QC or NL? Another one

In all important aspects of national politics, guile, compromise and a subtle kind of blackmail decided their course and determined their alliances. They appeared to discount all political or social ideologies, save nationalism. For the mass of the people the words Tory and Grit, Conservative and Liberal, referred neither to political ideologies nor to administrative techniques. They were regarded only as meaningless labels, affixed to alternatives whicb permitted the auctioneering of one's support; they had no more meaning than bleu or rouge, which eventually replaced them in popular speech. [They] on the whole never voted for political or economic ideologies, but only for the man or group which stood for their ethnic rights...

In such a mental climate, sound democratic politics could hardly be expected to prevail, even in strictly provincial or local affairs where racial issues were not involved....

Pierre Eliot Trudeau, "Some obstacles to democracy in Quebec",
in Federalism and the French Canadians, Toronto: Macmillan, 1968, p. 107.

Consider that description of Quebec politics not so very long ago in comparison to this and this.

The entire premise of the famous letters to the federal leaders through two successive federal elections was to determine which of the federal parties was prepared to promise the best deal for this province in exchange for local votes.

Leave aside for a moment that Danny Williams characterization of Stephen Harper's letter in 2006 was not consistent with the letter itself. Just consider that the entire premise of letter - just as with the Premier's comment's on the FPI income trust - was based on the "auctioneering of one's support."

In such a climate, sound democratic politics can hardly be expected to prevail.

Indeed.

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Note to Stephane: Let's find Denis a new job

Denis Coderre needs a new job.

Creating a ghetto for aboriginal soldiers, sailors and airmen/women is not a good idea no matter how Denis tries to doll it up.

Aside from revealing a general ignorance of the Canadian Forces and how it operates, Coderre's suggest demonstrates an appalling ignorance of the diversity of Canada's First Nations people.

Two major gaffes since January suggest that Coderre is as gainfully employed as the guy whose ministry he is shadowing.

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Change versus more of the same: Stronach on competitiveness

From the Tuesday National Post, Belinda Stronach [Photo:belinda.ca] writes

Being competitive globally involves education, job skills, infrastructure, innovation, technology and regulation. It is an integrated package. Competitiveness is the result of a political philosophy that sets the balance between government and the private sector.
...
Competitiveness, jobs and national prosperity need to be the principal ballot questions for the next federal election. Whoever can best ensure our quality of life through economic growth deserves to govern. We have the priorities backwards. Other issues such as government accountability, lowering the GST and same-sex marriage rights are secondary to making Canada competitive for the future. Without that, there won't be money for anything else.

They should be the major ballot questions in Newfoundland and Labrador this October.

Who really cares if a particular politician or party wins all the seats and scores high in the polls?

None of that is about "jobs, jobs, jobs".

Then again, it turned out that the last provincial election wasn't about "jobs, jobs, jobs" either.

It's time for a real change.

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Chevron: Bay area company of the year

From the San Francisco Chronicle.

Chevron is devoting about 39 percent of its exploration and development budget to North America, which includes the gulf as well as projects in Alaska and the waters off Newfoundland. But the company also is betting heavily on offshore oil and gas fields near Angola, Australia and Thailand. About 25 percent of the company's exploration money goes to Africa, 19 percent to Asia and the Pacific.

Those areas all show great promise. They're also open to foreign investment. Much of the world isn't, at least not on terms Chevron and other international oil companies might like. Governments from Venezuela to Newfoundland have become more assertive about the deals they're willing to make with Big Oil, often demanding control over joint ventures and a far higher cut of the profit than they used to. National oil companies, such as Saudi Aramco or the National Iranian Oil Co., control the vast majority of the world's reserves, and they see less reason to seek Chevron's help in developing their resources.

________________________________

There's an interesting Chronicle podcast here.

Note the list of projects where Chevron is interested in developing the short- to medium-term. Gulf of Mexico, Thailand, Tenghiz, Australia, West Africa.

Hebron is not there.

Check the example of bringing a project on stream.

Tahiti, a major field in the Gulf of Mexico. From idea to production: 14 years. From discovery to production: six years.

Compare that to Hebron.

Actually it isn't bad considering that the field became commercially viable in the same time frame. The only thing that knocked Hebron off the rails - the only thing - was the provincial government.

Listen carefully to the discussion of economics of the oil business. More people in Newfoundland and Labrador - especially politicians - need to pay attention.

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Change versus more of the same

While former Liberal cabinet minister Walter Noel does his part to support the victim mythology of Newfoundland nationalism, perhaps he should consider a new approach to economic development and Newfoundland and Labrador's economic place in the world.

Noel's problem appears to be with Newfoundland and Labrador's balance of trade.

He identifies the solution to a general economic problem as being more federal transfer payments. Right problem. Wrong solution.

All that Noel succeeds in doing is demonstrating how the current administration and the one Noel served in are fundamentally the same. Heck, the current administration offers the same answers that have never worked for administration after administration since Confederation.

Like that's worked.

The idea outlined in this op-ed piece from the Toronto Star is increased inter-provincial free trade. In other words, open up the opportunities for Newfoundland and Labrador companies to do business in the rest of Canada. Rather than building barriers, Newfoundland and Labrador needs to open the doors.

Since Confederation, Canadians have been hampered by an inter-provincial distrust of the power of free markets to produce economic and social benefits.

As a result, federalism has evolved into an inefficient system of provincial and municipal enclaves of economic autonomy. Provincial economic independence has created an interprovincial trading system that hampers productivity through barriers that curb the flow of goods and services.

These have impeded Canada's evolution from a middle to a modern power.

Canada cannot hope to compete globally when we have the kind of barriers to internal trade we have now.

There's a similar idea in this study by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

More of the same won't work.

It's time for Newfoundland and Labrador to change.

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Caille as a Conservative candidate: interest and implications

Offal News hits apparently spiked Monday with a post on the possibility that former Hydro Quebec boss Andre Caille will run for the Conservatives in the next federal general election.

This prospect may have implications for Newfoundland and Labrador, as Simon Lono suggests. Some additional clues to the prospective candidacy may come from commentaries such as this one in l'actualite.

If nothing else, Lono has raised a provocative issue based on what appears to have been a passing reference by a noted Quebec journalist.

Laying the ground work for separation, one egg at a time

When he said anybody, Danny literally meant he'd take on anybody not acting in the best interests of Newfoundland and Labrador. [h/t to Offal News]

Headin' down the road, 2007 version

Greg Locke has been blogging his move to Alberta.

Find the latest entry here, which morphs quickly into a discussion about the high percentage of people leaving the province who hold university degrees and other specialized training. The chart, above, is from a slide presentation done in the mid 1990s. Note that university degree-holders have consistently been the largest proportion of migrants from Newfoundland and Labrador since the mid 1970s at least.

The slide was originally presented in this post on outmigration.

How much is enough?

1. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, own source revenue, 1992: $1.7 billion
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, own source revenue, 2006: $3.2 billion

2. Government of Canada transfers to Gov NL, 1992: $1.4 billion
Government of Canada transfers to Gov NL, 2006: $1.5 billion

3. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, per capita expenditure, 1992: $5574
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, per capita expenditure, 2006: $8675

Note: Population, 1991: 574,000
Population, 2006: 509,000

A humourous reminder

Sometimes it's easy to forget how many times we've heard the same old arguments from the provincial government, especially when it comes to Equalization and offshore revenues.

Like this post from last October.

Last year, Danny Williams was telling us that the O'Brien formula would cost the province cash compared to what was in place at the time.

Not compared to the Harper promise.

Compared to the status quo ante.

Turns out that wasn't true, at least if you accept Wade Locke's precis.

The status quo was worth $18 billion. The O'Brien deal was worth $24 billion.

But think about it: in 2005 we were told that Danny Williams had inked a deal which was bullet proof against changes in Equalization. He got it. He told us he got it.

Apparently not.

So when will Danny Williams be fighting Danny Williams?

St. Lawrence native among the dead

Kevin Kennedy, right [Photo: Canadian Forces Combat Camera] is among the six soldiers killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

Kennedy was a private soldier with Second Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Gagetown, New Brunswick.

Update: A second soldier from Newfoundland and Labrador has been identified among the six dead in Afghanistan.

Sergeant Donald Lucas, left, was originally from St. John's.

Six soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Six soldiers from the Royal Canadian Regiment battle group in Afghanistan were killed today and two were injured in a roadside bomb explosion.

Update: 2350 NDT. DND releases names of five of the six dead.

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The king is dead

Cartoonist Johnny Hart, who created such strips as B.C. and The Wizard of Id, died Saturday at his home in New York state, of an apparent stroke.

He was 76.

Is the goal a 1948 do-over referendum?

The National Post this Easter weekend contains a little profile of Premier Danny Williams.

There are a few factual errors, but nothing that undermines the core point of the piece. Overall, there is a summary of the current state of the erstwhile nation of Dannyland. The picture isn't good. There's no way to make it good and it is the branding of this province as Dannyland that ultimately undermines whatever the triffid logo thing could possibly do.

A look at Newfoundland's history through a local lens explains why Mr. Williams' attacks on big business and Ottawa play so well around the kitchen tables of Gander and Corner Brook. Dragged into Confederation by the narrowest margin, the formerly independent colony has been rewarded with collapsed cod stocks, a hydro deal that virtually donates electricity to Quebec (which resells it to Americans for a tidy profit), two generations of talented young people decamping for work in Alberta and elsewhere, and the largest per capita debt and highest unemployment in Canada.

Cynics outside the province might suggest Newfoundlanders had something to do with bad economic planning, but locally, says Mr. [John] Crosbie, the feeling is "we're always being outsmarted and done in by mainlanders."

Since this piece was written by a mainlander, he can be forgiven for assuming every single person on what the Post calls The Rock - a word destined to join the other "n" word on the list of banned ethnic slurs - buys into the nationalist mythology on which the latest caudillo thrives.

Rick Mercer, no longer living here, can also be forgiven for mistaking the appearance of near-unanimity back home as a sign that there is, in fact, near unanimous agreement with the Premier's goals even if there is a quibble about tactics. If we define the goal as motherhood and blueberry duff, then that would be true.

But it isn't the goal and so there are growing questions that run deeper than the correctness of the Premier's rant-du-jour. What exactly is this "fair share" Williams keeps talking about? What would a better deal on oil or Confederation look like so we can help spot it when it shows up? Williams himself apparently has no idea and so Newfoundlanders and Labradorians increasingly wonder what he is up to.

Is he planning to create the climate in which the fall election will turn into a referendum on Confederation? Is the first townie premier to run the place since well before the townies put 'er up on the rocks in 1934 going to take give the nationalist townies a do-over on the 1948 referendum? Only his man in the Blue Line cab likely knows for sure.

Since we are on the subject of wider goals, Offal News returns to that issue today. The cause is confirmation from the oil industry that there are no talks going on with the provincial government regarding Hebron. It isn't like Simon Lono has said that before, and been right. it is that Williams has suggsted there were talks going on - yet again - and yet again, the facts are something else.

Once you are done there, take a glance at nottawa. Mark Watton notes - riffing on the Post piece - that Williams makes much of the idea that he is on a self-less mission of good, that he doesn't need the job of Premier because he is independently wealthy.

nottawa points out that anywhere else in the a country a federal politician who tried the same sanctimonious, self-serving line on the press gallery, they would - to use a local phrase - have his guts for garters. He's absolutely correct.

What the Post doesn't say, though, likely because of their interview subjects, is that the demagogues of post-Confederation Newfoundland all wound up chased from office in some measure of public disrepute. At the risk of blasphemy, the same people who threw palm fronds to line the path of their newest saviour were among the first to line his via dolorosa and jeer.

Smallwood.

Peckford.

Tobin.

It is a short list, distinguished by nothing else if only by the volume of spittle ejected by anyone mentioning their name these days.

Danny Williams knows it.

That's one of the reasons why he reputedly detests the comparisons to people like Smallwood.

That's why - only three years into his mandate, Williams has already announced he'll be packing it in soon. That's why he is hunting for some sort of legacy, some sort of brand, other than the one he has already claimed for himself.

It's too late of course.

On this Easter weekend, and in the religion of Newfoundland politics, we need only wonder who will be playing the role of Barabas in the latest version of the pageant.

The Cult of the Individual, Dannyland version

Spend any time publicly criticising the current administration and its policies and at some point, you are bound to hear from the Premier's personal supporters.

Your humble e-scribbler gets them once in a while.

They are predictable. There's no discussion of the facts at hand, rather there is puzzlement at why there is any criticism of Danny.

In the radio call-in version there are direct personal attacks on the critic's integrity and motives and continued suggestions that so-and-so is in the pay of one of Dannyland's foreign demons.

Lately, correspondents have taken to suggesting that perhaps you should run office since you've apparently got it all figured out.

Maybe some of us will. Maybe some of us won't. Some of us have alternatives. Some of us are just not so quick to join the nearest parade condemning the supposed foreign oppressor of the moment.

That's the marvelous thing about democracy.

It's called free speech.

While some politicians and their supporters may find it uncomfortable, it's what helps to keep powerful interests in check. It's what helps to promote peaceful change as opposed to the sort of political instability, abuse of public freedoms, and in some cases political violence that is found all to often in many of the countries high on the current administration's list of oil jurisdictions to emulate.

Telegram managing editor Russell Wangersky is on the receiving end of a letter in this Saturday's edition of the province's largest circulation daily. It follows a fairly typical approach:

It makes you want to laugh at those critics. Passiveness in politics will get you nowhere. Williams is taking a much-needed strong stand, simply put. Those who are complaining, for the most part, seem to be those who want Williams to shut up and go away, accept the deal offered after the contract. Complain as they may, I doubt it will faze him one bit.

...

It makes you want to laugh at those critics. Passiveness in politics will get you nowhere. Williams is taking a much-needed strong stand, simply put. Those who are complaining, for the most part, seem to be those who want Williams to shut up and go away, accept the deal offered after the contract. Complain as they may, I doubt it will faze him one bit.

Wangersky responds in his own column in words that speak eloquently for themselves:

When it comes to premiers and prime ministers, I just don’t know who’s right at this point.

I honestly don’t know what’s right, and I’m pretty much sure that my grasp of the issue isn’t that much different from the 90 per cent of the people who have already made up their minds.

Now, I’m leery of bandwagons, especially the patriotic kind. Patriotism sells T-shirts and suppresses free thought.

I like to make up my own mind, and I don’t like the mindset that believes I should have my ideological windows smashed out for daring to not toe the provincial line.

So, what do I think?

I suspect, at this point, that Premier Williams may well have the clearest case — that he’s right in maintaining that a promise was broken.

At the same time, you have to ask yourself if it isn’t a mug’s game to believe the promise could be kept in the first place.

There is, more than anything else, the real politik [sic]of the situation.

This is a complicated little tangle: could a promise like the one Harper made ever, ever make its way through a minority government, tucked into a minority budget? Only the Bloc Quebecois supported the Conservative budget — would a promise made, and a government defeated, have served us any better than an equalization scheme that will apparently still give us more money than the restructured Atlantic Accord was going to?

Those are interesting questions, and ones that it is hard to find answers for — it’s easy enough if you just want to decide to back one side in the argument, but there has to be more to picking a side than just wearing your heart on your sleeve. That’s akin to voting for a particular party in an election because your father always voted for that party.

The Telegram's editorial this week praises economist Wade Locke for putting some factual information in the public view. More information is always good when looking at complex issues. More, accurate information promotes discussion which usually leads to a sensible decision.

The jingoism favoured by far too many in this province currently is, of course not a new approach at all. The revanchist undertones to arguments about the federal government may be a new flavour, but the jingoism is - by now - old hat.

The Churchill Falls deal was unanimously endorsed by the legislature at the time. That's the deal, you will recall, which brought a tremendous immediate benefit from construction jobs but which was built - ultimately - around the idea of deferred revenues. It was only later that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador heard about the details of the deal and just how long the benefits were to be deferred.

That Premier at that time, of course, liked it better when everybody just fell in line behind him. He, too, disliked criticism and his supporters made his displeasure clear in a variety of ways. The Premier at that time made it plain too, how much he hated his critics, telling a media scrum that the Telegram had been taken over by a gang of illiterates.

That Premier, like supporters of the current one, claimed that he wasn't fazed by the criticism, that he would carry on undaunted in his crusade to build the New Jerusalem.

How odd then, that the Premier and certainly his supporters spend so much time dealing with the critic. They never deal with the criticism.

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Danny Gushue?

Olympic curler Brad Gushue dumped yet another member of his Olympic Gold medal team this past week, claiming there were "chemistry" problems.

But, as the Telegram is reporting, Jamie Korab wonders that he might have gotten the flick for questioning Gushue. The skip apparently took that as a "personal attack."

Following the end, Gushue reportedly told his team not to give up. Korab reminded his skip not to give up, either.

The two bantered back and forth with Korab calling Gushue a hypocrite.

All I’m saying, Korab apparently told his skip, is you’re telling us not to quit. I’m telling you not to quit.

Korab said Gushue then said something — he won’t say what it was— “snarky”.

“I said, ‘Brad, come here. Let’s talk about this.’ I said, in an assertive way if you want to call it that, ‘You say stuff like that to us all the time and it’s the first time I’ve ever said anything to you about it.’”

For the next couple of days, the two didn’t speak. Korab was waiting for an apology.

“But no, I was in the wrong for this because I had made a personal attack on him, which wasn’t the case,” Korab said.

A few weeks ago, rumours abounded that Danny Williams' crew was pitching the idea that Gushue should run for the Williams' party in the next provincial general election.

If Korab's story is accurate, now we know why.

Oh, an by the way, Gushue has been taking plenty of criticism on the local talk shows for the decision.

(Side note to Team Danny statistician: Further to your e-mail, that should put at 10,000 the number of times Bond Papers has mentioned the skip of your team. Thanks for keeping track.)

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The view from here and there

Check out this posting on Craig Westcott's speech.

Small dead animals is a leading Conservative blog.

The real meat in this one can be found in the comments, especially those by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians not currently living in the province.

(h/t to labradore.)

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Video Friday

Some video for Friday, the stuff that will set you thinking. Set you thinking that is, if you go here first.

Alanis' send-up of the Black Eyed Peas is funny.

But notice that you can really hear the lyrics and that is what will animate the link for you.

Queen's cowboys in another mess

This case will surely reach the Supreme Court of Canada.

Apparently the Mounted Police spokesperson is referring to this 1999 Supreme Court of Canada case, which on the face of it does not involve comparable circumstances.

The woman involved, who had mistakenly dialed 911 instead of 411 met officers on the front porch and while she denied them access to her private residence - as is her common law right - the attending could easily ascertain that there was nothing untoward occurring. Well, at least that's what the couple pursuing the lawsuit will contend.

The police will likely invoke the spectre of child porn and whatever other horrors might theoretically be going on in the residence in an effort to line up their actions with the reasoning laid out in the case law, including the 1999 SCC decision.

For a quickie summary of police detention powers, take a gander at this lucidity written piece.

Too bad the police didn't read this little summary provided by a law enforcement association in 2001 to British Columbia police officers.

Lawyers out there may wish to offer some insights.

R'uh R'oh

Premier Danny Williams may have given the Auditor General extra staff to shift the focus of his review of the House of Assembly spending scandal, but John Noseworthy is peeved about lack of access to documents to conduct a review of the fibreoptic deal.

In a scathing letter to Innovation, Trade and Rural Development Minister Trevor Taylor this week, auditor general John Noseworthy says his office still has not been provided with all necessary information.

Noseworthy said he has identified documentation that has not been turned over by the government, and as a result, “it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to have any confidence in this process.”

Good thing Danny's gone on vacation.

This story, on top of Wade Locke's assessment of the Equalization racket, would make for as uncomfortable a weekend as he's spent since taking office.

We can expect to hear the moaning when he gets back.

And for the record, there is no truth to the rumour that Williams has hired a former senior DND official with experience in shagging up the Somalia inquiry to liaise with Noseworthy on this and other files.

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