Our plastic identity

On the heels of the tourism bed sheet fiasco comes the new provincial tourism logo, being grossly oversold by Danny Williams as the answer to all our prayers.

Apparently, it is not merely a tourism logo but the one symbol by which one people will be known with one voice coming from one leader. (Check out the full page print ads running this week. Shades of Ein volk, Ein Reich... but I digress.)

Anyway, an astute Bond Papers reader discovered an odd similarity between Danny's Logo and the Irish tourism logo. The Irish one features the word "Ireland" surmounted by a lovely green shamrock.

Now the shamrock is an established Irish icon, much like the Irish harp featured as part of the official government visual identity. The pitcher plant is by no means as clearly identified with Newfoundland and Labrador as is the shamrock with Ireland. Nevertheless, Newfoundland is surmounted by a local three-headed substitute.

Take it a step further and you'll notice that there are - inexplicably - three beach ball/pods on the Newfoundland and Labrador word mark, although the pitcher plant does not, as a rule, grow more than one stem and flower. There's no obvious reason for there to be three beach balls if the new Newfoundland and Labrador tourism logo is supposed to represent the pitcher plant. But three are there.

So what does it represent? Put the question to the government publicity machine and they will spit back and answer: whatever they want it to mean. Biblical allusions might be accepted.

At the same time as you are pondering the curious number of rip-offs similarities between stuff Danny has been pumping out and other people's work, think about the way Danny Williams has oversold his own little logo as being the embodiment of everything under the sun to replace the 40-odd logos already out there.

Do an "audit" in Ireland and you'd likely find as many logos or more. In Ireland, the official government logo/visual ID continues to be the Irish harp. There would seem to be no overwhelming reason to change it just as there was no overwhelming reason to do away with the old provincial government visual ID. It may have needed some tweaking, but fundamentally it worked for its purpose. Now, we have replaced a symbol of authority with a cutesy child's drawing of some alien invaders as the visual symbol of a government.


In the Irish business development agency, there is a specific logo for the initiative itself (left). The government program the agency falls under has another logo (right) which incorporates the harp; that tells you it is a government initiative.

Now it should strike you as odd that Danny Williams has turned around and banished all but his own logo. That is, odd if the so-called Irish tiger has been as successful as it has been with all these logos and word marks, and Newfoundland and Labrador under Danny Williams is supposed to emulate the Irish model and thereby Ireland's success.

Well, the obvious answer is that the Danny-logo has nothing to do with anything he claimed.

We've noted that already.

On another level, this logo business is just another example of how some people treat our history and identity as something they can re-invent for their own personal purposes.

It is our plastic identity.

That phrase Bond Papers tossed out before - the Celtification of Newfoundland and Labrador - didn't just fall from the sky. It came originally from a character very closely associated with Danny Williams. It should come as no surprise that somewhere in Danny Williams' agenda, the stuff he manages to do best - or focus most on - are the things having to do with image and identity.

While its advocates say otherwise, at its heart, the image manipulation displays a fundamental contempt for the province, its people, their history and traditions. The image manipulators treat our own culture - supposedly their own culture - with the same contempt they displayed in the Canadian flag fiasco.

More than anything else though the energy expended on rearranging the symbols of identity is just a demonstration of the fundamental bankruptcy of the position these cynics put forward.

The more effort a government spends on playing with our plastic history or our plastic identity, the less work they are doing laying concrete foundations for our future.

That's the real image the Danny-logo represents.

-30-

Sunday Funny: Kill 'em with Komedy

In politics, some of the most devastating attacks can be done with humour or, as in the example to follow, ridicule.

Head to youtube.com and you can find plenty of excerpts from Triumph des willen [Triumph of the will], Leni Reifenstahl's 1935 propaganda masterpiece. Wagnerian music, goose-steppers galore and some camerawork that creates a truly breathtaking view of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg.

Breathtaking that is, if you don't have any idea what Hitler and his lackeys' were up to at the time and planning to do later.

But the over-the-top posturing of the Nazis easily lent itself to a simple human emotion that pulls the whole thing into perspective: humour.

During the Second World War, British and American propaganda teams tended to rely more on humour to poke at Hitler for popular consumption. Cartoons were especially popular and both Warner Brothers and Disney in the United States produced training films and propaganda films as animated shorts.

One of the numerous examples of their comedy art is in this Universal newsreel from the early 1940s. It takes clips of Hitler and of German soldiers marching and edits them together Doin' the Lambeth Walk, a tune from a popular pre-war West end musical. The result is hilarious over 60 years later. Lambeth Walk was also a London street particularly hard-hit by Nazis aircraft druing the Blitz.

The two minute clip was effective at the time.

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is said to have stormed from the screening room cursing and knocking over furniture when he was shown this.






Of course, sometimes, ridicule isn't part of an orchestrated political attack. Sometimes some over-the-top posturing leads to ridicule that just happens naturally.

Right, Danny?

Danny's Gang or the Friday Five O'Clock Follies

It's late on the Friday before a holiday weekend.

What better time for the provincial government to release some major announcements. Heck, a complete waste of time - like the new Danny-logo, hailed as the most stupendous event in the province's history, or words to that effect - can get huge amounts of government dollars.

But what warrants government sliding it out late in the week?

Try this stuff:

1. "Stephenville? Where's Stephenville?" said the Premier. The environment minister releases the Abitibi mill closure from environment assessment review. Only a few short years ago, Danny Williams was promising the mill would not close on his watch. It didn't. He meant the watch on his arm and there was never a plant on his watch. It couldn't. The mill it Stephenville is inanimate. There was no way it could close in on Danny's watch as long as he stayed out of the building.

2. Subsidizing industry, without saying it. The announcement - actually on Thursday - that government will be handing $10 million to Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to pay for electricity that normally would have been used by the above-mentioned Abitibi mill.

The provincial government is effectively subsidizing the electricity rates to Kruger and to Abitibi's Grand Falls operation. He previously rejected an industrial energy subsidy to Fishery Products International.

Presumably, this subsidy will only be paid until the INCO smelter is built at Long Harbour. That is, when the Premier stops trying to hold up the construction.

During talks with Abitibi about the Stephenville mill, Williams committed to pay the company an energy subsidy up to a maximum of $12 million a year if the mill stayed open. That amount was actually larger than the tax revenue government gained from the mill's operation.

Expect that one of the natural resources minister's talking points notes that the $10 million subsidy is actually lower than the previous commitment to Abitibi and is being shared with the mill at Corner Brook run by Kruger.

A large double-double to the reporter who puts that to the minister an doesn't hear back the talking point given here or a close variation.

3. Fewer ferries operated by a private sector, not-for-profit. Transportation minister John Hickey released a long-awaited study into the province's ferry system.

The consultant recommended reducing the size of the fleet from 14 vessels to 12. It also recommended having the system run by a not-for-profit but privately incorporated entity like BC Ferries.

The vessel replacement portion of the plan is estimated at $80 - $90 million spread out over time.

The minister's new release contains very little factual information, incidentally, but it does have tons of partisan rhetoric. That's what you have to resort to when either:

a. You didn't read the study before you wrote the release; and/or,

b. You are politically afraid of the increased ferry rates resulting from the decision.

Expect the departmental talking points, drafted by Krysta Rudofsky's former sidekick, will play up the millions in new work for the Marystown Shipyard.

This way of spinning the message would be a political salve for the considerably more Marystown lost in the Premier's failed Hebron deal. People in Marystown will recall that they could have been doing Hebron and the ferries.

4. "You'd make more with FPI's wage cut offer." Not long after Danny Williams suggested workers at Fishery Products International go back to work for the wage cut being offered by the company, comes an announcement from fish minister Tom "Tovarisch" Rideout of a make-work project for former fishplant workers at Marystown. (Left: Our man in Moscow)

Rideout spent an unusually long-time last week gathering market intelligence by hanging out around fishmonger stalls in Moscow. Unusual, because while Rideout was on this hastily organized junket, his cabinet colleagues were approving the sale of the former FPI plant at Harbour Breton to Barry Group. Rideout had condemned the sale as illegal.

Rideout slags FPI in this release, but by now we all know that when the going gets tough, Tom will probably be on a flight to Moscow or Tahiti or God knows where. Anywhere but in cabinet as it decides to do the opposite of what Tom said.

Political advertising: Gutsy and inexpensive can work

The Massachusetts gubernatorial race has an independent candidate, Christy Mihos. He recently began airing an animated 30 second spot that hits on a big issue in Mass: the massive cost over-runs on the Big Dig in Boston.

Animation is one of the earliest forms of advertising used on television. It still crops up from time to time, but one rarely sees an animated political spot these days. Rather, the political television spot has evolved in a particular pattern with most advertising for candidates following much the same general pattern.

Mihos obviously found a way to tackle an important issue, but in a light-hearted way. His message can potentially have a bigger impact by using humour and the novelty of animation.

Contrary to what some people would have you believe, good advertising doesn't need to cost a million bucks and be laden with expensive animation and a custom-tailored jingle all to push a pretty run-of-the-mill logo concept. If the provincial government here had actually listened to their top-notch marketing firm, their so-called branding campaign would likely look a lot different and have cost considerably less.

Word is that the suits on the Hill - or more accurately The Suit - kept getting in the way. Sometimes clients get into the process to help; sometimes they just hinder themselves by refusing to take the sound advice they are getting and that they paid for.

If Mihos doesn't make it in November, maybe someone here should see if he wants to change citizenship. At least, we can all take a lesson from a pol who has guts and isn't afraid to act on his instincts.

More logo madness

Over at RJ:Product, they are running a contest for alternative logo designs for Newfoundland and Labrador.

The submissions are pretty funny so far. One stands out though since it riffs on the fairly obvious Little Shop of Horrors theme.

Enjoy!

Chances of second refinery in NL more remote

Chances of a second refinery being built in Newfoundland and Labrador dropped again Wednesday with news that oil prices continued a downward turned and Irving is planning to double its refining capacity at Saint John with the construction of a new facility there.

Plans for refinery are expected to be unveiled Thursday in a presentation to the Saint John Board of Trade.

The second Saint John refinery will reportedly have the capacity to refine 300, 000 barrels per day. It will join the existing Irving refinery in the city that processes about 250,000 barrels per day. Irving is reportedly planning to upgrade at a cost of $1.0 billion.

The new refinery project is in addition to another Irving venture to build a $750 million liquid natural gas terminal in the New Brunswick port city. Having a reliable supply of natural gas is reportedly crucial to the development of the second refinery.

Word of the second refinery for Saint John made business news across the country.

Meanwhile in Newfoundland and Labrador, little is being said today of Danny Williams wordmark announcement yesterday. The exception is in the land o'bloggers and on the province's radio call-in shows where callers organized by the Premier's Office continue to battle ordinary citizens who complain about the $1.1 million plus price tag for the project thus far.

There was no mention of Williams' initiative - reputedly able to solve the province's economic woes - in any of the country's major newspapers.

On the business front in Newfoundland and Labrador, plans for a natural gas processing facility located in Placentia Bay remain little more than a rumour. Any development of natural gas offshore Newfoundland and Labrador remains contingent in part on technical developments and, especially on the province's natural gas royalty regime. The royalty structure is expected to be released by the provincial government in December after nearly a decade of study.

A consortium studying a second oil refinery near the site of the existing Come-by-Chance facility is proceeding to a detailed design and costing phase of its evaluation. A decision on whether or not to proceed with construction is expected before the end of 2006.

That decision will hinge on several factors but undoubtedly one will be competition from new construction or upgrades to existing facilities that are already feeding the lucrative New England market. Saint John is the closest Canadian refinery to New England. Refined product can be shipped to the United States by tanker from the Port of Saint John or by land.

Harvest Energy, new owners of the Come-by-Chance facility, have already signaled their intention to increase the refinery's capacity.

In other Newfoundland and Labrador energy news, the $10 billion dollar Hebron project remains dead despite efforts by Danny Williams and his senior officials to lure the companies back to the negotiating table. Talks aimed at developing the 500 million barrel field ended acrimoniously in April with Premier Danny Williams threatening to find a legal way to force the oil companies to develop the project on his terms.

Newfoundland and Labrador finance minister Loyola Sullivan also commented Wednesday on Fraser Institute report that indicated Newfoundland and Labrador may spend upwards of half its annual budget on health care by 2030 if current trends continue. Sullivan said health costs are rising at an uncontrollable rate and that something would need to be done. Sullivan offered no indication of what the provincial will do or why it has allowed health care spending to grow uncontrollable.

Under the Constitution, health care is entirely the responsibility of the provincial government, although some provinces. Since taking office in 2003, Premier Danny Williams has continued to demand increased transfer payments from Ottawa to provide core provincial responsibilities. This is despite the government's growing oil revenues and despite Williams having rejected a Hebron development deal that would have delivered to provincial coffers royalties and other revenues greater than the provincial accrual debt. Further development of other fields near Hebron would have greatly increased provincial revenues over the life of the project.

Another rejected Danny wordmark concept

Intrepid dumpster divers braved rotting heaps of leftovers from the countless meetings it took to come up with Danny Williams' Great Brand to find one of the entries that came closest to being adopted.

Williams revealed a wordmark on Monday that, if he is to be believed, is the only thing needed to turn the province from despair to prosperity. Only thing that is except for keeping him as The Leader.

According to notes in the file, this concept was designed to appeal to Williams' townie nationalist sensibilities. The bold venture was rejected, if the cryptic notes scribbled in Latin in the margin are any guide, since it was felt that the Celtification of Newfoundland (and Newfoundland Labrador) should be gradual as part of a process of inventing history and tradition to replace what actually occurred and existed.

Note the prominent placement of Danny Williams' preferred flag of Newfoundland. (and Newfoundland Labrador).

You'll never know how close we came to becoming known as the Land of Fish.

Demotivational Posters

From the geniuses at Despair Inc, comes a program to let you create your own Demotivation poster.
(h/t to towniebastard)

Rejected Danny Logo Concepts

A savy reader of the Bond Papers pointed out that what Danny Williams unveiled yesterday is actually a wordmark and not a logo.

Absolutely correct, but the distinction between brand and logo is the same as the one between brand and wordmark so the bulk of the previous post - Where's the beef? - still holds up.

Anyway, found in a local dumpster was this picture (left) of a design concept for the new Danny Branding Project that was rejected as being a bit too carnivorous.

Also rejected as being inappropriate was the other famous carnivorous plant, the Triffid. Many of us recall that book from our grade-school English classes and I know that when I saw the stalky things in the new Danny wordmark, the first thing that came to my mind was: triffid (right).

Somewhere along the line, someone suggested that there might some value in acquiring the rights to adapt the song (below) from Little Shop of Horrors in which the carnivorous plant explains just exactly how the world is gonna work now that he's on Earth. Notes found with the rejected design concepts above suggest that while the client was generally satisfied Audrey II's sentiments were an accurate description of the New Approach, it was felt the name of the plant might lead to a bit too much ribald humour at Danny's expense.

Apparently it's one thing to do it privately but no one felt the government should implicitly declare it okay to poke fun at The Leader.

Well, that shouldn't stop the rest of us from imaginging what might have been:

Where's the beef?

At the outset, let's make it clear what Danny Williams announced yesterday and what he didn't.

He announced a new logo for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, to replace the shield from the coat of arms that has been used for the past 15 years.

A logo is nothing more than the visual identity. It's the sign or symbol that helps distinguish a particular product, company or organization from the multitude of other similar things out there competing for attention.

Danny announced a logo (right).

Logo versus brand

Nike's swoosh is a logo. It is the way potential athletic apparel consumers find a Nike product on a shelf or a rack. Nike advertising is designed to do a couple of things, one of which is train people to identify the logo.

Ford has had the same logo since the first Model A rolled off the assembly line. It's the word FORD in a blue oval.

No one - except the odd bobble head - buys a pair Nike running shoes or a Ford truck because they think the logo is cute.

They buy the product for other reasons, most of which is the relationship that has grown up between that consumer and the product.

They buy the product.

Based on a relationship.

Based on a reputation.

And that's what distinguishes brand from logo.

A brand is built on the cumulative thoughts, emotions and feelings individuals about a product, service, company or organization.

Companies spend considerable sums to develop and maintain the most positive relationships imaginable. Sure they advertise. But they also pay attention to things like the greeting you get when you call the company offices, the efficiency of the service you get and ultimately, the ability of the product or service being sold to deliver on its promises.

Look at it this way: VOCM is a powerful brand in the local media community. But the brand is built on delivering entertainment and news that consumers want. We know they want the VOCM product because regular measurement of audiences show how many ears are tuned to the VO frequencies. The brand reputation is built on the consistent record of community involvement. The logo is almost irrelevant.

If VOCM paid someone to spend eight hours a day dragging fingernails across a chalkboard, they would only get the most masochistic of listeners - a very small population at the best of times. The fact they have a magical logo would be irrelevant. For the majority of consumers, the product sucks even if the logo is pretty.

Product sucks; logo is cute; brand still sucks.

The Williams Logo

With that distinction understood, let's take a look at what this logo initiative is really all about.

Danny Williams' entire administration is built around the idea that everything changed in Newfoundland and Labrador when he became Premier. Very early in his administration he began looking for a new visual image to reflect that. The $98,000 baseline research contract for the logo initiative was awarded to Target in late 2004, with treasury board approving an exception for the contract from the normal public tendering process.

Over the next two years, Williams examined every existing visual symbol of the province. he did it in the context of the logo project but, as as been reported elsewhere, he also polled on attitudes toward the flag. Williams himself was reportedly surprised that the Peckford flag was more popular than his own personal choice, the Pink, White and Green.

The problem with all of those other symbols - from the Coat of Arms first granted in 1627 and adopted by the Dominion of Newfoundland three centuries later to the Peckford flag - is that they were introduced by someone other than Danny. Never mind that they are already well-established and popular with Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. They were someone else's symbols. They weren't Danny's.

What Williams settled on reflects Danny Williams. The pitcher plant is not used; that symbol is commonplace. Williams has approved the stems and flowers, a portion of the flower rarely seen in real life and even then, they are stylized not literal. The name of the province is also changed, rendered in both a Danny-blue colour and in a faux-Celtic font. Again the font and the celtification of the province's name reflects his own personal cultural references even if those references are limited to only a portion of the population.

The new logo is supposed to replace every other visual symbol, not just in government but across the province. In several interviews on Tuesday, the Premier mentioned wanting to seeing the logo on tourism materials, private-sector advertising and letterhead and even replacing the flag, pitcher plant and Newfoundland dogs on everything, one presumes, from lapel pins to tattoos.

In the same way Williams the typical politician is aiming at dominating the political landscape, he wants his logo to supplant every existing image.

The logo and the way it has been presented epitomizes Danny Williams and his political messages.

Where's the beef?

Ultimately, the weakness of the logo project is rooted in Williams himself.

All the qualities he tried to attribute to the new logo simply aren't present.

Leaving aside the insulting notion of likening the people of the province to vegetation, Williams has selected a plant which is actually not unique to Newfoundland and Labrador. It is found from Florida to Labrador and as far west as Iowa.

The pitcher plant is also an inappropriate symbol if someone wanted to portray a prosperous people who thrive based on ingenuity and creativity. The pitcher plant draws nourishment from the bogs in which it lives but it supplements its meagre root system by luring in unsuspecting insects and digesting the carcasses of the unfortunate flies and mites that drop into its water-filled cups. The pitcher plant is a predator, but it is a lazy one, dependent for its survival on the generosity of Providence, or more accurately, on the misfortune of those who fall into its grip.

Hardly an inviting, positive image, considering the negative reputation of the province across Canada as a place where people are forever dependent on federal handouts or among some Canadians who feel that we were rescued from poverty by Confederation.

Williams himself reinforced the inherently negative image of the pitcher plant - even as he tried to make it positive - when he told reporters that the plant "grows in a natural environment where no plant should ever grow". Newfoundland and Labrador is not a barren wasteland - "where no plant should grow" - but rather a place rich in resources and in genuinely resourceful people, people who take responsibility for themselves. People who are open, generous and inviting and who are prepared to work with anyone fairly for mutual benefit.

Aside from the limited cultural appeal of the logo within the province, Williams' new campaign to "sell" the logo to the people of the province is using an animated television spot that in itself is colourful and evocative. However, the music accompanying takes positive lyrics and demolishes whatever positive sentiment they contain in a mournful, gratingly high-pitched a cappella voice that while again Celtic in style takes on a banshee-like wailing quality when heard for the umpteenth time in the initial heavy media buy.

It's thin, plaintive sound is the opposite of strength and optimism, although it does fit very well with the negative image of the hard-done-by Newfoundland and Labrador victims Williams might contend he has been sent to save.

In the broadest sense, though, Williams logo initiative will fall well short of the claims that it will generate or at least support new tourism traffic and business investment. No logo does that. What undermines Williams new brand, as he would put it, is the brand Williams has already established for his administration and the province as a whole. As Bond Papers has noted before, the experience of investors dealing with Danny Williams is not good.

What will ultimately undermine Danny Williams' efforts to use a new "brand", to use his language, to fulfill his economic development miracle - again to use his stated goal - is the same core issue that Burger King once used to boost its own market share at the expense of its then-rival McDonald's. They'll look at his brand, not his logo. They'll look at Williams' reputation, not his image.

Prospective investors - like all consumers - will look at Williams' shiny logo and ask a simple question:

Where's the beef?

Danny's Plants

Elizabeth Driscoll: I keep seeing these people, all recognizing each other. Something is passing between them all, some secret. It's a conspiracy, I know it.

Matthew Bennel : There can't be a conspiracy!

Elizabeth Driscoll: Matthew, I'm telling you something is going on here.

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, 1978

"There's no emotion. None. Just the pretense of it. The words, the gesture, the tone of voice, everything else is the same, but not the feeling."

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, 1956

If nothing else, when Danny Williams today unveiled the provincial government's new logo (it isn't a brand for the province, people), he gave us the real name of those people he and his staff arrange to go on radio call-in shows singing hymns of praise to The Leader's gloriously miracle-delivering backside.

They were out in force this afternoon of course, and again this evening.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

The Pitcher Plants.

Just think about it:

- There is something slightly creepy about the whole planted caller thing, anyway, in an Invasion of the Body Snatchers kinda way. The way they all say exactly the same sorts of things in almost exactly the same way...almost as if they were being fed by the same invisible vines.

The way they seem to appear and disappear the same way Danny appears and disappears and they always show up in clusters to attack anyone who isn't of The Body.

No wait.

That was Landreu and Star Trek.

But ya know what I mean..

- More than a few people have noted the things sticking up out of the new logo look supernatural or science fiction- ish.

- For some bizarre reason, Danny thinks those stalky things rising up from the Danny-redefined "Newfoundland" somehow embody the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. See? "body"..."embody". Huh? Huh?

- Danny has already said, our job, as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians is to fall in line behind him and back him up on whatever he says. That reduces us to the status of vegetation.

By, if ya think about it, it all starts to make sense. We are all just Danny's Plants.

After all, how else can you explain spending a million dollars on something as uncreative as the new "brand"?

_____________________________

Addendum: The price of the project was actually more like $1.1 million, at least. Danny neglected to mention - for some reason - the "branding" contract handed to Target in late 2004 to do opinion research on images of the province.

Without going to tender.

Wonder what other work he forgot to tell us about?

SO what will the cost-effective project actually cost?

Sometimes, it is just amazing how crucial pieces of information can be deliberately omitted from a significant announcement and no one seems to notice.

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro announced on Monday it would be awarding a contract to construct a wind generator site on the Burin Peninsula to a consortium led by an Italian firm experienced in wind generation of electricity.

Hydro Corporation chief executive officer Ed Martin described the project this way in a news release:

"NeWind submitted a comprehensive, cost-effective proposal for wind power...".

So how much will it cost?

Search in vain for any indication of the project cost. That's because Martin doesn't know. One of the things he admitted at the news conference announcing this project is that he now has to sit down and negotiate a 20 year-term power purchase agreement with the project proponents.

To paraphrase Martin's announcement then, it looks like this:

"We are building this amazing electricity generator that is cost-effective. We have absolutely no idea how much it will cost but we can tell you it is cost-effective."

Sounds like the Lower Churchill.

Without a business plan, or even a preliminary cost-benefit analysis, Martin and his real boss, Premier Danny Williams, committed the province to a project that if completed will double the province's debt. Plus they committed to the project in a way that made it extremely difficult to proceed successfully.

How difficult?

In a scrum last week, Danny Williams admitted that if he can't get a perfect deal, there will be no project.

Yeah.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight, as Dr. Evil would say.

So there is a commitment to a project that will not appear at all if it is not perfect and, in the windy power project, there is a commitment to a cost-effective project yet the guy making the announcement has no ideas what the costs will be.

Incidentally, no one seems to have noticed that this project is not the result of some sort of magical post 2003 process. Yeah sure, Newind answered a proposal calll that Ed and his boss issued and they will be issuing more calls.

But NeWind is building off its experience in a project begun in 2001.

That project size? Five to 25 megawatts as a demonstration project.

Brand launched tomorrow; Bond already told you

The worst kept secret in town was confirmed today:

Danny Williams will be launching the new provincial brand at a news conference tomorrow.

Bond Papers told you about it a week ago. We also discussed the whole issue of "branding" the province back in march.

For the past week, hundreds of people have been receiving cryptic letters inviting them to a splendiferous, monumentalous phatasmagorical event in the province's history.

But they wouldn't say what it was for people who might have other things to do that day.

People on school boards wondered if it was an education announcement. People on hospital boards wondered if it was about health care.

Members of parliament wondered why Danny wanted them in St. John's rather than in Ottawa - where they belong - representing their constituents.

But the crafty crowd in the Department of Business just gave every inquiry the business. The jazz. The run-around. The waste of time.

Like the brand.

If the print ads and television spots already running are anything to go by, we can say three things up front:

1. The name of the province is now being presented in Danny-blue. Now there's a non-partisan rebranding if we never saw that old chestnut before.

2. The brand messaging is all focused inward, rather than outward. In itself that is nothing short of bizarre.

3. Someone made a heckuva lot of dough for a lick of blue paint and a bunch of hoary lines that sound more like the start of the Danny-brand's next election campaign rather than an effort to re-focus the province.

Oh yeah and after three years effort, tomorrow's launch represents the only accomplishment of the Business department to date.

Harper wants equity stake in Lower Churchill

According to the Globe and Mail, the federal government is considering an equity involvement in the Mackenzie Valley pipeline but has ruled out direct subsidies and loan guarantees as a way of helping the costly venture along.

For its part, Imperial Oil is just saying a polite "no" to equity stakes.

Meanwhile, Imperial is having trouble getting the permits needed to build the project. The problem is not with the company but with the federal government's inability to make appointments to four boards that must oversee the permits.

The permits are just one issue affecting go-ahead with the natural gas pipeline that is estimated to cost $7.5 billion to construct.

But here are a couple of observations on this issue and how it relates to Newfoundland and Labrador:

1. No one else wants to be President of Parador... except Danny Williams.

Some people compare Danny Williams to Hugo Chavez. I say the comparison is more like Danny Williams and Adolphe Simms, except Williams is not an actor playing the role.

Too bad.

Then maybe he could take some advice.

But I digress.

The equity stake discussed in the Mackenzie Valley pipeline stories linked above is being considered purely as a means of providing financial support to the project. Williams has just loaded the whole concept with so much emotional baggage he has actually managed to sink Hebron for years and may well have further discouraged any further development offshore, let alone exploration.

2. Regulatory Boards are important. Note that this project is being held up because the government involved can't sort out its appointments to the regulatory boards involved.

The board regulating the local offshore did quite well despite being set back in its timelines as the Premier demonstrated not only his political impotence but also - apparently - a doubtful ability to read and comprehend the law through the Andy Wells fiasco.

Maybe Jim Bennett could have asked Danny for advice on how to handle having as Supreme Court justice toss your arguments out the window as so much codswallop.

Anyway...

Regulatory boards are a key part of the system. The feds need to get that boards issue sorted if they want the Mac pipeline to proceed. Around here, things might have gone much more smoothly if Danny Williams had let the original selection process proceed, rather than try to put in the fix on Hebron using Andy Wells.

3. Kiss the Lower Churchill goodbye too... unless.

The federal government - the current one - has no interest in provided loan guarantees to megaprojects let alone megalomaniacs trying to run megaprojects.

Stephen Harper has been perfectly consistent on this point.

Just recall what Harper actually said last winter, instead of what Danny Williams told you Harper said.

Harper actually said he was prepared to support the Lower Churchill in the same way the feds supported Hibernia. This is how he put in the formal reply to Williams' wish list during the last election. Since Danny places so much stock in the written word - when it is convenient - then here are the words, as written by Harper:

A Conservative government would welcome discussions on this initiative and would hope that the potential exists for it to proceed in the spirit of past successes such as the Hibernia project.

So here it is: On its own, Newfoundland and Labrador does not have the financial ability to float the loans needed to construct a $9.0 billion megaproject.

It needs partners.

The only way the feds will help is in the form of an equity position.

Meanwhile, Hydro Quebec is moving ahead with its own megaprojects that will likely start construction and achieve first power well before the Lower Churchill, even under the most optimistic situation. They stand a good chance of getting capital and the markets that would otherwise go to Lower Churchill simply because the provincial government here miscalculated yet again on a big economic project.

So the issue for Danny Williams comes down to this: is he prepared to let Stephen Harper acquire an equity position in the Lower Churchill project that would let Williams build the project at all?

Is he prepared to treat the Government of Canada just like Altius, for example, which is seeking an equity stake as well?

The one thing that doesn't seem to be in question:

There'll be no federal loan guarantees for the Lower Churchill, at least not under a Harper government. And without the federal government's deep pockets, there won't be a Danny Williams monument at Muskrat Falls and Gull Island.

Soviet-Afghan war film "9 rota" is Russia's nominee for 2006 Academy awards

Russia's national film committee has reportedly selected 9 rota (Ninth Company) as the Russian entry in the 2006 Academy Awards in the best foreign film category.

9 rota is based on the story of a company of the 345th Guards Airborne Battalion that held an outpost along the road to Khost during 1988's Operation Magistral, the last major Soviet operation before the withdrawal in 1989. The desantniki held the outpost despite assaults by mujaheddin and - allegedly - Pakistani troops until a road-bound column arrived. [Left, in a scene from the movie.]

Director Feodor Bondarchuk follows a group of typical army draftees through basic training and into the Afghan hills during the latter days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The film vividly portrays the harsh training and racial tensions within the Soviet army. Bondarchuk (right) stars in the movie as Hohol, a platoon leader in the company.

When released last year 9 rota quickly became the largest grossing film in Russian cinema history. The film was shot in Ukraine which co-operated by supplying the film with locations, props, equipment and soldiers. Some sequences were filmed in Uzbekistan.

The action sequences in the film are real with little or no computer generated explosions. In the still (left), for example, a BRDM light armoured vehicle of the relief column is destroyed by mujaheddin. The round object in mid-air is the turret of the actual vehicle, blown up by the special effects crew.

9 rota is available on DVD, in widescreen, Russian with English subtitles. According to some sources the DVD is not region-specific, meaning it can be played on any DVD player. Be careful, however. The listing on amazon.com states the DVD is not region-specific yet then notes it is in PAL format.

North American video tape and DVD is formatted in NTSC, not PAL. Following is an excerpt from the final scene.

Shakylegs Rideout's access to info shakedown

Current fish minister and deputy premier and former Premier Tom "Shakylegs" Rideout (left) is being more than a little disingenuous when he claims that he was only following the letter of the law in charging opposition politicians a bill of $400 for processing an access to information request on Rideout's travel and expense claims.

To put it bluntly, Rideout is following the standard practice of the Williams' administration to claim one thing and do something entirely different. In this instance, Rideout is claiming accountability and transparency while actively seeking to frustrate efforts to find out even the most routine of information.

In a news release today, Rideout said, among other things, that:

The Opposition chose to activate the ATIPP process. Once that process is activated, there is a legal requirement that the individuals requesting the information be charged for the work required. That is the law, and we must follow it.

There's a word for this and the word is bullshit. Had they asked for it in any way except under the Act, they would be lucky to see a single paperclip. If this administration was so intent on following the law, then it would never have engaged in the pathetic Ruelokke fiasco using every second-rate legal dodge in the book to try and keep a man out of a job he had won fair and square.

For those who may not know, I served for seven years as a political aide in the administration that ended Rideout's mercifully short tenure in the Premier's Office. Contrary to his practice and that of his predecessor, we undertook to respond to access to information requests without using the fee schedule as a way of frustrating or blocking people seeking access to what is public information.

We followed the intent of the law.

Expense and travel claims were a popular request and it fell to me to co-ordinate the replies.

We did.

Without charge.

Promptly.

The fee schedule for information access requests is not an absolute requirement that must be ruthlessly applied in all cases. It is there to cover some complex requests - expense claims are not complex by any means no matter how much Rideout's nose has to grow as he tries to say otherwise.

What is more, Rideout has the ability - given his position - to waive any fees and simply hand over the documents.

It is that simple.

And what is more Rideout knows that the comments contained in the news release are merely another way of trying to hide things that otherwise can and should be in the public domain. The information can be retrieved relatively easily and without the elaborate and painful process Rideout claims it to be.

What Rideout tells us - both in his initial decision on this request and in his ludicrous defence - is that he is committed to obfuscation wherever and whenever possible. He is, in short, the embodiment of the kind of politics access to information legislation was intended to send to the rubbish tip of history.

Perhaps Rideout recalls the 1980s when Opposition access requests revealed that some of his colleagues were frequenting strip clubs and billing the "gentlemen's entertainment" to the unsuspecting family in Ming's Bight or Arnold's Cove via the public treasury.

Perhaps, he is simply following the arrogant example of the current Premier who has on more than one occasion fought tooth and nail against releasing information the release of which is specifically authorized in the legislation Rideout now uses to excuse his questionable behaviour on this access request.

No matter the reason.

Those familiar with the Williams administration in practice - as opposed to its self-massaging news releases - understand that accountability and transparency are nothing more than stock phrases to fill up the word count in already verbose news releases.

There is no meat in them any more than there is any flesh in Rideout's ability to actually implement his own policies. Bill Barry proved the severity of Rideout's impotence just this week while Rideout enjoyed gallivanting about in Norway.

Rideout is correct on one point. The current members of the Opposition did do things just as bad as he has now done when they occupied the government benches. But two wrongs do not make a right as surely Mr. Rideout knows.

To borrow one of his own malapropisms, what Rideout has shown in his flounting of the intention of the freedom of information act is that you cannot get a skunk to change its spots.

Rideout is used to saying one thing and doing another.

So too is his current boss.

Too bad Tom wasn't paying attention to the policies of the guy who replaced him, the guy who not only talked about accountability and openness but who ensured the talk was turned into action.

Too bad that Tom can only talk about it but not do it.

Too bad, that is, for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Scott Simms and the fallow field of dreams

Would central Newfoundland Liberal member of parliament Scott Simms do the rest of us a favour and name a single significant oil or gas discovery offshore Newfoundland and Labrador that is being left deliberately undeveloped by any license holder?

Just one.

Please.

If you can't Scott, there really isn't any reason for your proposed private members bill, other than perhaps to act as a stalking horse for Danny Williams.

By the by, Scott b'y, if you want to get a decent background on the facts of the offshore, I can easily arrange it for you.

Demographics, economics increase pressure on temperamental Williams and volatile policies

There are, however, some urgent domestic priorities -— the necessities of life, the outmigration of our youth, unity, mismanagement and economic diversification.

Danny Williams, Progressive Conservative leadership victory speech, April 7, 2001

That was then.

Recent data from Statistics Canada show an interesting trend now.

Table A (left), shows population figures for Newfoundland and Labrador from 2001 to the present in half year time periods. Note that there has been a general decline over the entire period but that the rate of decline increases after January 2005.

This likely reflects the series of economic setbacks in the fishery (FPI in particular), Stephenville, and the failure of Hebron on top of the outflow of individuals that otherwise occurs.

There is generally a flow into and out of the province each year. The figures presented in Table A reflect the net result of inflow and outflow.

Table B (above) shows the annual rate of population change for Newfoundland and Labrador from 1952 to the present.

Green represents growth and red represents a decline in population. The largest decline is in periods after the cod moratorium.

When Danny Williams took office, the rate of population decline was on par with declines in the mid-1980s.

The rate for the first half of 2006 is the same as that experienced in the mid-1990s and in 2002.

New Approach needed

One of the overriding implications of the outmigration trends is that Danny Williams pseudo-nationalist posturing will do medium- and long-term damage to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Not only is the overall population declining, but, as forecast since the early 1990s, the population remaining will become increasingly dominated by retirees and children. The shrinking productive portion of the population means that the economy must become more productive. It also means the provincial government must have increased revenues or - at the very least - more stable sources of income.

The longer the Williams administration holds up reform of the fishery, particularly Fishery Products International, the more difficult it will be for the fishing industry to make the changes needed. Government has offered no ideas on dealing with the substantive economic problems at the heart of the current crisis; its focus on marketing is just the one aspect of the overalll issue government can without any consequence. Marketing looks good and the government doesn't risk anything politically. Unfortunately, leadership that lacks the willingness to make hard decisions is the opposite of what is needed.

In the oil and gas industry, a combination of developments are demonstrating the seriousness of the Premier's miscalculation on Hebron. Development of that field would have come at exactly the right time - if a deal had been cut last spring. Despite the Premier's claims that "talks" are going on behind the scenes, the project is definitely dead and likely will be dead as long as Williams persists in his unstable, volatile mode.

A major discovery in the Gulf of Mexico by Chevron and opening of additional acreage in the Gulf also place more attractive properties in play that have far less political risk for investors, if nothing else, than dealing with the temperamental Williams administration.

Norwegian energy giant Statoil - owned 70% by the Norwegian Crown - is looking to invest CDN$1.0 billion in the Alberta tarsands, not the Newfoundland and Labrador offshore. Meanwhile, declining natural gas prices in North America make it unlikely that any interest will follow the local gas resources even if the Williams administration manages to issue a gas royalty regime by the end of the year as originally promised.

Bear in mind that Williams has sat on the regime for three years,largely ignoring it in the one-thing-after-another tedious and needless approach this government has adopted for major policy issues. As well, Williams posturing on oil and revenues suggest that Williams' gas regime would not be structured to provide competitive incentives to attract greater investment. To do otherwise would involve political risk and Williams has shown himself to fear any threat to his image.

Newfoundland and Labrador is not alone in facing dramatic demographic shifts. A group of Quebec academics and former politicians released a manifesto in 2005 that drew attention to several factors that will affect Quebec's economic and political future. One is demographic change.

While other provinces are already well on the way to addressing the impact of issues like population decline, the Williams administration seems unable to develop policies. Its approach across the board is to spout inappropriate ideas based on attitudes from the murky past.

A new approach is needed.

The only question for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians is whether the Williams administration can fundamentally change and start to deliver on its promised New Approach.

(h/t to the Dominions' finest statistician.)

Williams and The Quiet Revulsion

In a scrum with reporters before heading off to a cabinet meeting in Churchill Falls, Danny Williams couldn't help but demonstrate that fundamentally he is getting desperate.

Reporters asked him for reaction to a column in today's Globe by Konrad Yakabuski who points out, among other things that Williams' gamble on the Lower Churchill will likely end in failure. Yakabuski puts the gamble in the context of Hydro-Quebec's hydro-electric development projects that will arrive in the marketplace likely well before the Lower Churchill.

Bond Papers has discussed the same issue following on Yakabuski's last column on the subject. We've also noted that Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro is well behind the competition in developing its own project largely because Williams opted for a so-called go-it-alone option without having even put together a business plan.

That's right.

No business plan before coming to a project that would double the provincial debt.

Bear in mind that in 2001, Williams told enthusiastic provincial Tories in his leadership acceptance speech that "[m]y approach, if you give me the opportunity, will be to set out clearly our goals and to formulate a plan to get us there". This is the same Danny Williams who later committed to a $9.0 billion project without even the most cursory, the most basic, the most fundamental of business management tools.

Almost immediately after that commitment in 2001 he said:

I realize the importance of a strategic plan and the sound financial management on which it must be based.

What plan?

What sound financial management?

Williams response to Yakabuski through reporters is telling. Williams said that Canadians should develop the Lower Churchill because Williams' competition - Quebec - is to volatile to rely on.

Williams has shown himself on numerous occasions to be volatile and in this instance his excuses - that is the most charitable thing to call such petty comments - are an indication of nothing more than his tendency to spit in anyone's eye if it serves his own personal political ends.

The reaction from Quebec, Ontario and from national non-government organizations, as reported by Canadian Press in the story linked above for example, is both predictable and accurate. This is not about pitting province against province.

National audiences should appreciate as well that Williams' comments on Quebec tieing up the power grid in order to exclude Labrador energy are nonsense. They are nonsensical because in Williams' own pursuit of the solo option on the Lower Churchill, he has investigated the cost of doing everything from building transmission lines to American markets to assuming the cost of upgrading the connection between Quebec and Ontario in order to move Lower Churchill power into markets other than Quebec.

He had no choice but do so. In selecting his go-it-alone option, Williams rejected a sound proposal from Ontario and Quebec that would have seen those provinces bear the costs of expanding the grid. Having decided to bear the costs of expanding the grid himself, Williams cannot moan about the supposedly limited grid. It is nonsense; it is a non-issue.

In a larger sense, though, Williams irresponsible remarks about Quebec are just another sign of the extent to which Williams quick-lip have alienated him from virtually everyone of consequence outside Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2004, he stormed out of a federal-provincial conference not because of a disagreement with Ottawa over offshore finances - as he claimed - but rather because his some of his fellow premiers were growing increasingly annoyed with his self-serving approach and his histrionics.

In successive tirades and fits of pique, Williams has created a climate in which he is viewed as unstable. The investment community has looked in amazement as Williams threatened expropriation whenever he hasn't gotten his way not once or twice but on several occasions. His recent crusade on legislation to force development of offshore oilfields is nothing more than an attempt to bring about by legal force majeure what he could not achieve or would not achieve in fair negotiations.

Williams is wrong about the need for the legislation or the issue and the more he pursues it and rants about it the stronger the message that is sent to people who might be willing to do business with him: Don't do it. Avoid Newfoundland and Labrador.

Next Tuesday, Williams' business department will finally unveil the so-called re-branding image for Newfoundland and Labrador. No matter how brilliant it is - and a great many great ideas are already said to have be quashed by Williams' veto when he ran the business portfolio himself - there is precious little a nice picture and a slick advertising campaign can do to get past the dismal reputation Williams has earned for himself after three years in office.

Isolated politically, unable to produce a successful major economic initiative and facing the resurgence of a political scandal in the House of Assembly when more detailed reports are released later this year, Williams may be the darling of the opinion polls. This is increasingly an image, though and not something of substance.

A mood is growing in Newfoundland and Labrador.

There is increasingly a sense of quiet revulsion at Williams' histrionics since ranting seems to be all he has. Since the 2005 offshore deal with Ottawa - that delivered nothing more than increased federal handouts - Williams has not been able to close a single deal. In Hebron, he gambled, miscalculated and lost billions in oil revenue.

The effects of that failure - the repeated failures - will be seen increasingly the months and years ahead. The men and women who were looking forward to developing the local oil and gas economy have already felt the sense of revulsion as they leave the province to work elsewhere. Men and women in other parts of the province - like Harbour Breton or Stephenville - have felt the revulsion. As more and more feel the sting of the failures, the revulsion will grow.

In typical Newfoundland and Labrador fashion, though, they will not throw up barricades or take to the airwaves. No. They will keep their feelings inside, voicing their anger, their discontent - or worse their profound disappointment - only to their most trusted friends. Theirs is a quiet revulsion that does not show up in government-goosed public opinion polls, but it is there. And for a government, it is acid that slowly eats away at its term of office.

Joe Smallwood held power for 22 years; Brian Peckford, a decade. Brian Tobin lasted four years and by the third year there was an increasing disquiet at his leadership.

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have grown increasingly tired of politicians who have nothing to offer but confrontation. John Crosbie's characterization of Williams in the recent Independent issue - that he is a fighter because we love fighters - may have held the promise of long-lasting political success two decades ago.

But this place changed long before Danny Williams came to office.

This is a place where the quiet revulsion that eventually toppled Smallwood and defeated Peckford comes much more quickly than ever.

And unless Danny Williams changes to a genuinely New Approach, he will likely suffer the same fate.

Try as he might, he will have no one to blame but himself.

The King of Id

Danny Williams' was named leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador in early 2001. His speech on that occasion contains a great many memorable quotes.

Left: Danny Williams. Not exactly as illustrated.

In the weeks ahead, we'll bring you some excerpts from it. For starters, here's the section where Williams lays out the essence of his approach.

Williams has quoted John Kennedy on several occasions although it is not clear on any of those occasions if Williams ever understood what Kennedy was talking about.

Anyway, from April 7 2001 here is Danny, in his own words:

John F. Kennedy said: "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country."

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."

___________________

Update: Some readers didn't quite get this. The indented section above is Danny Williams, in his own words. it is a full and accurate quote.

It doesn't make sense, said one e-mailer.

Of course not.

That's the point for people who understand Kennedy's clarion call to public service and selflessness in striving for a larger good.

But if you understand the constant messages from Williams that we have been stupid victims - until electing Danny - and that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are collectively entitled to hand-outs, payback, reparations or compensation for supposed past injustices, then Williams' meaning becomes starkly clear.