Yvonne - math #nlpoli

Liberal member of parliament Yvonne Jones is pissed off.

She told VOCM that “there are 1,016 people that are payrolled  [sic]under the Muskrat Falls project. 201 of those are Labradorians. So we have less than 10 per cent of Labrador people employed as part of that project.”

She said that was unacceptable.

Someone forgot to point out to the mathematically challenged politician that 201 is a teensy bit shy of 20% of 1,016.

Not less than 10%.

But about double that.

19.7% to be super-accurate.

So if someone pointed out to Jones that there are twice as many Labradorians working at Muskrat Falls as she thought, would she be only half as pissed off?

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Oh for God’s sake, just get a room #nlpoli

If you want to read a strongly worded condemnation of a provincial politician, take a gander at the Telegram’s editorial on Yvonne Jones from Tuesday’s paper.

Jones told the provincial government last week that her vote in the House of Assembly on Muskrat Falls was up for sale. Word got around the province pretty quickly.  And the Telegram dutifully pointed out that Jones’ pork-barrelling was from another time, a time perhaps best left behind.

The editorial tuts the appropriate tuts at Jones’ style of retail politics, but there are a few other points the Telegram didn’t make about the episode that are worth laying out.

Time to end the despicable abuse #nlpoli

Through her shouting and bawling it is hard to know if Yvonne Jones does not know what she is talking about or does not care.

Either way, the result is the same.

On Wednesday, Jones kept up her shouting about the tragic death of Burton Winters.  She has been talking about it in the House of Assembly every day the House has held a session for the past month.  The only day Jones didn’t rise in the House was when she and two of her colleagues went to Ottawa for a media stunt with federal Liberal members of parliament and the two New Democrats from this province.

Jones asked the Premier – yet again - if she would hold an inquiry into Winters’ death.  A month ago, there might have been a reason to do so.  Jones and few other political ghouls first tried to pin the tragedy on  federal officials. While Jones and the ghouls went off in pursuit of their own political agendas,  no one asked a few simple questions to provincial officials.  After all, ground search and rescue is a provincial responsibility.

Now let us be clear. Just because people are responsible for conducting a search does not mean they must be responsible if the search ends with finding a dead body. Your humble e-scribbler has pointed to the provincial officials before, not because they screwed up, but because they had information that should have put to rest any questions, concerns or doubts about the events in Makkovik.

No one asked for and no one volunteered the information.  One media outlet had the man with answers in their lap and instead asked him about something else.

Premier Kathy Dunderdale was content, at first,  to play the same game and go off to Ottawa for answers for questions that were irrelevant to knowing what happened. She even worked the federal defence minister to cook up a protocol change about when someone made a telephone call, as if that mattered then or now. It was pure theatrics and nothing more.

Despite the political misdirections, the public did get a very good  picture of what happened over those fateful few days in late January,  They had a very good timeline on  CBC’s website very shortly after the tragedy.  On February 10, the federal government released an internal report by National Defence officials on the incident as well.  It had plenty of detailed information on the provincial government’s actions. 

On March 7, though, when the House debated a resolution on the Makkovik tragedy, someone finally gave an account of events from the provincial government perspective. To his great credit, municipal affairs minister Kevin O’Brien gave a simple and clear account of things.  Unfortunately, quite a few people - your humble e-scribbler included – never saw or heard O’Brien’s speech. 

There is no need for an inquiry. By March 7th at the very latest, anyone who earnestly wanted to understand what had happened in Makkovik in late January could have known. 

A young boy went missing.  Police and local volunteers went searching where they thought he might be.  As it turned out, they had support from a helicopter that was in the area.  The police called provincial officials who, as they always do, called on a contracted helicopter service to help.  They couldn’t fly because of weather conditions at that time but came as quickly as they could.

Provincial emergency officials tried to get another helicopter from National Defence.  An inspection turned up a problem with a fuel line which they corrected.  Other than that, they had the same weather problems the commercial helicopter pilots had.

When the weather cleared, the commercial helicopter arrived and joined the search.  The searchers turned up signs of the young boy hours later.  They asked for and got help from the joint rescue centre in Halifax.  They sent a helicopter from Goose Bay and a long range patrol plane with equipment that could find heat from a human body at great distances.

The helicopter found other signs before nightfall and weather forced them to call off the search.  The next day the commercial helicopter located the boy’s body.

There can be no question about what happened.  The events are now well known to anyone who cares to find out.  The accounts of the search are consistent and always have been.  Many people acted in good faith and in a sincere effort to find a lost boy. Through no fault of anyone, they did not find the boy before he died.

For some unfathomable reason, Yvonne Jones seems determined to smear the young boy’s blood on someone – anyone -  even though there is not a single shred of evidence to support her efforts. She is prepared to invent or imagine all sorts of faults and failings for all sorts of people. 

Premier Kathy Dunderdale is Jones’ latest victim on that account.  The Premier often has trouble getting things straight.  On this issue, she has done a great many things except cut to the simple and plain truth.  But to be fair to her, Dunderdale has not been misleading anyone or confuddled her accounts, as Jones claimed on Wednesday.

In her relentless blood-smearing efforts, Jones also tried on Wednesday to invent some delay by provincial officials in calling the federal government for help.  There was no delay and Kevin O’Brien was again right to call Jones out for her political grandstanding:

You are playing politics with a tragedy, I say to the hon. member. Appalling!

Amen to that.

Jones’ behaviour has been appalling.

But there is an even better word for it and no one should be afraid to tell it to Jones at every opportunity:  despicable.  Yvonne Jones’ behaviour is utterly despicable.  It is beyond contempt.

There are times for politicians to fight for their constituents.  And there are times when responsible political leaders must help a community to heal.  In this case, Jones should be helping people to come to terms with a tragedy.  Instead, Jones is tearing open their wounds each day.  She is abusing people who have put their trust in her to do the right thing. She is being grossly irresponsible.

And whether she simply has no idea what she is talking about or does not care, the end result is the same:  a young boy’s family, friends and neighbours and thousands of other sincere people across the province continue to suffer the most horrible mental anguish.  They should not have had to endure it for one second longer than necessary. Yet as a result of Jones’ actions, they have been deluded into looking for blame where there is none to be had. They have been misled into thinking there are some secrets  or mysteries yet to be discovered. They have suffered now for days and weeks and months longer than they needed to. There is no excuse for it.

Jones has had help in this monstrous abuse.  She received it from other politicians.  She has received it from the news media.  

And above all she has received it from her caucus colleagues and her party leader, Dwight Ball.  They have not just stood by and allowed her to carry on.  They have joined her, as Ball did for the Ottawa stunt. There are no words in the English language strong enough to condemn Jones for grandstanding over others’ grief or for Ball who has simply acquiesced to Jones at every turn.

Let Wednesday be the last day for this despicable abuse of Burton Winters’ family and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Jones and Ball should let people begin to find some small measure of comfort from their anguish. If instead, Jones and Ball persist on their current course, then they deserve whatever political consequences they suffer.

It’s time for them to stop the despicable abuse.

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Kennedy slices into NDP’s Muskrat falls hypocrisy #nlpoli #cdnpoli

Natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy belled the NDP cat on Wednesday for the provincial party’s flip-flop on Muskrat Falls. As the Telegram reported in its Thursday edition,

… Kennedy was particularly hard on criticism coming from the NDP, saying the current tone represents a break from deceased federal leader Jack Layton.

“The NDP has been making a lot of noise in the last little while, but it’s my understanding that Jack Layton supported the project,” Kennedy said. “Does the NDP still support the project? They’re not answering that.”

Jerome is right, of course. 

And not only about Jack Layton’s support. 

Bloc-NDP members of parliament Ryan Cleary and Jack Harris campaigned on a pro-Muskrat Falls ticket during last year’s federal election, as did provincial party leader Lorraine Michael who joined them on the campaign trail.

Enterprising news editors will no doubt be scrambling for shots of Lorraine cheering Jack’s visit here as she cheered Jack on and looking through Lorraine’s old news releases.

Lorraine supported the Lower Churchill project.  Her only criticism at the time it was released is that the deal was not as big as the original promise.

But make no mistake:  Lorraine backed Muskrat Falls.

However, she’s been shifting her position as public opposition to the project mounted.  You could say she’s trying to pull an Aylward.  Former Liberal leader Kevin Aylward shifted his potion almost 180 degrees on the project during the latter days of last fall’s provincial election. 

Now Michael is trying to sound like she isn’t backing the plan to deliver cheap electricity to her New Democrat pals in Nova Scotia.  Here’s how the Telegram quoted her from another Muskrat story from Thursday’s paper:

NDP Leader Lorraine Michael said she’s open to being convinced that going ahead with the project is a good idea. Nothing Locke said moved her, though.

She said she’s hoping to see independent, in-depth examination of alternatives to Muskrat Falls before the project gets sanctioned.

“If there was an in-depth analysis that was done on an alternative like the wind power — an in-depth analysis — then I’d like to see it,” she said. “My understanding is that no in-depth analysis has been presented.”

The spring session of the legislature should be interesting if only for the political cat-fighting among members of three political parties all of which support Muskrat Falls to one degree or another.

The Liberals back the project as well.  Their only objection, as described by natural resources critic Yvonne Jones is that there is no guarantee any power will go to Labrador.

Power could go there, of course, but Jones apparently wants some other guarantee. her objections are best described as superficial or trivial.  She’ll fold up and back the thing when it comes down to it.

But a crushing public debt?

The enormous cost piled on the backs of ordinary people of this province while others get a free ride?

Not a worry for Jones and the Liberals apparently.

Kennedy will have an easy time of it in the House lined up against the likes of the NDP and the Liberals.

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Liberal commitments for Labrador #nlpoli

From Yvonne Jones’ Facebook page, posted shortly after midnight:

Full Liberal Platform being released tomorrow. Includes a full section on Labrador. Highlighting the committment [sic] to pave the Labrador Highway, designate the Strait of Belle Isle Ferry service as essential and putting a new ferry in place to serve the people of Labrador year round. The liberals [sic] will look at a fixed link for the Island -Labrador crossing along with committing to 21st century communications, including high speed internet and cell phone coverage for Labradorians and much more. Labrador should be a priority for all political parties in this campaign, after all we are raking in the big bucks for the governments these days.

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Yvonne Jones: Profile in Courage

What does not kill you makes you stronger.

That must be the case.

Yvonne Jones is emerging from her battle with cancer with unrivalled moral strength even if her physical strength has been sapped to the point she must quit as leader of the provincial Liberal Party.

She worked through her cancer treatment, including returning to the House of Assembly before she was finished treatment. 

She went back to the floor of the legislature this past spring knowing the stream of abuse and invective – some of it savagely personal - the governing Conservatives heaped on her in the House continually for years would not let up.

The Tories, including the incompetent and biased Speaker did not fail to meet the lowest of low expectations.

To those familiar with the goings on in the House, few could fail to be impressed by Yvonne Jones. No matter what issues you disagreed with her on, there is not a single person in the province who could doubt Jones’ sincerity and the personal integrity she has in abundance.

Courage is not word people use often when speaking about politicians. But politicians are among the most courageous people there are in our province.

They often act against the weight of public opinion, against the approval of their colleagues from all parties, despite personal attacks, that wound them and their loved ones and despite often suffering from the simple human failing of wanting to do the right thing but of sometimes being uncertain in what direction that good really does lie.

The truly courageous ones, like Yvonne, don’t need to tell you how courageous they are. 

They don’t need to.

They simply are.

From the podium Tuesday, Yvonne Jones did not tell people about courage.

She showed them.

Jones showed the pain of her decision at her news conference.  But as she looked around the room, Jones very likely saw a group of people more optimistic for the future than they have been in years. 

Jones can take credit for a lot of that renewed strength of that rediscovered confidence. 

Real leaders lead best by example.

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Yvonne Jones newser – details

From the official media advisory:

Head:  Yvonne Jones to discuss her future in politics

Opposition Leader Yvonne Jones will make a statement today concerning her future as Leader of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Jones will deliver the statement at 1:30 p.m. in the Conception Bay Room at the Holiday Inn in St. John’s.

The media, party members and well wishers are invited to attend.

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Media Contact:   Craig Westcott| Director of Communications| Office of the Official Opposition

(709) 729-6151   Cell 693-1306  craigwestcott@gov.nl.ca

Did I say yes to Muskrat? I meant “no”: Jones

Political decisions in Newfoundland and Labrador are apparently like the local weather at least as far as the current crop of party leaders in the province is concerned.

Wait a minute and everything changes.

Kathy Dunderdale set the standard for indecisiveness with her on-again, off-again subsidies for Danny Williams’ latest gaggle of professional jockstraps.

Now it’s Yvonne Jones’ turn.

In an interview with NTV’s Issues and Answers last week, Jones said that as Premier she’d hand over responsibility for deciding the fate of the Muskrat Falls to the Auditor General. 

And if he ruled the thing was good, then that was good enough for Jones.  She’d go along with it.  Jones sounded positively giddy at the thought of all the jobs and electricity to fuel develop in Labrador.  She claimed there’s 700 megawatts need for mining developments.  That’s pure crap, of course.

Well wait a minute, or in this case a couple of days, and Jones wants to scrap the deal now. That’s what she says in the latest news release from the Opposition Leader’s Office

The reason Jones changed her mind is an interview with Vermont Governor Pete Shumlin on CBC Radio.  Shumlin noted, among other things, the problems with the current projected prices for Muskrat Falls power. 

“If the power is too expensive for residents of the United States, how is it affordable for us, when Premier Dunderdale wants to charge us more for it than consumers outside the province,” Jones said. “Kathy Dunderdale is content to saddle this province with generations of debt for a project that doesn’t make financial sense.”

Quick!  Get the smelling salts.  Regular readers of this corner are swooning at this revelation. After all, it’s not like your humble e-scribbler hasn’t been pounding the drum about how uncompetitive the Muskrat Falls power is on the markets not just today but well into the future.

In fact, there’s even a comment from Kathy Dunderdale  - from last fall - about the lack of American markets for the super expensive Muskrat power.

And if none of that rings a bell, don’t forget the Rhode Island memorandum of understanding.  Kathy Dunderdale told the legislature one story.  Turns out that, to paraphrase a famous politician, nothing Kathy said could be further from the truth:

As far as we can determine, there is no legislative hold up here in Rhode Island, it is more of a question of cost.  While the power generation is inexpensive, the cost of transmission adds to the final price. The possibility of purchasing power is still alive; it may be a topic of discussion at the conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers that is happening today. Interest in purchasing renewable energy remains. 

Yes folks, there you have it from 2009:  New England states are interested in buying energy from renewable sources but the damnable costs of transmission are a problem.

That post did not make the local media sit up and take notice.  It took two years and another governor for them to figure it out.

Anyway, scuttling the deal is Jones’ latest position. Once she gets a few phone calls from people who want jobs on the project or from business owners anxious to suck harder on the public debt tit, she’ll swing around again.

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Not much to see

The Telegram’s Russell Wangersky looked ahead to the fall election and didn’t like what he saw.

Wangersky’s assessment is brutal but it is accurate.

The Liberals:  “When someone who isn't looking for the leader's job is bigger news than the person who's already holding it, you've got big problems.”

The NDP:  “Unremittingly hopeful but doomed to disappointment….Don't bet the family fortune on renting floats to the victory parade.”

The Conservatives:  “Right now, they are an all-encompassing government that stresses the need for belt-tightening (while spending more), reducing debt (while increasing it) and telling people that we have to live within our means (all the while living beyond their own).”

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A world of their own

Kathy Dunderdale showed up in the province again to talk about the wonderful reception her Muskrat Falls megadebt project got from the New England governors.

Two things stood out right off the bat from Dunderdale’s scrum. 

First, there was her reference to Yvonne Jones as if the Liberal leader hadn’t already drunk the freshie.  Jones supports the project for the same reason Dunderdale does:  “significant employment and income to the residents and businesses of Newfoundland and Labrador”.

That those short-term jobs will come at such a terrible price -  doubling electricity rates and doubling the public debt  - won’t bother the placeholders one bit;  none of the province’s political parties are concerned about such triflings when then can buy votes with public money.

Second was Dunderdale’s response to a question about comments by Connecticut Governor Dannel Molloy about the need for timely discussion between Canadian province’s and New England states about importing Canadian electricity.  He also noted the need for improved transmission infrastructure to move the power along.

Dunderdale reminded the reporters at her scrum that Molloy was a newbie, only in office since January.  Then she carried on with the usual song and dance about how hydro is the answer to everyone’s prayers.

The fundamental problems with Muskrat Falls still remain.  Nottawa reminded everyone of the basic problem in a post that ran on Tuesday.  Connecticut’s current retail price for electricity is 40% below Muskrat Falls’ projected cost price. 

What he forgot to add was the transmission cost. That’s also something Vermont Governor Pete Shumlin  was talking about when he told reporters during the recent New England Governor’s and Eastern Canadian Premiers’ conference that:

… the most pressing question that needs to be resolved is how to get Canadian power to northern U.S. markets without boosting transmission capacity.

"There is no universal plan to get it there," Shumlin said.

Muskrat power will cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of 14 to 16 cents per kilowatt hour to produce.  Then it has to roll through a couple of Canadian province’s and three or four American states.  In every one of those jurisdictions there will be at least one transmission charge whacked on top. 

That’s what Shumlin was talking about.  Even if by some hysterical development 16 cents a kilowatt hour became cheap electricity in New England, adding another 50% on top of that to move it around just prices the juice out of the market altogether.

Well, that and the fact that people in his state and elsewhere in New England just don’t want new hydro lines slung across their states.  New Hampshire opposition to a new line is just one example.

As you listen to Dunderdale, Jones, Michael and other politicians ramble on about Muskrat Falls you just get the sense they are in some sort of bizarre alternate universe.  They are out of touch with reality and news media keep repeating their comments as if they were rational.

The Telegram, alone among local media outlets, is finally getting the message. Its editorial on Saturday and again on Tuesday laid out the naked truth about Muskrat Falls and the provincial government’s enormous debt. The others, like VOCM, just continue to enable the delusions.

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The placeholder election

No matter what the outcome, all three political parties in the province will have new leaders before the 2015 contest.

In December, the Tories decided to postpone their leadership fight until after the October general election.  Kathy Dunderdale took over the job in the first place on the understanding it would be a temporary thing.  The shift in December had more to do with internal party politics than Dunderdale’s sudden discovery she had some goals to accomplish.  [Hint:  she didn’t].

Dunderdale is pushing 60 as it is.  If she’s elected in the fall, she will be the oldest person ever elected Premier since Confederation, beating out Danny Williams by eight years. This is not a two term Premier, no matter how you look at it.

The only real question is whether the Tories will have the leadership quickly or wait until year three-ish.  Anything before October 2014 triggers an election under Danny Williams’ changes to the Elections Act.  How long she stays is really up the ambitious men and women within her caucus who have parked their campaign until after the fall vote.

Over in the Liberal camp, Yvonne Jones’ only hope of hanging onto her current job is if she wins the next election. Even then, her tenure would depend heavily on her having a clean bill of health.  Otherwise, the length of time she stays on as leader is in inverse proportion to the magnitude of her defeat. The only factor that could push her out more quickly would be a recurrence of Jones’ cancer.

There there is the 68-year old New Democratic Party leader, Lorraine Michael. While her party keeps torquing the idea of some massive break-through in the general election, Michael likely won’t be around long afterward to enjoy it, even if it does happen. 

Politics is gruelling.  Look at the toll the stress has taken on Kathy Dunderdale already, despite the fairly obvious makeover she’s undergone in a very short space of time.  And Dunderdale is nine years younger than Michael. 

This is Lorraine’s last trip to the polls. Just as well to start the pool now on who will replace her.

No matter how you slice it,  this election will be about marking time;  it’s a placeholder election with the real contest coming at some point within the next four years

It will be interesting to see how this issue – one that affects all three parties equally – factors into the campaign and to the final vote.

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Dunderdale disapproval doubles; Tory vote drops to 44%

What a difference a federal election can make to provincial poll results.

According to the latest Angus-Reid poll,  43% of respondents are satisfied with Kathy Dunderdale’s performance as premier down from 55% in February and 67% for her predecessor last November.

Undecided remains at 35% of those polled.

But here’s the thing:  Those who said they were dissatisfied with Dunderdale’s performance went from 10% in February to 23%.

That trending is bad news for Danny Williams’ hand-picked replacement.

News for the Tories doesn’t get any better from Corporate Research Associates who conducted their quarterly omnibus poll from May 11 to May 28.  Margin of error for the poll is 4.9%. CRA polling seems to inflate Conservative vote in the province by anywhere up to 15 or 20 percentage points and deflate the undecided and will not vote categories by a comparable percentage.

Forty four percent (44%) of respondents said they would vote for Dunderdale’s provincial Conservatives if an election were held tomorrow. That’s down from 56% in February and 51% from last November.

“Undecided” (including refused to state and won’t vote) in the CRA poll reportedly held at 23%. It hit 31% in November just before Danny Williams announced his resignation.

So where did those ex-Tory voters go in the CRA poll?  Liberal support increased from 11% in November 2010 to 16% in the most recent poll.  The New Democrats picked up the most, going from 6% in February to 15% in May.  But here’s the thing:  before that they were hovering at 5%. 

Kathy Dunderdale and the Conservatives were already trending downward anyway.  Hitching her star to Stephen Harper didn’t seem to help the Premier’s standing with voters.  Meanwhile, the strong showing of the New Democrats in the metro St. John’s area federally seems to have been carried over in CRA’s polling.

While local media and the New Democrats will likely be torquing these results based primarily on CRA’s misleading way of reporting its research, whether the New Democrats can hang on to those numbers without help from Jack Layton remains to be seen.

What you can say is this:

1. Kathy Dunderdale and the provincial Conservatives are in serious political trouble.  Voter support for her and her party is on the way down, continuing trends that go back about a year.
2. At the very best, voters remain uneasy about Kathy Dunderdale. At the very worst, Angus-Reid numbers suggest there is growing opposition to her leadership. If the trending in that poll continues, Dunderdale’s satisfaction numbers will be 31% with 35% unsatisfied and another 35% unsure.
3. At the same, voters are unsure about the opposition parties.  While the NDP seem to be having a small flourish, the numbers are nothing to write home about, especially after a prolonged period below 10%.  Meanwhile, the Liberals under Yvonne Jones have shown some modest progress over time. In CRA’s poll, both Michael and Jones are neck and neck which is pretty much where they have been for most intents and purposes for years.  Dunderdale is in a sad spot:  41% of respondents think she is the right leader for the province.

Bottom line:  People aren’t sure about Dunderdale and the Conservatives but they also aren’t sure about the other two leaders and their parties.

There’s a long time to October and any of a number of things could change the political landscape in the province dramatically one way or the other. 

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Jabberwocky

Get a load of this little bit of ministerial bafflegab. It’s Ross Wiseman, lately the business minister talking about the issue of air service to the southeast coast of Labrador:

We were working on this overall strategy piece. Work has been pretty well advanced. What we do in Labrador is a response to the unique circumstance in Labrador, yes, but at the same time we do it in the context of a provincial strategy. It’s difficult sometimes to go into one region of our province and develop a policy framework, or develop a strategy, or provide a response, without giving some consideration to what impact that might have on an entire province, and how that might fit into a broader strategy, so we’re cognizant of what we’re trying to do in the bigger piece.

There’s something even stranger about this.

Wiseman is not the minister responsible for transportation, in whose lap this issue falls.

That would be Trevor Taylor.

Nor is he the minister of Labrador affairs.

That would be John “The Shoveller” Hickey.

Nor is Wiseman likely the alternative minister for any of those portfolios. Not only has Ross had no experience with them, there is no connection - logical or otherwise – among them.

Wiseman used to be the health minister. Now he is the minister responsible for figuring out how much money he should take from the most indebted taxpayers in Canada in order to give it to give some rich foreigner in order to get them to come here and make work.

So on the whole, Wiseman’s face on this story of a domestic company – Air Labrador – is peculiar.

It’s not even odd that the airline in question has let slip this little story long before they actually intend to cut the service.

And it’s not the least bit peculiar that the local member of the provincial legislature - Liberal leader Yvonne Jones - wants government to think about funnelling cash into this local private sector company. That’s what local MHAs do in Newfoundland and Labrador, regardless of any political affiliations involved.

Nor is it odd that Jones has no problem with pouring public cash into a local airline but doesn’t like pouring public cash into the oil and gas exploration business.

And it’s not odd that Jones wants to make sure there is good air medical service in the large Labrador, one of the services the airline provides. In fact, Air Labrador made $3.4 million in 2007-2008 flying medical patients around the nearby health region along the north shore of the St. Lawrence.

That would be the health region in Quebec, for those whose Labrador geography is a bit dodgy.

But that cash came for providing an essential service, not just for having planes flying into and out of a community carrying passengers or – as the company decision suggests not carrying passengers - just for the sake of saying there is a plane coming into the local airport.

That idea is as wacky as the utterings by the jabberwock about the whole issue in the first place.

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Great Gambols with Public Money: The Stunnel, Part Deux

The sort of collective insanity that leads people to support incredibly asinine ideas like the Stunnel isn’t confined to any one political party.

Consider these musings from Liberal leader Yvonne Jones in the Wednesday Telegram.  The story isn’t available online.

Jones, it should be noted, just happens to represent the electoral district into which the Stunnel would go to connect the island of Newfoundland with the continent.

That is a mere coincidence, though.

Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones said while fixing Marine Atlantic's service has to be done in short order, the long term solution could be reopening a 2004 report on a fixed link between the  Northern Peninsula and Labrador.

"It's pretty much common knowledge that if you're going to have a  strong economy, a functional economy, you need to be able to have good  transportation and communication links to the rest of the world," she said.

"The realty is we are losing business because of the level of service that's being provided. People are turning away at the docks."

Whether it's a tunnel, bridge or some other link, Jones said transportation to the mainland cannot depend on someone else's schedule.

It’s pretty much common knowledge that Newfoundland and Labrador has a strong, functioning economy complete with diverse and very good transportation and other communications links to the rest of the world.

There is a very particular problem with one service that is provided by an agency that seems chronically unable to sort out the difficulties.

The solution to this particular problem is to sort out this particular problem, not peddle some completely lunatic idea to spend untold billions digging a hole through which trains would run. 

The solution isn’t even to dig a hole through which people might drive their cars at a cost of billions which will never – realistically – be repaid or otherwise recovered.

All that Jones has offered up here is just more of the same old ideas that haven’t worked to solve the Marine Atlantic problem before. 

One very plausible solution would be to end Marine Atlantic’s monopoly and allow competition on the run.  A similar idea would be to dispose of the Crown corporation altogether and let a private sector company enter the picture. 

After all, if there is that much business being lost – as Jones claims – there’s likely room for another carrier.

Maybe that other carrier can run between Halifax and the Port of St. John’s.  Maybe that carrier would run between Montreal – for argument sake – and Stephenville or Corner Brook.

But wait.

Even in the absence of a competitive ferry service, there is an alternative already.  There are other cargo ships that ply the waters between the island of Newfoundland and the mainland of the continent.  Tourists can fly into airports located conveniently near the major attractions.

Any of these are viable options to digging a hole in the ground and pouring public money in behind it.

On some level, though, the longer Marine Atlantic continues to screw up, the more it is just useful political fodder for everyone from provincial opposition politicians, to federal ones like Gerry Byrne to St. John’s city councillors. If Marine Atlantic stooped being a problem, they’d have to find something else to talk about.

Now to be fair to Sandy Hickman, he is just following on the time honoured tradition of St. John’s city politicians talking about anything but stuff they can do anything about or should be worried about.

The current mayor – Doc O’Keefe – rose to prominence by advocating for the province-wide gasoline price fixing scheme taxpayers in the province now pay for.

Wannabe deputy mayor Keith Coombs is a teacher who liked to use public money to run a hockey rink and failed entertainment operation, better known as the Wells-Coombs Memorial Money Pit.

You’d hear both of them on radio or television talking about that stuff long before you’d hear them talking about capital works plans or garbage collection.

At least Hickman offered up a half-ways sensible idea that might just work and at no cost to the taxpayers.

On that ground alone, he should get re-elected to city council. 

Heck, on that ground alone, he should enter provincial or federal politics.

At least his head is screwed on straight.

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