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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09 March 2015
Gimme that Old-Time Reaction #nlpoli
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The only news to come out of the New Democratic Party convention this past weekend is that the party now has not one but two leaders. Earl...
06 March 2015
Federal Presents, the 2015 edition #nlpoli
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November 2005. The Harris Centre at Memorial University issued a report on the number of federal public servants working in Newfoundland a...
05 March 2015
The Offshore Ownership Fight Examined #nlpoli
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Last year was the 30th anniversary of one of the most significant events not only in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador but of Canada ...
04 March 2015
The Abacus Insight #nlpoli
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[Updated: 1715 hrs] By lunch time today, you’ll have Corporate Research Associate’s latest quarterly omnibus poll. Odds are the overall ...
03 March 2015
Class Conflict #nlpoli
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The former Premier. The premier wannabe. -srbp-
Obesity in Newfoundland and Labrador #nlpoli
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A study published in 2014 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal projected that 71 percent of people in Newfoundland and Labrador wou...
02 March 2015
The Elephant in the Room, the Astigmatic Seer, and other horrifying budget tales #nlpoli
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Has anyone noticed a small problem in all the discussions about next year’s budget? On Point’s David Cochrane had both NAPE’s Carol Furl...
27 February 2015
Language Problems #nlpoli
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“Increasing taxes is not about solving the deficit, it’s about maintaining our programs and services that we have.” That’s what Labrador a...
26 February 2015
Nova Scotia won’t get Muskrat Falls electricity #nlpoli
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As part of its deal with Nalcor, Emera will get its electricity from Bay d’Espoir, not Muskrat Falls. The Business Post’s March 2015 ed...
25 February 2015
Bond Raters and other things to wonders about #nlpoli
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Cast your mind back a couple of years and you will probably remember finance minister Jerome Kennedy told us a couple of things. One was ...
24 February 2015
The Unsustainability Problem #nlpoli
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The annual budget consultation farce started on Monday with a couple of sessions. This year the provincial government has turned out a bud...
23 February 2015
The theory of everything #nlpoli
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People are talking about the budget. People are talking about Bill 42, the politicians’ decision to cut public representation in the House...
20 February 2015
A cunning plan it ain’t #nlpoli
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The whole “Paul-Davis-Decisive-Leader” thing doesn’t seem to be working for the provincial Conservatives. The latest NTV/MQO poll puts th...
19 February 2015
Stragedy and Polls: Chop House version #nlpoli
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Public opinion polls are a really useful thing in politics. The Liberals did a poll the weekend before the Liberals and Conservatives vote...
18 February 2015
St. Pierre shifting health care to Moncton, Halifax #nlpoli
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Rising costs are forcing the government of St. Pierre to look at shifting health care for its residents to Moncton New Brunswick from St. Jo...
17 February 2015
Lighter and Lighter #nlpoli
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Three separate stories over the past three days highlight changes to the local media world. On Saturday, Telegram editor Russell Wangersk...
16 February 2015
Money and Politics – the Chronic Enforcement Problem #nlpoli
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We can have all the rules in the world about how political parties and political candidates receive and spend money in Newfoundland and Labr...
12 February 2015
Money and Politics in Newfoundland and Labrador #nlpoli
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Some people are making a big deal over the fact that the judge heading the boundaries commission made political donations to both the Liber...
11 February 2015
The Boundary Commission Fun is closer #nlpoli
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The Chief Justice has named Justice Robert Stack as the chair of the boundary commission appointed under the Electoral Boundaries Act . We...
10 February 2015
The Other DarkNL #nlpoli
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For as long as anyone can remember, some people in Newfoundland and Labrador have had a love of conformity. They loathe discussion and de...
09 February 2015
Reforming the budget process #nlpoli
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We already know that the provincial government won’t unveil its budget for the new year until late April or early May. That’s not as unusu...
06 February 2015
Government by Committee #nlpoli
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Politics in Newfoundland and Labrador (2015) – Part 5 In the fifth and final instalment in this series on politics in Newfoundland and ...
05 February 2015
Elections and Voting #nlpoli
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Politics in Newfoundland and Labrador (2015) – Part 4 The politicians in the province share a lot of common views and tend to agree on m...
04 February 2015
The Dysfunctional House of Assembly #nlpoli
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Politics in Newfoundland and Labrador (2015) – Part 3 In the third instalment in the series, SRBP looks at the way the House of Assem...
03 February 2015
One Big Party #nlpoli
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Politics in Newfoundland and Labrador – Part 2 The plan to cut public representation in the House of Assembly has drawn public attenti...
02 February 2015
Making the rich richer #nlpoli
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Politics in Newfoundland and Labrador – Part 1 The plan to cut public representation in the House of Assembly has drawn public attention...
30 January 2015
Gil Bennett: fact checker #nlpoli
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Gil Bennett, Nalcor vice-president in charge of the Lower Churchill project, took some exceptions to comments in yesterdays posts on Muskrat...
29 January 2015
Nalcor: the power of hubris #nlpoli
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On the last electricity bill to arrive Chez Scribbler, the price per kilowatt hour was a little over 11 cents, all in. On Wednesday , Ne...
28 January 2015
Acting Like a Leader #nlpoli
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In his first major public appearance since cutting public representation in the House of Assembly last week, Premier Paul Davis flatly reje...
27 January 2015
Opposition grows to antidemocratic House cuts #nlpoli
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Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador, the umbrella organization that speaks for the province’s towns and cities, doesn’t like the plan ...
26 January 2015
A swing and a miss #nlpoli
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The usual round of Saturday chores this weekend brought with it the usual accidental meetings with all manner of friends and acquaintances. ...
23 January 2015
The Fraser Institute and Laughably Flawed Analysis #nlpoli
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The latest Fraser Institute assessment of the financial management prowess of premiers is to sound economic analysis what homeopathy to cur...
22 January 2015
Review faces stiff competition from province’s politicians #nlpoli
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If Paul Davis and his beleaguered band of provincial Conservatives started the week on a high, it didn’t last very long. They opened the ...
21 January 2015
Abbott and Costello meet the Trade Deal #nlpoli
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If you are confused by the provincial government’s struggle over free trade with the European trade, find comfort in the fact you are not al...
20 January 2015
Ballsiness #nlpoli
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Before Christmas, Liberal leader Dwight Ball had been calling for an election as soon as possible. After Christmas, faced with the chanc...
19 January 2015
Not fit for it #nlpoli
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It’s not surprising that the provincial Conservatives and their supporters want to reduce the representations the people of the province hav...
16 January 2015
Anti-democratic, regressive, and unprincipled #nlpoli
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The idea of reducing the size of the province’s legislature because the provincial government has a massive financial crisis didn’t get any ...
15 January 2015
Separated at birth: Boyle edition #nlpoli
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Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle
NDP leadership rules screw local businesses #nlpoli
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Any of the small, local printing companies who usually make a fair bit of cash from political campaigns can keep their printing presses chil...
14 January 2015
NDP votes for “More of the Same” #nlpoli
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Gerry Rogers is smiling again now that Earle McCurdy has agreed to be the NDP Kevin Aylward. If Earle had decided to stay retired, Gerry ...
13 January 2015
All NL parties agree to anti-democratic, regressive cuts to legislature #nlpoli
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Whenever the provincial government gets into financial trouble, someone will suggest that one great way to save money would be to cut the nu...
12 January 2015
Roger Grimes: savage political attack dog #nlpoli
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Maybe it was the headline on John Ivison’s opinion piece in the National Post that threw them off. Spat over $400M N.L. fund could mak...
09 January 2015
The challenge of Hebron and old people #nlpoli
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The C.D. Howe Institute released a policy brief on Thursday that argues that demographic changes will hit the people of Newfoundland and L...
08 January 2015
Cluck, cluck, cluck #nlpoli
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Say what you want about Lorraine Michael, but you have to admit that she knows what she wants to do. Lorraine has spent her adult life as...
07 January 2015
Lorraine says good-bye, sort of #nlpoli
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Her voice tinged with emotion, Lorraine Michael announced to a gaggle of reporters and her supporters at Confederation Building on Tuesda...
06 January 2015
Comparative Hydro Costs #nlpoli
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Konrad Yakabuski’ s column in the Monday Globe is an interesting one for people in Newfoundland and Labrador for a couple of reasons. ‘ ...
05 January 2015
Fishing for support #nlpoli
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When the going gets tough, the tough go fishing. In this case, a bunch of politicians in a tough spot with voters are fishing among a sma...
03 January 2015
10 years later #nlpoli
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Today marks the 10th anniversary of the first Sir Robert Bond Papers post. In July 2004, I wrote and released a paper that tried to “exam...
02 January 2015
The Void #nlpoli
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For its last editorial of 2014, the Telegram decided to discuss the fate of the province’s New Democrats. A quick summary: things were...
31 December 2014
The Legacy of Faulty Assumptions: Hebron Revisited #nlpoli
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Hebron is the last of the four, big, offshore discoveries from the 1980s. It’s due to come into production in 2017 based on a development ...
30 December 2014
The Legacy #nlpoli
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There is a lengthy list of political stories in contention to be the top political story of 2014. Start the year with #darnknl, the failur...
29 December 2014
Great Unposted Predictions #nlpoli
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Sometimes you find the strangest things among the draft posts. Here’s a sample from a January 2012 draft post that never saw the light of ...
The Top 10 SRBP Posts of 2014 #nlpoli
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People love to read posts that contain nothing more than lists. You know this is true because every self-appointed guru of the Internet w...
24 December 2014
Churn dropped sharply in 2014 #nlpoli
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Orders-in-council show that cabinet made a total of 20 appointments in 2014 at the ranks of assistant deputy minister and deputy minister ...
23 December 2014
Better more, and better #nlpoli
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The provincial government has a very serious financial problem. The forecast deficit for the current year is the second highest on record...
22 December 2014
All they need for Christmas is new talking points #nlpoli
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Keith Hutchings - the provincial cabinet minister leading talks with the federal government on European trade - issued a statement on Decem...
19 December 2014
PEI buying Quebec electricity #nlpoli
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Prince Edward Island is in the market to buy 100 megawatts of electricity from Hydro-Quebec, according to media reports on Thursday. -srb...
18 December 2014
Moose Party to enter race in Avalon #nlpoli
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Munn E Moose announced today that he will carry the Moose Party banner in the next federal election in the riding of Avalon. "Harper ...
The Lunatic Fringe #nlpoli
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If the provincial Conservatives have done nothing else with their European trade charade, they have breathed new energy into the political ...
17 December 2014
Worry more about next year #nlpoli
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Provincial revenue from oil will be $791 million less than forecast in the spring budget, according to the provincial budget update . A fe...
16 December 2014
Our Gift to Nova Scotia #nlpoli
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As of March 31, 2014, Memorial University had an annual deficit of about $330 million. In 2013-2014, the annual cost of subsidising tuit...
15 December 2014
Province increased CETA demands after crucial agreement #nlpoli
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Almost a year after reaching an understanding with the federal government on a joint federal-provincial fisheries fund related to the Europe...
12 December 2014
Opportunity knocks #nlpoli
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CBC’s David Cochrane took a break from his parental leave Thursday evening to let the world know that On Point is dead as of next June. P...
Bill 28: missing in action #nlpoli
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It’s an unknown amendment to the Hydro Corporation Act. Natural resources minister Derrick Dalley gave official notice he’d be introduc...
11 December 2014
Time Lag #nlpoli
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On Wednesday, Premier Paul Davis announced that Ken Marshall had been appointed chair of the board of Nalcor and an unspecified number of ...
10 December 2014
Recurring Behaviour #nlpoli
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Exactly one year ago, the provincial government was in a controversy over its part in the European free trade deal. The Conservatives were...
09 December 2014
Decisive Moments in Politics #nlpoli
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The NDP are down five points, the Liberals are up two and the Conservatives are up three, according to the latest Corporate Research Associ...
08 December 2014
Let’s talk about pol-i-cy. #nlpoli
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Some people are making issue lately out of the fact that – supposedly - the Liberals have not released any policies. The Liberals will be ...
05 December 2014
Hebron delayed at least 12 months #nlpoli
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CBC news reported on Thursday that the topsides module for the Hebron project won’t be delivered on time. Rather than arriving in 2015 f...
04 December 2014
Muskrat Falls more than $8.3 billion: Nalcor #nlpoli
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Prompted by Wednesday’s post on Muskrat Falls costs, a couple of readers drew your humble e-scribbler’s attention to a tidy little briefing...
03 December 2014
Just do the math: Wiseman confirms Muskrat Falls cost at $7.3 billion #nlpoli
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Twitter sometimes produces some gems. Like on Tuesday when Tom Baird, a mathematics professor at Memorial pointed out that the province’s...
02 December 2014
A chilling non-answer #nlpoli
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The fact that Premier Paul Davis refused to give a simple answer to a simple question should send a chill up your spine. MR. J. BENNETT...
01 December 2014
Rational. Disciplined. Principled. #nlpoli
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Back at the start of the current Conservative administration in 2003, they were very sharply aware of the problem with using one-time revenu...
28 November 2014
Welcome to the bottom of the rabbit hole #nlpoli
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Putting a freeze on any discretionary spending is the very least that the provincial government could do in light of the dramatic – but ent...
27 November 2014
A Biblical finish #nlpoli
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Paul Davis wasn’t around on Tuesday night to talk to reporters about the by-elections. He had a family medical problem to deal with. So t...
26 November 2014
The ABCs of the Conservative Implosion #nlpoli
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“What does Paul Davis do now?” That was the start of the conversation. A serious question after the latest in a string of by-election lo...
25 November 2014
Experience and government #nlpoli
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In the 1980s, local entrepreneur Craig Dobbin bought a batch of helicopter service companies across Canada and merged them with his own comp...
24 November 2014
Judge Headroom #nlpoli
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The Crown Prosecution Service lost an application last week to overturn a decision by a Provincial Court judge. That’s not the newsworthy ...
21 November 2014
The Apprenticeship of Constable Davis #nlpoli
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People are looking back a century to the start of the First World War so, on the political side, it’s interesting to take a trip back and s...
20 November 2014
The Federal Boogeyman #nlpoli
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The Liberals kept poking at Premier Paul Davis in the House of Assembly on Wednesday about the European free trade deal announced last year ...
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...
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