The little things that stand out #nlpoli

Throne Speech 2015 was the kind of document you’d expect from a group of politicians who are out of new ideas.

People are making a big deal out of the review of the provincial curriculum for K-12 schools.  That’s what the folks in the education department do for a living.  It’s nothing new.

The promise that the review will produce a 21st century curriculum is such a cliche that it is laughable, given that we are in the second decade of the new century.

Not very impressive, is it?

The debt is passed #nlpoli

Monday’s throne speech was so bad that people started making fun of it almost immediately.  On Twitter a few of us tried changing lines from famous John Kennedy speeches and giving them a local twist

You could find a variation on the moon speech:  we will go into debt,  not because it is hard but because it is easy.  Another tried German:  “Ich bin ein Bauliner!”

Or this one from the inaugural:

The debt has been passed to new generation, born in oil riches, untempered by profligacy, undisciplined by debt.

None could top the corrupted Kennedyism an actual speech by the Old Man, Hisself in 2006:

I say to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians: "Ask not what we can do for our country, because we have done enough. Let's ask our country what they can do for us."

New Energy? Same Old Stuff #nlpoli

After more than a year in office and the better part of six months after the last election, the Dunderdale Tories delivered their second throne speech opening a new session of the province’s legislature.

For a bunch that are supposedly anxious to break with the past, they spent a lot of time talking about how much things haven’t changed.

Get beyond the very long-winded introductory material that took every back to the middle of the 19th century, you will find a paragraph that includes a series of sentences that all began with “This is the Government that…”.

At the end, they are talking about a set of routine changes to the public tender act and the access to information law.  The latter is now two years overdue, having started in March 2010.

The speech then made an interesting reference to how the current administration spends public money.  At least one reporter heralded this bit as proof the Dunderdale Tories are serious about fiscal restraint and getting spending under control.

Yeah, well, that isn’t what’s in the speech.

The speech talks about “a long-term, multi-year approach”.  Then it talks about how the government is “determined to achieve efficiencies” and  “to maximize the value of every public dollar spent”.

Not exactly anything concrete in that.

Then they repeat the commitment we’ve already heard:

Improving Newfoundland and Labrador’s debt position even more in the next 10 years to achieve the same per-capita debt as the Canadian average is a goal the province can reach through discipline in spending and the allocation of a significant portion of surpluses to debt reduction…

Sounds marvellous, doesn’t it?  No doubt someone could easily be fooled if they didn’t read the paragraph before that.  That’s where the government pledged they would stay the fiscal course:

to ensure we continue to live within our fiscal means.

Continue?  They haven’t been living within the public’s means as it is, so continuing would not be good at all.
And that debt thingy is a bit of old Tory verbal bullshit.  This is the government that like to claim they’ve reduced the public debt.  This is the government that included the claim about debt reduction in the throne speech:

Already, it has reduced the province’s burden of debt by more than a third from a high of $12 billion to an estimated $7.7 billion at March 31.

Problem is that the claim just isn’t true. 

It’s false.

A total crock of crap.

The gross public debt – the bit that determines the annual burden of servicing the debt – is more than $12 billion.  What the speech refers to is net debt, an accountant's calculation of assets and liabilities. 

This is the government that took every surplus and simply socked the money in the bank.
 
This is the government that put a tag on it to spend on the Muskrat Falls dam.

And that’s all they’ve done.

Take it altogether and you have words in the speech that might fool some people into believing it means spending control in the future.

But since this is the government that hasn’t been able to control its spending since at least 2005, this is the government that merely pledged to deliver more of the same.

Then they pledged to spend money on health care.  There’s a novel idea.

Then there’s a mention of a three year old change to child protection laws that is only just now finishing up.
Then there’s a reference to more of the same education and employment subsidy programs that have been in place for years as well as more spending on K-12 education.

When you get beyond that bit, the speech mentions a new poverty reduction strategy, as if the current one is finished.

There’s a reference to economic diversification but no sense of what the current administration understands that to mean actual changes to current policy.  On the contrary,  while so many parts of the province have grown more dependent on government spending, the throne speech uses exactly that – the references to Grand Falls-Windsor and Stephenville - as examples of how the government intends to move in the future.

And after all that there’s the obligatory recital of the Muskrat Falls project.

Nowhere in the throne speech is there a single significant new idea of any kind.

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Dunderdale government to cure arthritis

From the Throne Speech:

As My Government follows through in implementing its provincial wellness plan and its healthy aging strategy, it is also turning its attention to chronic diseases. Arthritis, cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, lung disease – unlike many acute illnesses that can be treated and cured – are chronic conditions which can remain with people for the rest of their lives. My Government will move forward this year to release a new Chronic Disease Management Strategy which will include a comprehensive and collaborative approach to chronic disease prevention and management throughout the province.

Chronic disease prevention.

Arthritis listed first.

As someone with arthritis, your humble e-scribbler is not going to hang around waiting for them to deliver on that one.  Hint: no one knows what causes arthritis. But if they can improve the pathetic arthritis support delivered via Eastern Health’s bureaucratic monstrosity, then more power to ‘em.

Gotta say too, now that Hisself isn’t writing the speeches any more, they are much better. One more mangled Kennedy quote and people were going to start flinging themselves under busses voluntarily.

But this speech has some decent writing including nice turns of phrase and some great structuring.

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I am Legend

This is a throne speech from someone who doesn’t plan on doing very much more in politics.

There is no greater legacy My Government is building for our province’s children than the renewed sense of pride and confidence that they, as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, are feeling as we become masters of our own destiny. In classrooms and homes across our province, a new attitude is taking hold, full of hope in the dream of a wonderful future for young people right here at home. This year’s plan of action builds with confidence on the extraordinary progress Newfoundland and Labrador has achieved since 2003.

That’s pretty much the tone of the whole thing: “Everything I set out to do is now done.  Everything and everyone is ready for a better tomorrow.”

The only thing missing was the talk of new hands taking the helm.

We already have that, by the way, in the 2005 throne speech in which Danny Williams plagiarized John Kennedy’s inaugural address to come up with his own version:

"The time has come for new heroes to step forward: men, women, and young people who can build their community, grow our economy, foster cooperation, and inspire the confidence we need to pursue our dreams together."

In the context of the speech though, Williams didn’t have the same idea Kennedy’s speechwriter used.  Kennedy was running on the theme that he embodied the new generation of leaders.  In Williams’ case, he was – apparently – talking about others coming forward to replace him.  That sounds odd, but then again, this is an administration that started out with the sort of foolish ideas – grandiose, overhyped megaprojects – that usually come from parties that are entirely clapped out.

In any event,  the new session of the latest Williams’ legislature may prove to be his last and one of the lightest in the history of the province. Then again, this guy has been The –est Premier.

-srbp-