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Churchill Falls and Muskrat Falls - Background
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21 December 2015
Mr. Speaker Osborne #nlpoli
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Members of the House of Assembly had the good fortune of having two fine candidates for Speaker. While SRBP endorsed Scott Reid, the H...
18 December 2015
Adios comments section
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The comments section at SRBP is gone, this time for good. The theory was great. People could offer their own views on your writing and ...
Scott Reid for Speaker #nlpoli
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Liberal member of the House of Assembly Scott Reid is a candidate for Speaker of the House. By the looks of things, members will have a c...
The Quick Clay Dam #nlpoli
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A very short post by James Gordon at Uncle Gnarley contains a whole lot of information about the dam Muskrat Falls. Gordon is a retired...
17 December 2015
Changing the direction. Changing the tone. #nlpoli
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A month ago, a CBC “analysis” by David Cochrane warned against a band of Liberals running the government with too much power. Two weeks ...
16 December 2015
The Bonds of Muskrat Falls #nlpoli
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15 minutes. That’s all Tom Marshall said it would take to sell out the bonds on Muskrat Falls. He also said that a federal loan guarant...
15 December 2015
Revisiting the spring budget: a little thought experiment #nlpoli
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Last spring, SRBP looked at some speculative budget projections using some different prices for oil and assumed growth in revenue fro...
14 December 2015
Baker Ball's Dozen: three challenges facing the new administration #nlpoli
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The new Liberal administration will take power later this morning. Dwight Ball will lead a cabinet of 12. This is only the fourth time ...
13 December 2015
The deficit in perspective: HST version #nlpoli
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Some people are upset that the provincial sales tax won’t be going up by two percent. The current harmonized sales tax rate is 13%. If ...
11 December 2015
The Tory-gram Returns #nlpoli
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And there it was. Top of the front page. Screaming headline. Economist warns Liberal plan doesn’t make sense. Right underneath ...
10 December 2015
Friends in high places: changing the HST in a hurry #nlpoli
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According to a statement from the federal finance department on Wednesday, “the federal government will take any necessary steps to ensure ...
09 December 2015
Two solitudes #nlpoli
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CBC and the Telegram carried a story on Tuesday that the province would be hit by a “mild recession” next year. There’s not much real new...
08 December 2015
The Hundred Days #nlpoli
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“A new government has a very small amount of time in which to lay the groundwork for its term of office. It has about six months to show thi...
07 December 2015
Townies and Baymen (again) #nlpoli
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Last week’s post on the political narrative war currently under way was a combination of two separate, but related ideas. The incoming Li...
04 December 2015
Voter turn-out #nlpoli
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Political scientist Stephen Tomblin is concerned about the low voter turn-out in the recent elections. Tomblin thinks it is a sign that vo...
03 December 2015
The real Ministry of Magic exposed #nlpoli
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The information the Conservatives leaked to David Cochrane Tuesday on the budget update confirmed the extent to which they are actually the ...
02 December 2015
The Narrative War #nlpoli
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The day after a massive Liberal victory in the general election, CBC’s David Cochrane posted an analysis piece on the new administration. ...
01 December 2015
Election Results #nlpoli
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Doing things differently. That’s what the Liberal campaign was all about. Now we have to see if Ball and the Liberals actually put that ...
30 November 2015
The youtube election #nlpoli
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This is the year of the youtube election. Some of them, like Alison Coffin’s recession pitch or Dan Crummell’s “ I live in the district ”...
29 November 2015
Great candidate quotes #nlpoli
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The Telegram did voters a valuable service the last weekend of the campaign by printing responses from candidates in metro districts to two...
27 November 2015
Weight Problems #nlpoli
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If you want to know why Forum Research’s poll is out of line with the other polls done on the provincial election, you need look no further ...
26 November 2015
Abacus poll confirms massive Liberal lead #nlpoli
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Residents of Newfoundland and Labrador awoke Thursday to a massive sucking noise as amateur pundits, media commentators, and newsrooms acros...
The Leaders
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The provincial election campaign a decidedly nastier turn on Monday. Conservative leader Paul Davis is trying his best to save the party’s f...
25 November 2015
Selling energy assets a good thing: Danny Williams #nlpoli
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“It was a previous Liberal government that wanted to actually privatize Hydro. This particular government wants to strengthen Hydro, wan...
The CRA poll in Election 2015 #nlpoli
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Corporate Research Associates’ latest poll is in line with polls by MQO and Abacus. The table below shows CRA’s quarterly poll results si...
24 November 2015
The parties and Muskrat Falls #nlpoli
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The mighty Muskrat Falls turned up a few times in the leaders’ debate on Monday night. Now that the project’s huge problems are plainer, ...
23 November 2015
The Debate #nlpoli
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The only winner in the debate was David Cochrane. He’s no Paul Wells but he did a fine job of wrangling the three leaders. And that’s t...
Methylmercury and Muskrat Falls #nlpoli
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Muskrat Falls has been the big issue in two successive elections. In 2011, the parties wanted to talk about the project, while voters didn...
20 November 2015
The Undull Election #nlpoli
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The only people who think this is a dull election don’t know anything about politics. Seriously. On the day before nominations closed fo...
19 November 2015
Kicking ass in political coverage #nlpoli
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The province’s major media outlets have taken different approaches to political coverage in this election from what they did last time. Th...
18 November 2015
Details #nlpoli
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While the townie media are clamouring for details from people who don’t have the details, it’s important to look at what the people with the...
17 November 2015
The same sheet of paper #nlpoli
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In all the elections in the 21st century, the three political parties in Newfoundland and Labrador have proposed what are essentially the sa...
16 November 2015
Fear and Hope #nlpoli
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In his major interview with NTV on the first weekend of the formal provincial election campaign, Premier Paul Davis insisted that his part...
15 November 2015
The possible shift #nlpoli
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If the polls are right, we could be looking at an unprecedented shift in politics in Newfoundland and Labrador. We could be looking at lot...
13 November 2015
Possible Extinction Event #nlpoli
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A third poll has confirmed that the provincial Liberals have the support of an overwhelming majority of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. ...
12 November 2015
Invention #nlpoli
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The provincial election campaign is barely a week old and already we have seen certain themes and interpretations emerging that are the prod...
11 November 2015
Remembrance Day 2015 #nlpoli
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- srbp -
10 November 2015
Polls and Projections #nlpoli
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If you want to get a sense of how accurate polls were in the last federal election take a look at the ones we have in public and compare tho...
09 November 2015
The polls must be wrong #nlpoli
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Over the past couple of weeks, some people have been questioning the accuracy of public opinion polls. People have questioned the polls i...
07 November 2015
Downfall #nlpoli
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On Day Two of the official provincial general election campaign, a new poll by a different polling method lines up with the Abacus Data pol...
06 November 2015
Abacus – First poll 2015 #nlpoli
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No surprise that the Liberals are way ahead in the latest Abacus horse race poll. No surprise the NDP have fallen and the Tories have held...
Setting fire to your own ass is never a good idea #nlpoli
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While Paul Davis and the Conservatives were launching their official election campaign, Ryan Cleary turned up in a recorded interview on NT...
05 November 2015
Media Training 101: Truth and Credibility #nlpoli
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Last Friday, CBC’s David Cochrane asked Ryan Cleary about information Cochrane had – apparently from NDP sources - that Cleary had tried to...
04 November 2015
Admission of failure: Conservative offshore negotiations #nlpoli
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The news release on the government’s generic offshore royalty wasn’t exactly a model of clarity and accuracy. The headline and first sen...
03 November 2015
Rumpole and the Noble Judge #nlpoli
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The provincial justice ministry had to increase spending to put a new judge in the Provincial Court in Clarenville even though the caseload ...
02 November 2015
Blue balls #nlpoli
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Ryan Cleary didn’t become the punchline to any New Yorker cartoon at 3 :00 PM last Friday afternoon . Peg Norman and other local New Demo...
30 October 2015
Party Finance, 2010 to 2014 #nlpoli
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Elections Newfoundland and Labrador released the 2014 party financial reports recently. That let’s us take a look at trends over the past f...
29 October 2015
The United Newfoundland and Labrador Party #nlpoli
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In preparation for the coming general election battle, the provincial Conservatives are digging in their headquarters within sight of the he...
28 October 2015
Real change #nlpoli
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“A positive, optimistic, hopeful vision of public life isn’t a naive dream,” Justin Trudeau told Canadians after he won a truly historic vi...
27 October 2015
Blackmail and the Conservative dysfunction #nlpoli
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Paul Davis and his cabinet were all smiles and chuckles last week at the election of a new administration in Ottawa. Optimistic for the fu...
26 October 2015
The Conservative NDP Merger we need #nlpoli
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The province’s largest public sector union met last week in St. John’s for its annual convention. They started out their first day with a s...
22 October 2015
Polls, St. John’s East, and the coming provincial election #nlpoli
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SRBP told you on Tuesday morning that the federal election did not bode well for the New Democrats and Conservatives in the province. The...
21 October 2015
Scary words #nlpoli
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From Newfoundland Power’s rate application to the Public Utilities Board. Uncertainty : The interconnection to the North American gr...
20 October 2015
The lessons from Monday night #nlpoli
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Nick Whalen killed a giant. That’s the story of the 2015 federal election in Newfoundland and Labrador, bar none. People told Whalen he...
19 October 2015
An opportunity to feel like we’re part of the country again #nlpoli #cdnpoli
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This is Craig Westcott’s editorial from The Pearl newspaper, reproduced with permission.. This is a tough column to write. Taking a...
Dead Meat #nlpoli
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Two polls taken during the recent campaign showed Scott Andrews was losing in his old seat in Avalon. Decided and leanings ...
17 October 2015
DHDM 2: St. John’s East #nlpoli #cdnpoli
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If the numbers from the Liberal campaign in St. John’s East are right, then New Democratic Party incumbent Jack Harris is in serious troubl...
16 October 2015
Dead heat = dead meat #nlpoli
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As the federal election winds down to the last day, the result is likely going to be nothing any of the pundits expected. Okay, the elect...
15 October 2015
WTF?
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There are times you read stuff and you just have to wonder what brought that on. There’s Telegram editor Russell Wangersky explaining ho...
14 October 2015
Consumer to pay 19.8 cents for electricity in 2020: Nalcor #nlpoli
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Muskrat Falls will ensure consumers in Newfoundland and Labrador pay much higher electricity rates than they otherwise needed to pay. The ...
13 October 2015
The Manipulation Manipulation #nlpoli #cdnpoli
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/What a difference 36 years makes. There’s New Democrat strategist Robin Sears in a National Post piece complaining about the way the Li...
12 October 2015
The ABCs of ABC #nlpoli
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In 2004, Danny Williams fought for three months against a federal government decision that had been settled – at least for the federal g...
08 October 2015
The uncivil Civil War #nlpoli
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At the heart of the ongoing civil war between Danny Williams’ provincial Conservatives and Stephen Harper’s federal Conservatives is the cla...
07 October 2015
Alternatives to the Falls #nlpoli
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Since people are wondering if Muskrat Falls really is still the cheapest way to make electricity for local use, let’s take a look at it. ...
06 October 2015
The smallest details tell the biggest story #nlpoli
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Last week, provincial fisheries minister Vaughn Granter held a news conference at a local restaurant known for its seafood dishes to announc...
05 October 2015
Consumer electricity costs to jump by 51% (revised) #nlpoli
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The average consumer in Newfoundland and Labrador should expect to pay 51% more for electricity compared to their current rates once Mu...
02 October 2015
Hyping the stock, yet again #nlpoli
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Any oil company seriously interested in bidding on an exploration license offshore Newfoundland and Labrador isn’t likely to need the hyped ...
01 October 2015
Muskrat Falls commercial power by Q2 2019 ? #nlpoli
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The latest progress report shows that Nalcor had a productive summer, but an extrapolation by the researcher and writer JM of information i...
30 September 2015
Pride and Failure #nlpoli
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‘”Pride is a big factor” a manager at Muskrat Falls told the Telegram’s James McLeod on Monday during the latest media junket to the Big D...
29 September 2015
Rumpole and the Family Compact #nlpoli
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Sixteen of the province’s 22 full-time provincial court judges are either already in or are on their way to St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Th...
28 September 2015
White is the new black #nlpoli
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2002. Stephen Harper said that his party had a program that would help change the dependence in Atlantic Canada on government spending, a ...
25 September 2015
The N-word #nlpoli
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New Democratic Party leader Tom Mulcair likely never imagined that an insult he threw at a couple of Parti Quebecois politicians in the Queb...
24 September 2015
That's Doctor King to you #nlpoli
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Not surprisingly, Darin King has decided to leave politics after only eight years. King is just the latest in a long line of pensionable C...
23 September 2015
Crossing Topsail Road #nlpoli
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A new high school has put the better part of a thousand young people on Topsail Road opposite a raft of fast food outlets and a major mall. ...
22 September 2015
Three things about Hurricane Igor #nlpoli
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hard to believe but it has been five years since Hurricane Igor ripped through Placentia Bay and into Trinity Bay. What stands out most ab...
21 September 2015
No race in Avalon, except for the truth #nlpoli
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Tom Mulcair will not be coming back to Newfoundland and Labrador again during the current federal election. He certainly won;t be coming b...
Les vrais newfies #nlpoli
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Sometime late in the last century, Bloc NDP leader Tom Mulcair said something in the Quebec National Assembly about Newfies. Mulcair apolo...
18 September 2015
Cabinet control of Crown corporations #nlpoli
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Hearings at the pubic utilities board revealed that senior executives at Nalcor received hefty bonuses again in 2014 as they have in other. ...
17 September 2015
Political Calculations 2 #nlpoli
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The next provincial general election finishes on November 30, 2015. Not the way you are used to thinking of it, right? You think the ele...
16 September 2015
Political Calculations #nlpoli
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As you look ahead to the fall election, the bigger political addicts among you are likely trying to figure out different aspects like how th...
15 September 2015
Putting the questions about the debate #nlpoli
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The Liberals have decided to skip the provincial leaders debate sponsored by VOCM and the St. John’s Board of Trade. The reason, according...
14 September 2015
The state of federal politics in Newfoundland and Labrador #nlpoli
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There is a problem, apparently. A very big problem. In the current federal election, none of the federal party leaders have visited the ...
11 September 2015
Near the bottom of a very big rabbit hole #nlpoli
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Thursday was one of those days where you felt like you had dropped down the rabbit hole with Alice. Or maybe had indulged a bit too heavil...
10 September 2015
Three months later … #nlpoli
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In June, SRBP used the CRA poll from the second quarter of 2015 as the basis for a bit of “what if” thinking. Consider that the Liber...
09 September 2015
Finding the voice of the next generation #nlpoli
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“My Government will harness the desire among Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to cultivate greater cultural, financial and moral autonomy vi...
08 September 2015
Senior appointments in 2015 #nlpoli
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Orders in Council up to the end of August 2015, show that the cabinet has made on 13 appointments at the rank of deputy minister and assist...
07 September 2015
Adios to another one #nlpoli
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Clyde Jackman is the latest provincial Conservative to quit politics. That’s not surprising. He was supposed to go in 2011 but hung aroun...
04 September 2015
Timeliness #nlpoli
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The federal and provincial governments need to sort out a royalty regime for the areas of the seabed outside the 200 mile exclusive economic...
03 September 2015
Leadership and opportunity #nlpoli
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On Tuesday, the provincial Conservatives launched their election campaign. It was to be built solely on the image of Paul Davis as a great...
02 September 2015
Omega Man #nlpoli
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The word that comes to mind when you look at the new provincial Conservative party website or the davis165.ca site isn’t fresh, new, reboun...
01 September 2015
New Englanders know you’re bullshitting ‘em, Paul #nlpoli
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The New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers were in town on Monday for a quick meeting. The only thing that seemed to make loc...
31 August 2015
Ferry Tales #nlpoli
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There are times when you have to wonder if provincial cabinet ministers actually realise how moronic they sound to everyone else. David Br...
28 August 2015
Chainsaw Earle keeps austerity on the table #nlpoli
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NDP leader Earle McCurdy called the province’s major open line show on Thursday and by the sounds of things he hasn’t backed off the positio...
27 August 2015
NL NDP boss admits deeper “austerity” on the table as gov cash situation worsens #nlpoli
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“All options are going to have to be considered I guess, from both the revenue and the expenditure side, to make the best of a challenging s...
26 August 2015
We should put up a statue or something #nlpoli
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There’s something a bit surreal about the news this week. Well, not really the news itself, so much as the way people are reacting to it. ...
25 August 2015
The Uri Geller of MUN Economics Strikes Again #nlpoli
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Does anyone really take Wade Locke seriously anymore? Really? Do they? Seriously. Go back to last October to see why. The next t...
24 August 2015
Honouring Newfoundland Writers #nlpoli
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Most of you have probably never heard of a fellow named Alonzo John Gallishaw. John Gallishaw is best remembered in his native land for ...
21 August 2015
Moral victory: saying yes to less #nlpoli
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A couple of years after his war with one prime minister, Danny Williams was locked in another war with another federal first minister. Wil...
20 August 2015
Mr. Williams Goes to Hell #nlpoli
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The story of the 2004 war with Ottawa is the story of disconnects, mismatches, incongruities, of things that just didn't add up. Octo...
19 August 2015
From agreement to disagreement #nlpoli
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On June 4, 2004, Danny Williams delivered a keynote speech to delegates at the oil and gas conference organized annual by the association th...
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