The Sir Robert Bond Papers
The real political division in society is between authoritarians and libertarians.
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Churchill Falls and Muskrat Falls - Background
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19 November 2014
When the budget comes… #nlpoli
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We’ve got a provincial government in Newfoundland and Labrador that has been budgeting for years to spend more than it brought in. Way bac...
18 November 2014
Government Spending and the Economy – Again #nlpoli
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A post last week offered a quick confirmation that, as finance minister Ross Wiseman said, provincial government spending accounts for abo...
17 November 2014
Myths, then and now #nlpoli
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You really do have to wonder how anyone could be expected to keep things straight when the people they rely on to help them understand keep ...
14 November 2014
The Ego-mentary #nlpoli
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Danny Williams’ hockey team tried a little marketing ploy this week. They sent out a bulletin to news media disguised as a news release. ...
13 November 2014
Take a closer look #nlpoli
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Premier Paul Davis hasn’t delivered any speeches, issued any news releases, or done anything else to explain who he is and what he wants to ...
12 November 2014
Government Spending and GDP #nlpoli
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A couple of weeks ago, finance minister Ross Wiseman said that he can’t cut government spending because it is such an important part of the ...
11 November 2014
The Funeral by Dave Adey
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Originally left as a comment on the post about Remembrance Day, Dave sent this along as an attachment to an e-mail because it was too long ...
Velox Versutus Vigilans #nlpoli
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Corporal Kenneth Chad O’Quinn, 2 Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group Headquarters and Signals Squadron, killed in action, 03 March 2009...
Lest we Forget #nlpoli
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More people will pay attention to Remembrance Day this year than usually might. The murder a few weeks ago of Corporal Nathan Cirillo, and ...
10 November 2014
Rodent Intercourse #nlpoli
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If you want to see a fine example of the political management of a potentially devastating scandal, take a close look at how Justin Trudeau...
07 November 2014
Cycling through Newfoundland Politics #nlpoli
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A couple of recent posts included the invented word “stragedy”. As some of you figured out, it’s a deliberate combination of strategy and t...
06 November 2014
Spending Comparisons #nlpoli
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The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) released its annual summary of health care spending health care last week. This is a p...
05 November 2014
Mind-Numbing Sameness #nlpoli
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The Conservatives were looking to the by-election in Conception bay South to break their losing streak. As it seems now as voters in the d...
04 November 2014
More political stragedy #nlpoli
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Paul Davis started out as Premier talking about his plan to run a national competition to find a communications director for his office. T...
03 November 2014
A renaissance feast for Christmas #nlpoli
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Fans of politics in Newfoundland and Labrador have two excellent books that should be at the top of their Christmas gift lists this year. ...
31 October 2014
The Devil’s Snare #nlpoli
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The latest eruption of the Manning political controversy volcano is evidence of many things. Not the least is that Premier Paul Davis and ...
30 October 2014
Public Service and Bad Judgment #nlpoli
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Shortly after she was appointed to cabinet, Judy Manning told CBC that she was taking a significant cut in pay from her solo law practice ...
29 October 2014
The October 2014 NTV/MQO Poll Numbers #nlpoli
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NTV commissioned NTV to poll opinion about the provincial Conservatives a month after Paul Davis took over as Premier. The party choice n...
28 October 2014
Things that raise alarm bells #nlpoli
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As it becomes more clear that the two recent murders of Canadian soldiers had less to do with terrorism and more to do with people who are o...
27 October 2014
“We are an island economy” and other nonsense #nlpoli
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CBC’s On Point this weekend delivered up some all-too-familiar conversation on the budget and a political panel talking about Judy Manni...
24 October 2014
A Greek Tragedy #nlpoli
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While you are busily mulling over the possible implications the drop in oil prices might have on the provincial government’s budgets, distr...
23 October 2014
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning… #nlpoli
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We will remember them. Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent Corporal Nathan Cirillo ...
22 October 2014
Get the police out of politics and politics out of the police #nlpoli
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They just don’t look like recruiting ads . That’s the most striking thing about a series of television ads airing in Newfoundland and Labr...
21 October 2014
Call of Duty meets Police Academy #nlpoli
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It’s hard to imagine a more politically tone-deaf set of ads than the three currently in circulation by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary ...
20 October 2014
Oil and the budget #nlpoli
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Lots of people are wondering what the changes to the price of oil will do to the provincial budget. It will have an impact: no doubt abou...
17 October 2014
Double-down Locke #nlpoli
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“I didn’t see this coming,” Memorial University economist Wade Locke told the Telegram’s James McLeod the other day. Locke was talking abo...
16 October 2014
International expert on key Muskrat Falls feature to deliver public talk #nlpoli
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People interested in one of the big geological uncertainties that could affect the Muskrat Falls dam will have a chancer to hear from an int...
15 October 2014
What’s in a name? Justice edition #nlpoli
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Premier Paul Davis changed the name of the justice department to “public safety”. The local chapter of the Canadian Bar Association wrote ...
14 October 2014
Election Stragedy #nlpoli
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Charlene Johnson quit the legislature first. The chief electoral office has been plugging special ballot voting in the seat she vacated si...
The Manning – Coleman Correlation #nlpoli
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Some people who read The Independent last week thought that there was a debate going on between Hans Rollmann and Drew Brown over Judy Ma...
10 October 2014
Old Twitchy versus the Telegram #nlpoli
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Like clockwork, about two weeks after Danny Williams last got his mug on the news, the most thin-skinned media hound on the planet got himse...
09 October 2014
Births and Infant Deaths #nlpoli
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A recent article in The Atlantic looked at the infant mortality rate in the United States and why it appears so high in comparison to the r...
08 October 2014
Questions and Answers #nlpoli
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Unelected cabinet minister Judy Manning was “surprised” that her personal relationship with Paul Davis’ political bagman came up in a recent...
07 October 2014
CHC Helicopters’ shitty public relations #nlpoli
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“CHC Helicopters Canada is establishing a presence in St. John’s.” There is something about that comment from a spokesman for a company t...
The Vision Thing #nlpoli
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The St. John’s Board of Trade is about the only business advocacy group in the world that doesn’t actually believe in free enterprise. The...
06 October 2014
Pension Judy #nlpoli
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Judy Manning will go down in history as the only unelected cabinet minister in Newfoundland and Labrador since the country gained responsibl...
05 October 2014
IMPS SJ Hobby Show – November 9
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The local chapter of the International Plastic Modellers Society will be having its annual model show and competition on November 9 at the...
03 October 2014
It’s what your boobs are for #nlpoli
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The first week of October is World Breastfeeding Week. Check out babyfriendlynl.ca and you can find information on some of the activiti...
02 October 2014
Madness #nlpoli
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The day after she took the oath of office, Judy Manning, the province’s new attorney general and minister of public safety, and Premier Pau...
01 October 2014
The Usual Suspects #nlpoli
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The Conservatives who said Premier Paul Davis was going to doing nothing more than shuffle the cabinet that was already there got it absolut...
30 September 2014
Errors in judgement #nlpoli
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March 13, 2014 was a Thursday. Normal cabinet day. According to Auditor General Terry Paddon’s report on the Humber Valley Paving contr...
29 September 2014
All our yesterdays #nlpoli
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Someone in Paul Davis’ campaign has a quirky sense of humour. They picked Bill Clinton’s 1992 election theme music for Davis to use as his...
26 September 2014
Premier Davis and the Dead Children #nlpoli
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Paul Davis will get a lift down to Government House this afternoon and swear the oath of office so Tom Marshall can finally get out of polit...
25 September 2014
No Privacy Protection in Marshall’s Office #nlpoli
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Someone sent a request to the Premier’s Office for access to all “Email [sic], memos, letters, notes between Elizabeth Matthews and the prem...
24 September 2014
Cabinet documents and deliberations #nlpoli
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One of the big changes Bill 29 made to the province’s access to information law was to give a list of documents that could not be released u...
23 September 2014
Needed: a local think-tank #nlpoli
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Anyone who was paying attention to these things has known for about 25 years that the province would face a demographic crunch starting ‘rou...
22 September 2014
Trouble getting SRBP? #nlpoli
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Some people have been reporting problems getting SRBP through their Internet service provider or IT support team. It isn’t clear what’s go...
Edges #nlpoli
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The Premier’s Office issued a couple of news releases last week about what someone they called the Premier-Designate would be doing. The ...
19 September 2014
Political Definitions #nlpoli
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Political conservatives like to talk about how government ought to be run like a business. They talk about it so much that it’s odd, then, ...
18 September 2014
No-brainer #nlpoli
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Perhaps it is just Danny Williams’ ingratitude that pisses people off. The multi-millionaire hockey team owner just got a massive subsidy ...
17 September 2014
No more give-aways #nlpoli
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Danny Williams is one of the richest people in Newfoundland and Labrador. He is a multi-millionaire who owns a successful hockey franchise ...
16 September 2014
The Ins and Outs of Newfoundland Politics #nlpoli
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Ralph Champneys Williams was a career British public servant who came to Newfoundland as the Governor at the tail end of one of the greatest...
15 September 2014
Insider baseball, again #nlpoli
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Paul Davis delivered one of the shortest victory speeches Saturday night of any person elected to lead a party in power. Davis said very l...
14 September 2014
Premier Paul Davis #nlpoli
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It took one more ballot than expected but Paul Davis is the new leader of the provincial Conservative Party and the Premier-designate of New...
13 September 2014
Disconnection Trending #nlpoli
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Tom Marshall got lots of coverage for his little ego-stroking farewell in the tradition of his ego-stroked predecessors. The media advisory...
12 September 2014
The Spectators and the “Me” Generation #nlpoli
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The official media advisory describes the event at Confederation Building this morning as an opportunity for Premier Tom Marshall to thank ...
11 September 2014
At last! #nlpoli
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Without a doubt, this is the most interesting, entertaining and revealing thing to come out of the Conservative leadership campaign. This...
10 September 2014
Ragging the puck #nlpoli
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The Conservatives will have a new leader this weekend. Tom Marshall will resign as Premier not long after and the new guy will take over....
09 September 2014
Everything has a price #nlpoli
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Danny Williams famously once said that at some point, “ principle converts to cash.” When his old friend Tom Marshall named a court house...
A fitting reminder #nlpoli
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Tom Marshall has a few days left as premier so he figured the best thing to do would be to name the courthouse in Corner Brook after Danny W...
08 September 2014
Trash, Give-aways, and Conservative Policy #nlpoli
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Friday is trash day in the world of political communications. It’s the day when you slip out stuff that is unpleasant in the hopes people wi...
05 September 2014
They’ve got a little list #nlpoli
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Justice minister Terry French announced on Thursday that he’d be resigning in a couple of weeks time to take up a job in the private sector...
04 September 2014
Voter Choice #nlpoli
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When Kathy Dunderdale jumped or was flicked out of office in the first part of 2014, CRA boss Don Mills issued a release covering his compa...
03 September 2014
Johnson to give colleagues the finger on Friday #nlpoli
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Finance minister Charlene Johnson will be leaving politics on Friday, September 5. Under changes that Johnson and her colleagues made to ...
Pension deal = good news #nlpoli
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Three things: 1. The agreement to deal with the unfunded pension liability is a good thing for workers and for taxpayers. It deals wit...
02 September 2014
Nalcor and the Eff In Way #nlpoli
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Over at Uncle Gnarley, JM’s at it again with the first of a two-parter on Nalcor and its problems with forecasting for Muskrat Falls. Na...
01 September 2014
Family reasons #nlpoli
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The story flopped out on Friday morning, broken by VOCM, based presumably on information that came directly from Charlene Johnson herself. ...
29 August 2014
Postmodern Jukebox: Maps
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It’s the Friday before a long weekend. Enjoy some music. And if you like Morgan James, you can find more of her work at her website: w...
28 August 2014
Shockwaves #nlpoli
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The day after the by-election in St. George’s-Stephenville East, federal New Democratic Party member of parliament Ryan Cleary showed an in...
27 August 2014
Big Dams and Empty Promises #nlpoli
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Conservative leadership candidate Steve Kent may be running in third place in the race, but the guy makes bold promises. His energy policy...
26 August 2014
Free Tampons #nlpoli
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Jessica Valenti, a columnist at the Guardian newspaper argued in her column in early August, that women should get free feminine hygiene pr...
25 August 2014
Mystery Meat #nlpoli
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The Telegram’s exceedingly generous headline said that Conservative leadership candidate Paul Davis put meat to the bones of his campaign ...
22 August 2014
Summer reading: Command and Control
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From the blurb: “Written with the vibrancy of a first-rate thriller, Command and Control interweaves the minute-by-minute story of an acc...
21 August 2014
Identity Crisis #nlpoli
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Newfoundland is changing, Michael Crummey writes in the Newfoundland nationalists’ newspaper, the Globe and Mail. House prices are climbin...
20 August 2014
Information Underload #nlpoli
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Poor Sandy Collins. The Minister (of the Moment) of Public Engagement and a gaggle of senior public servants went to meet the access to in...
19 August 2014
Conservative Misinformation and the Public Sector Debt Problem #nlpoli
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There is no limit to how selectively provincial Conservatives will read a document in order to find some microscopic filament that might pos...
18 August 2014
Politics for 200, Alex #nlpoli
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Who was the first Newfoundlander elected to the Canadian House of Commons? What party did he represent? What year was he elected? What...
15 August 2014
Politicians and Cars #nlpoli
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The Liberals are touting their latest campaign-style television spot featuring Dwight Ball talking about accountability and connecting with ...
14 August 2014
Truth and Consequences #nlpoli
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Wednesday morning started with an intriguing but hardly surprising story. CBC’s David Cochrane tweeted that sources in the John Ottenheime...
13 August 2014
Perks #nlpoli
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A story in last weekend’s Telegram documented all the perks that former Premiers get. Aside from a severance package, a couple of extra m...
12 August 2014
The Shared Delusion #nlpoli
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Tom Marshall is a typical politician. He got into politics to make things better. And, as he reaches the end of his political career, To...
11 August 2014
Oculus #nlpoli
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Justin Simms makes films. His latest project is a documentary about Danny Williams. Funded by the National Film Board, the movie, imagin...
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