and the fact it isn’t available online anymore means that people writing about the issue these days won't know any of the background to the story.  To remedy that and to give Watton his due,  here’s the letter in its entirety.

The provincial government might appeal the decision.  Hopefully it won’t since, as Watton explained a decade ago,  the law is unconstitutional.  There is no reason to disagree with Butler’s conclusion.  The only sensible task for justice minister Andrew Parsons and his colleagues is to introduce amendments to the especial ballot law in the fall sitting of the House. 

[Originally published in the Western Star and at nottawa,  Friday 14 September 2007]

Muskrat Falls: The Kennedy Tweets #nlpoli #cdnpoli

Here’s a string of tweets from natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy on Friday night:

Jerome Kennedy @jerome_kennedy
Let me try and simplify Muskrat Falls. First question, do we(NL) need the power? If yes, then question # 2,what are we going to do about it? 

Jerome Kennedy @jerome_kennedy
MF cont'd. If we need the power what are our options: Muskrat Falls, refurbish Holyrood with small hydro and wind,Gull Island,or do nothing. 

Jerome Kennedy @jerome_kennedy
MF cont'd. Gull island is not an option at present. To do nothing is not an option. So, do we do Muskrat Falls or refurbish Holyrood. 

Jerome Kennedy @jerome_kennedy
MF cont'd. Nalcor argues that MF is $2.2B cheaper than Holyrood.Manitoba Hydro will examine this question and they are independent of govt. 

Jerome Kennedy @jerome_kennedy
The cost of oil makes Holyrood so expensive. At peak it burns 18,000 barrels of oil per day. Experts tell us that oil will continue to rise 

Jerome Kennedy @jerome_kennedy
Why the cost of oil will continue to rise-not enough supply to meet demand, activities in the Middle East and growth in China. Makes sense. 

Jerome Kennedy @jerome_kennedy
MF cont'd. Cost of fixing up Holyrood is $600M. Forecasted cost of oil between 2017-36 is more that $7B.Hydro avoids the volatility of oil.

And then came this one:

Mark Watton @mark_watton
@jerome_kennedy You know, if the House were sitting, you could do this using more than 140 characters at a time. #nlpoli in reply to @jerome_kennedy

Followed by complete silence from the minister.

Interesting synopsis of the government argument, though.  Interesting because of what it leaves out.
There’ll be more from SRBP in the days ahead.

- srbp -

More Tweets Update:

Jerome Kennedy @jerome_kennedy
MF cont'd(No.8) - Environmental benefits - Closing Holyrood is the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars off the road.Reduces GHGs by 1M tons/yr.

Jerome Kennedy @jerome_kennedy
MF cont'd (No.9) - Economic Benefits- peak employment of 2700. Job preference to Labradorians. Billions in income and taxes .Little talk of this.

And yet more tweets (Jan 22):

MF No.10 - Power rates continue to rise due to the price of oil. Critics argue that rates will double because of MF.This is simply not true. 

MF No.11-The average ratepayer will pay $217 monthly in 2016,pre-Muskrat.This is projected to rise to $232 in 2017 when MF starts up (▲$15). 

MF No.12-With Muskrat Falls the average user's rates are projected to go up from $232/mth to $246/mth between 2017-30. Rates will rise $14. 

MF No.13-Without Muskrat rates are projected to go up $57 between 2017-30,as compared to $14 with Muskrat.MF will stabilze [sic] and reduce rates.

Twitter or Huckster? Political uses of social media

Front page of the Telegram with a glorious picture. 

Way better advertising than he could ever buy with cash and Steve Kent nailed it.

Of course, Steve Kent is one thing above anything else:  a marketer.  He knows how to sell you something and the commodity he sells best his himself.  You can tell Steve Kent is good at it because he has done very well for himself in a relatively short period of time.

You can also tell because he uses the textbook lines to describe his interest in social media:

Twitter is really about having a dialogue. It’s about engaging people in conversation and it’s not just another approach to communicating messages in the traditional sense

The front page Telegram story would have you believe that Kent is a keen political trendsetter using social media like Twitter in order to “have ‘more human’ interactions with his constituents.”

Here is an example of those “more human” interactions, the dialogue, the conversations:

-  The Provincial Government is investing $2 million so schools across Newfoundland and Labrador can receive 1,450...

-  Storm has started, but dinner theatre is a go at Reid Centre for @mount_pearl Frosty Festival!

There’s some stuff about a pothole and a flat tire, lots of repeating of other people’s messages – called re-tweeting – and a few sports scores. Not very deep or detailed and all pretty pedestrian stuff.  If this is “more human”, then you’d hate to see the other “interactions.”

Still, good on Kent for going with this sort of thing.  He’s not alone;  he might be the only provincial politician to embrace twitter professionally but there are plenty of others out there.  Most locally tend to use Twitter this way:  very sterile and pretty much for putting on the official face.

Not all of them are like that, though.  Take Tony Clement, the federal cabinet minister.  this guy is on Twitter and he and his personality are right there.

And these guys are distinctly different from other high-profile people who are using Twitter.  News media types are especially notable for just putting themselves and their distinctive personalities out there for people to take or leave as they see fit. They don’t just tweet news or mundane lines teasing up a story on the conventional media for television or radio. Sports, movies, personal comments, jokes are all as much part of the twitter mix as something about what stories they are working on. Two that come easily to mind are Kady O’Malley from CBC Ottawa and David Cochrane, CBC’s provincial affairs reporter in  from Newfoundland and Labrador.

The contrast between the pols and the media is night and day.  One is carefully packaged and guarded, by and large, while the other is more natural.  Guess which one better reflects the online, social media world? 

Yeah.

It’s the news media types.  They have no less at risk than the pols but the ones who are using successfully have come to understand that a key part of their overall success is rooted in them being anything but a coif and a voice. Their personality and their personability has become part of the overall package that draws loyal followers. They aren’t “more human”, they are just human.

Authenticity, it seems, is like sincerity. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made in politics. Odd thing is, most politicians real don’t need to fake either.  Why some do remains a mystery.

Incidentally, it’s interesting to see how Twitter turns up in some election campaigns. In Humber West, Liberal Mark Watton has been using his Twitter feed to push out campaign-related information.  He’s tweeted at least once a day.  Conservative Vaughn Granter tweeted on Sunday but hadn’t done anything with Twitter since Tuesday of last week. The NDP candidate – Rosie Meyers – doesn’t appear to have a Twitter feed.

- srbp -

Environmentally debatable traffic, Jan 31 to February 4

Two stories this week to lighten the mood.

First:  a poster in the Health Sciences Centre announcing an event for February.  Someone crossed out the first “r” as a spelling mistake.  Likely the same person changed the spelling just down the hall to read nook-yoo-lur medicine.

Second:  Surely to merciful jumpin’s Conservative candidate Vaughn Granter did not dismiss Liberal Mark Watton’s experience in the Prime Minister’s Office or a federal cabinet minister’s office as cavalierly as it sounded.

“Some experience”?

“Could be some advantage”?

Could be a disadvantage?

That’s pretty sad for a guy who isn’t from Corner Brook originally who is trying to play himself as the local boy.

Take a listen to the campaign report linked above, by the way and notice that Granter did little besides run down his opponent and talk himself up personally.  Mark Watton, on the other hand, talked sensibly about issues that are actually of concern to the people in the district.

Huge difference.

Anyway, for those who came for the weekly hit parade, here are the week’s top stories as selected by readers.

1. Tweet of the week (early edition)
2. More of the same…
3. Financials key to Lower Churchill
4. Not the best campaign strategy, maybe
5. A Hugh Shea for our time
6. Strings and all
7. The old hum on the Humber
8. PIFO:  newly minted minister in trouble in own district
9. Ronald Harper
10. Finance minister cops to unsustainable spending

- srbp -

Watton to carry Liberal banner in Humber West

Corner Brook native Mark Watton wants to represent the people of Humber West in the House of Assembly.

He has the Liberal nomination.

And he’s got a pretty good line:

…do people want a PC government that’s going to be one seat bigger or do they want a PC government that’s going to be one seat more accountable?

 

- srbp -

Mill shelves controversial tire burning proposal on eve of by-election

Corner Brook Pulp and Paper quietly shelved a controversial proposal to burn tires as part of the mill’s power generation on the eve of  a provincial by-election.

Word came late Friday in a routine statement from the provincial environment department on applications under environmental protection laws.

The provincial environment minister was supposed to rule in December on a proposal from the west coast paper mill.  The provincial government postponed that decision to January 15 claiming that it had received more public submissions on the project than it could handle by the initial deadline.

While the initial announcement of the proposal met with little public reaction, a series of protests, letters to the editor and a Facebook campaign made it clear some area residents strongly opposed the tire burning idea.

The second deadline came and went with the excuse that the minister newly appointed on January 13 needed time to review the proposal.  Shortly afterward, the minister’s office indicated he’d have an announcement by week’s end.

The decision to shelve the proposal comes on the eve of a by-election to fill a Corner Brook seat in the provincial legislature vacated by Danny Williams, who quit politics in early December.

Both opposition parties pledged to make the proposal a key issue in the by-election but by Friday only the Liberals had a candidate to face the Conservatives.  Mark Watton, a lawyer who had previously been a political staffer in the Prime Minister’s Office and chief of staff to cabinet minister Ken Dryden, is expected to be the only person to seek the Liberal nomination that closes on Friday.

On  Wednesday, high school principal Vaughan Granter won the Conservative nomination.

Friday’s decision by Corner Brook Pulp and paper doesn’t necessarily remove the tire proposal.  The mill could bring the proposal back after the by-election.  At the same time, the provincial environment department ships used car and truck tires to facilities in Quebec for burning.

- srbp -

Game changer: Watton eyeing run in Humber West

Mark Watton, whose experience includes a stint as a senior advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office and chief of staff to cabinet minister Ken Dryden, is thinking of seeking the Liberal nomination in Humber West.

There’s a story in the Friday Western Star.

Now a lawyer who has been working out of Toronto since 2008, the 36-year-old is seriously thinking about throwing his hat in the ring as a Liberal candidate for the byelection to replace former premier Danny Williams in Humber West.

He will be returning home to Corner Brook for the Christmas break in the coming days and will use that time to do more thinking before making a decision.

Regular readers of this corner will also know Watton as the author of nottawa, a political blog he’s maintained for the past few years or so.

- srbp -