Time for a change #nlpoli

We’ve moved.

Starting Monday, you’ll find SRBP at edhollett.substack.com.

It’s January, the start of a new year.

And it’s also the 16^th anniversary of The Sir Robert Bond Papers.

There’s a lot happening or about to happen in politics in Newfoundland and Labrador.

So there’s no better time to shake things up.

As in 2005, Bond Papers will still fill a niche on the local political scene, one that has grown to a chasm in some respects.

Someone said the other day that I was blogging before people knew what blogging was. A blog fit the need of the times. New demands or larger demands means finding a new way to fill the gaps in the political landscape.  And so the new approach will allow me to use new ways to deliver fresh information and fresh perspectives on local politics.

There’ll still be at least one new post a week, at 7:00 AM every Monday. Some Monday posts will be available to anyone each month. 

Through a subscription, you can support Bond Papers and see the new content you will help develop.  

There’ll be fresh analysis and commentary from me and from guest writers.

 There’ll be a podcast, periodic at first and then more regularly as things get rolling.

Substack makes it easy to offer live q and a sessions, so I’ll be adding that to the mix for subscribers. With an election looming and then a series of major announcements and a budget due over the next three months, there’ll be plenty of fuel for real-time discussions between a panel and the audience as we all try to figure out where things are going.   

I’ll be exploring ways to add video to the mix as well, whether via Substack or through another platform like Facebook.

As with the blog, I’ll try things to see what works best.

“In any thriving democracy,” the first SRBP post said 16 years ago, “sound public policy can only come through informed debate and discussion.”

That remains the philosophy around here even though we are far from a thriving democracy. By the way, Monday’s first Substack post - the working title is “Process” - will touch on the state of political affairs in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Whatever the format, Bond Papers will continue to be about stirring you up with information.  Challenging. Provocative. Saucy.   Put your own word on it.

That’s still what Bond Papers will be.

Just from a new location on the Internet, with your continued support.

A change is as good as a rest #nlpoli

After 12 years and two months, we are going to make some serious changes at Bond Papers.

For one thing, we'll be going from daily posts to weekly ones, most likely on Monday mornings. 

For another thing, there'll be a change of content.  There are some book reviews that have been in the works for a while. Those will appear over the next few weeks.  General political science and history posts will appear as will notifications of events. I may need to make some observations about public relations now and then. SRBP has always been a very personal thing for me and, as such, the truly personal stuff will stay.

Fans of the policy analysis and commentary will find it at aims.ca.  Long-time readers will know that the original idea for SRBP was for longer, detailed policy analyses. It turned into a blog, went through a number of changes of style and form, and has still been evolving up to and including these changes. In that respect, this next evolution - of doing policy research and analysis for an independent think-tank - makes perfect sense.

AIMS does some other regular public commentaries through conventional media and I will be producing those for Newfoundland and Labrador. Don't be surprised if you see some other efforts to make more people in Newfoundland and Labrador more aware of AIMS and the work we do.

Many of you have sent good wishes via Twitter, Facebook, and linkedin.  It has been truly gratifying to know that all this work has had an impact.  There are thousands of people I have gotten to know online. You have all made an impact on me, in return, in more ways than you realise.  Thank you for that and thank you for the good wishes.

Many of you have told me you want SRBP to continue. The simple truth is that it cannot keep going as it is, under the circumstances. Hopefully you will continue to follow the policy work I will be doing through AIMS and will check in at SRBP for your fix of Newfoundland and Labrador history that will turn up as time allows. If you feel so moved, you can always reach me by email at ed_hollett at hotmail dot com, the address I have been using since hotmail started.  I will try and answer as much as I can. Of course, if you see me anywhere around town,  you can always come up, introduce yourself, and say hello.  Contrary to rumours, I don't bite. You know what I look like.

After all that, look at it this way:  it is not like I am disappearing.  And, if other plans work out, you will have a book or two to read in the near future that have come out of SRBP.

Take care and keep an eye out for me.

Ed