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30 January 2019

Election year a time for serious issues #nlpoli

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This originally appeared in The Telegram , 30 Jan 2019. Budget consultations are not the place for serious discussions of government f...
28 January 2019

Turmoil, unusual #nlpoli

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A petro-state with political instability is a pretty weird idea  but then again we *are* talking Newfoundland and Labrador. The Governm...
19 January 2019

The Spring Election - when and why #nlpoli

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There's likely going to be an election before Victoria Day. If - by some miracle - the Liberals manage to win the Topsail-Paradise by-...
03 January 2019

Mitigating Muskrat Falls: Ron, Harry, and Hermione are still baffled #nlpoli

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Mitigating the impacts Muskrat Falls will have on taxpayers of Newfoundland and Labrador remains the single biggest unanswered question in...
28 December 2018

The ins and outs of Equalization #nlpoli #cdnpoli

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Each year,  Canadian media conduct year-end interviews with politicians and every year the interviews are nothing but space fillers. This ...
17 December 2018

A spring election now seems more likely #nlpoli

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Here's the local poll tracker, now that the final party choice poll of the year is in.  (CRA Q4 Omnibus ) It's every party choice ...
06 November 2018

The MQO poll and Party Choice #nlpoli

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MQO's quarterly omnibus poll shows some curious changes in public opinion about provincial political parties.  The province-wide numbers...
24 September 2018

The Windsor Lake By-Election and polling #nlpoli

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Market research firm MQO released a poll on September 10 about the Windsor Lake by-election. They'd surveyed 300 people about how the...
18 August 2018

The PUB, Exemptions, and Muskrat Falls #nlpoli #cdnpoli

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Here’s some background on the issue of Muskrat Falls and Public Utilities Board exemptions.   At the end you should know what an exemp...
27 July 2018

Bay du Nord and Equity #nlpoli

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In a staged political event Thursday that was woefully short of basic details,  the provincial government and Equinor announced they will pr...
03 July 2018

Electricity prices, risk, and what the editors didn't say #nlpoli

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Okay. What Muskrat Falls will do to electricity prices is not funny. Never was. But what *is* extremely funny are columns like Russell...
20 June 2018

Rumpole and the Bleak House #nlpoli #cdnpoli

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A scan of the docket for the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, General Division reveals that the Provincial Court Judges are havi...
11 June 2018

Rumpole and the Ticking Clock #nlpoli #cdnpoli

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There are rules about how long a judge may take to issue a decision. Now, now. The lawyers among you are already spitting their morning ...
25 May 2018

Nalcor contractor secrets still safe under revised law #nlpoli

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Anyone who cracked out the champagne over the bill that would purportedly shed light on Nalcor's embedded contractors might want to spit...
22 May 2018

A cabinet, a caucus, and a legislature walk into a bar... #nlpoli

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Don't feel bad. Most people in Newfoundland and Labrador have no idea how our political system works. Self-described experts. ...
08 May 2018

First Wells ministry, 05 May 1989 #nlpoli

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May 5, 1989 was a Friday.  It only took the couple of weeks between the election on April 20 that year and May 5 for the government to...
30 April 2018

Two solitudes - the pdf version #nlpoli

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This is an article I wrote a couple of years ago for  The Dorchester Review.  (Volume 6, Number 1,  Spring/Summer 2016.  I posted about the ...
12 April 2018

The Stunnel report and public policy in Newfoundland and Labrador politics #nlpoli

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The "pre-feasibility study update" released on Wednesday into a fixed link across the Straits to Labrador (a.k.a The Stunnel) i...
09 April 2018

Spin, bias, or just wrong? #nlpoli

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If four media outlets all reported a story in precisely the same way despite some fairly obvious factual problems with their interpretation,...
02 April 2018

Conventional media bias #nlpoli

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You know what "spin" is, right? Spin is a biased interpretation of something to favour one side or the other. You get spin...