For the record: Danny Williams’ first speech from election 2003

 

The date:  September 29, 2003

The occasion:  Danny Williams kicks off the Conservative election campaign that, as things turned out,  would end with him as Premier.

How time flies and how things change in just six short years.

Back thing, all was roses just waiting on the horizon to be plucked.  All the problems of the past would be gone.

Worried about health care?

Worry no more:

Our plan will provide quality health care to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians when they need it, ensuring that there are more doctors and nurses in areas that are presently under-serviced. Patients will have access to a primary health care provider twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. And waiting times for diagnostic and treatment procedures will be reduced to times that physicians deem acceptable.

Six years later, all is well and the days of health care cuts are gone.

Concerned you might have trouble getting more care for a sick wife or husband in your retirement?

Worry no more:

Our seniors, those who have given so much to our province and asked for so little in  return, want to be independent, and to live in their own homes. We will give them that independence by expanding home care services and increasing supportive housing alternatives.

Yes, not just the same old, but expanded home care and increased supportive housing alternatives.

And six years later, those problems with home care are long gone.

Dilapidated school buses:

And to ensure our children’s safety, we’re going to upgrade and improve our school buses.

It only took six years and the public embarrassment of a CBC news story to bringing the existing fleet up to code.  No word yet on “upgrades” or improvements.

Some political parties enter election campaigns with a list of things they actually strive to do.

Others don’t.

The ones that try often succeed and the stuff that is left undone is usually there for a good and readily understood reason.

The ones that don’t,offer excuses.

Some of this speech is fascinating if only for the radical changes in six years, back then Danny Williams was ready to go to work in the thankless job of being Premier to inflict prosperity on Newfoundland and Labrador.  he was ready because, in his words, “it’s now time for me to give something back to the province that has given me and my family so much, to initiate real change and make a meaningful difference.”

In the event, he started bitching about public scrutiny right after he got elected and by the end of three years he was already moaning and complaining because people asked questions and disagreed with him.  By the end of year six, he was referring to politics as a “racket” and mused again how those who were out of it were smarter and better off.

In 2003,  he could boast of the team Ed Byrne put together and the new members pulled on board.

That team spirit didn’t last long either.

Beth Marshall resigned from cabinet in 2004 complaining that Williams interfered in her department and ignored her in the process.

Ed Byrne quit in the midst of the worst political corruption scandal in Newfoundland and Labrador history since Sir Richard Squires and the Hollis Walker Inquiry.

Not only were members of the legislature bribing officials and bilking the taxpayer for millions, Byrne himself was funding the Progressive Conservative Party with illegally obtained cash. That included at least one of the Great Northern peninsula by-elections in 2001.  The full story hasn’t been disclosed yet.

Some opted to retire for their own reasons or due to ill health.

Former premier Tom Rideout, right,  went off in a huff over road paving. 

No word on exactly what Rideout has been doing since he left politics but it will likely prove to be entertaining once we all find out what it is.

At the end of 2006, Loyola “Rain Man” Sullivan, Williams’ financial right hand, left unceremoniously and in an unseemly hurry. he took a job with federal government as a fisheries ambassador.

Fabian Manning felt Danny Williams political boot on his throat or backside, depending on whose version you listen to. He landed nicely in Ottawa as a Conservative senator.

Paul Shelley, right,  slipped quietly away to a little job in the private sector.  He slipped away from that outfit, too,  before it went under.

Only a few of the old hands are left now and none of those serve in cabinet.

Roger Fitzgerald is the Premier’s faithful lapdog as the supposedly impartial speaker. 

Sheila Osborne is expected to leave before the next election. 

Terry French soldiers on as a parliamentary secretary, announcing the odd fire truck.

Of the crowd elected between 2001 and 2003, only Wally Young sits mute on the back benches.  Trevor Taylor, the fellow elected the same day,  is out the door too.

Danny Williams now sits  surrounded mostly by the people he picked to run in the first place and entirely by people he picked to run the province. 

Like John  Hickey, right,  for example who launched a defamation law suit against former Premier Roger Grimes for something Danny Williams said.

How long Williams lasts, given his own mercurial nature and his comments about the “racket” he’d sooner be rid of, one never knows.

But six years ago, so much looked so different:

Thank you, and good afternoon everyone.

Almost two years ago I started building upon the team Ed Byrne had already assembled to represent the interests of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

As I look at the people who are able to join me today, and think of the others who are working in their districts or have made a commitment to seek the nomination, I am extremely proud of who we are and what we have to offer.

This team, our team, represents a real alternative to the current government.

And a new government is needed, because after fifteen years, it’s time for a change in Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s time for real leadership. It’s time for the new approach.

For months now, the Roger Grimes government has been desperately searching for a single issue upon which they can fight this election when they should have been governing our province.

First it was the fishery, then it was our relationship with Ottawa, and most recently it was automobile insurance.

Well, we won’t play that game.

This election is too important to be about any one single issue. We will make it about all the issues that are important to the people of our province.

It will be about making a meaningful improvement to the every day lives of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians so that we can live with dignity and self-respect through self reliance.

It will be about having a good job and having access to health care when we need it. It will be about providing our children with an education that allows them to compete for jobs and stay home in this province where they belong.

Above all, this election will be about the real leadership this province needs to capture the opportunities that are before us so that we finally achieve our true potential.

Ladies and gentlemen, these are the issues of the real world.

These are the issues that have been ignored by the Roger Grimes administration.

And these are the issues we will fight for.

Our people deserve no less and should expect no less.

And under a Danny Williams led government, they will get no less.

I believe the time has now come to take control of our destiny, to chart our own course to economic prosperity. That is what I stand for, it’s what our team stands for, it’s what the Progressive Conservative Party of  Newfoundland and Labrador stands for.

Today, we are presenting you with a plan to move us in that direction, a plan to get real results. It took us months and months to develop this blue print for the future, and I am very proud of it.

I call our plan the new approach, because it means focusing on the important issues in new and different ways, and making decisions for the right reasons, not political reasons.

It starts with helping those who need help most. Seniors, students and many others will benefit from our plan to immediately reduce provincial income taxes for low income earners.

Our plan will provide quality health care to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians when they need it, ensuring that there are more doctors and nurses in areas that are presently under-serviced. Patients will have access to a primary health care provider twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. And waiting times for diagnostic and treatment procedures will be reduced to times that physicians deem acceptable.

Our seniors, those who have given so much to our province and asked for so little in return, want to be independent, and to live in their own homes. We will give them that independence by expanding home care services and increasing supportive housing alternatives.

We will provide our children with a higher quality education by setting a maximum class size, beginning in our primary schools where they will not exceed 25 students per class.

We will also increase computer literacy and reduce disruptive behavior so that our children have a healthy learning environment.

We will also set performance standards to ensure our children’s education meets or exceeds what is being provided in schools in the province and the country.

And to ensure our children’s safety, we’re going to upgrade and improve our school buses.

We will freeze tuition for post-secondary students and make the remission process more efficient and accessible so that our young people have better opportunities to stay in the province that they so dearly love.

And I can assure you, we will grow our economy by creating an environment that allows businesses to set-up shop and expand, creating meaningful employment for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians as we go.

There will be a strong, vibrant and sustainable fishery.

There will be new opportunities in the Information Technology sector.

And we will open our doors to the world with an ever-growing tourism industry.

The one area where I believe I can most help Newfoundlanders and Labradorians is through job creation and economic development. That’s my background, and I now want to apply those experiences to the government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I want to create new industries to slow down and eventually stop outmigration.

I want to give our rural communities a reason to believe that our way of life can not only survive but prosper. I want to give them hope and confidence that we can maintain and nurture our culture, our heritage and our pride.

Our plan for economic growth will provide a new approach to resource development that puts Newfoundlanders and Labradorians first. We will identify and capture opportunities for secondary processing whenever possible.

No more give-aways.

We will give Newfoundland and Labrador back to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

Rather than using our resources to create jobs for Manitobans, Ontarians, and Quebecers, our resources will be used to create jobs for our own people.

We are no longer prepared to sit idly by while our resources benefit the rest of Canada and leave us with a mere pittance of their true value.

And ladies and gentlemen, our plan will provide a new approach to dealing with the federal government. While others have remained silent until it became politically opportune to be heard, we will be aggressive and provide a strong voice that says very clearly changes are needed. We will lay out a rational and reasonable plan that cannot be dismissed. I will fight to ensure that we are heard.

I say enough is enough.

It’s time for real leadership.

It’s time for the new approach.

It’s time for a change.

And that change begins right here, right now.

This is our opportunity to stand up and be counted, to seize control of our own destiny, to make a real difference.

On a personal note, I’ve enjoyed more success in the business world than I ever dreamed possible. And I did it entirely in Newfoundland and Labrador, creating thousands of jobs for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians along the way. I have proven that it can be done, and if it can be done in the private sector, it can be done in government.

It hasn’t been easy. It takes a tireless work ethic, personal sacrifice and an unwavering commitment.

I’m prepared to offer that to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador because it’s now time for me to give something back to the province that has given me and my family so much, to initiate real change and make a meaningful difference.

But I can’t do that alone. That’s why I have spent more than two years assembling a first class team that has the energy, passion and commitment required to make real changes and meaningful improvements to the every day lives of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

We have a combination of proven legislators and new players that will bring innovative ideas to the table. This team presents a stark contrast and a strong alternative to a tired and weakened government that has been in office for almost 15 years.

We are ready to provide Newfoundlanders and Labradorians with the change that they so desperately want and deserve, and have the energy, passion and commitment required to work on your behalf.

But ladies and gentlemen, I want to be very clear. While we have developed a policy document that provides that new approach, there are no magic solutions or quick fixes to the problems facing this province.

These problems did not occur overnight and they cannot be fixed overnight. But with the team we have assembled, with real leadership and the new approach, these problems can be solved and will be solved. Together we have a vision of Newfoundland and Labrador, in control of our own destiny, united for the benefit of all.

That is my commitment to Newfoundland and Labrador, that is our commitment to Newfoundland and Labrador. By working with you, a Danny Williams led government will make a difference. A change of government will make a real difference to our province, our home, our families and our future.

On October twenty first, I respectfully ask for your support for a mandate to provide the people of Newfoundland and Labrador with real leadership and the new approach for a better future.

Thank you.

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They came by bus and car…but did they bring diapers?

It’s one thing to protest openly again a government, especially the current one.

It’s another thing entirely when people are willing to burn gasoline to do it.

Flower’s Cove, the early report via voice of the cabinet minister:

People arrived in cars and by the bus loads to protest proposed cuts to lab and x-ray services at a rally on the Northern Peninsula over the weekend.  NDP Leader Lorraine Michael was at the rally in Flowers Cove yesterday.  She says the overall attitude of the people there was one of anger and betrayal.

Anger and betrayal?

Might that have something to do with Danny Williams comments the night of the 2001 by-election when said he would never forget the people of the region for voting Tory?

Might that be one of the reasons why Williams and his office are tossing every obstacle possible to prevent the release of the text of his speeches?

or could it be lines like this one, recounting the lighter moments of politics in June 2001:

And another voter who wanted change in the Northern Peninsula told me that politicians and diapers have something in common: they both have to be changed regularly, for the same reason.

Yessirreee, the crowd protested and burned precious gasoline to do it. 

That’s a sure sign people are unhappy with the government.

But if they brought huggies and pampers, then watch out.

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MIA Update: New Dawn

You remember that one from last year. 

Around these parts, your humble e-scribbler called it the Matshishkapeu Accord since it seemed a bit like something cooked up by the Fart Man.

Then in the winter, the world learned the deal was completely off the rails.

By July, like Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the deal was still dead but Innu leader Peter Penashue hoped to bring it back to life in the fall.

Now in the fall, Peter’s not returning Rob Antle’s phone calls and the Premier’s office is saying naught either.

Not good.

Not good at all, since this is one of the key deals that have to be closed in order give the Lower Churchill hydro megaproject any hope of flying.

At least there’s a consistent silence on this one where both parties don’t want to talk.  On the Rhode Island memorandum of understanding, natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale said one thing.  The Rhode Island governor’s office said something completely different.

-srbp-

More like the Omegas meet Spring Break

The annual homecoming weekend at Queen’s University in Kingston is turning out to be the annual reminder of why the university really isn’t the Harvard of the North, as some of its more pompous alumni like to claim.

Even eliminating homecoming weekend hasn’t stopped the Arseholes Gone Wild mentality that made homecoming weekend seem like a cross between Animal House’s Omegas and the idiocy of any spring break in Florida.

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Uncomfortable thoughts

One of the little stories that seemed to sail past most people was a report that three of the province’s four regional health authorities will finish the year with balanced budgets.

"The light bill goes up, the phone bill goes up, the oil bill goes up — that type thing," said Western Health finance committee member Tom O'Brien. "We submitted that to the government and [government] approved our budget with those inflationary numbers in it. So we'll have a balanced budget for 2009-2010.

The only one that wouldn’t is Eastern Health but given some of the issues involved, that’s understandable.

But Labrador-Grenfell,  Western and Central expect to balance their books by year end.

Last spring, Labrador-Grenfell Health estimated it would end its fiscal year with a $2-million deficit, but officials said Wednesday that's no longer the case.

"We have had a greater success in recruiting staff, with a greater number of nurses on staff that actually cuts down on our cost of providing services," CEO Boyd Rowe said. "When we don't have adequate numbers of staff, we end up paying a considerable amount of overtime."

How odd then that earlier this month health minister Paul Oram announced that government had decided to cut laboratory and x-ray service in Flower’s Cove and Lewisporte. he claimed the government needed to save money and that the cuts had been recommended by the health authorities involved.

Sure those two ideas were among dozens tossed out by all four regional health authorities back in February as possible cuts when they were asked  - hypothetically – what they could do to balance their budgets if they got funding frozen at 2008 levels.

But if the books are balanced the cuts weren’t necessary.

And if there was a problem with the government health budget generally, then surely it would have made more sense to do some serious thinking and announce a wide range of options with the new budget in the spring.  There was no rush to chop in September if things were okay and certainly there’d be no reason to cut only two.

That’s what one would expect from a government that generally practices sound financial management based on a genuinely strategic approach. That was the logical implication when Oram acknowledged what many have known for some time, namely that the current administration has been spending wildly, spending public money in a way that – in Oram’s word was “unsustainable.”

Such a government would not engage in seemingly capricious, apparently ill-considered and curious, bizarre cuts that seem to bear no connection to anything. Heck they aren’t even connected to a review of laboratory and x-ray service which isn’t even completed yet.

Such decisions would seem driven by something other than sound reasoning, logic, and a firm grasp of the whole picture.  They’d seem panicky.  They’d seem irrational, perchance even stupid given the political fall-out that’s resulted across the northern coast of Newfoundland.

And it would seem even more irrational, capricious, certainly foolishly stubborn  and – yes maybe even stupid – to persist in the irrational and apparently unnecessary cuts on those two communities once the backlash started  and the overall financial picture was shown to be something other than dire.

Events of the past couple of weeks make you wonder what is really going on inside the provincial government.  What is the real story behind the Flower’s Cove and Lewisporte cuts.

Was there more to Trevor’s departure than meets the eye? Was there something to be found in his comment to Randy Simms the other morning that we are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression?  Taylor was known to speak bluntly and he certainly never spouted the “we are living in a bubble” rhetoric.

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, the good people of Newfoundland and Labrador would look on another administration and wonder what was going on.  Things sometimes didn’t make sense. 

The good people would stare in bewilderment since the leader was known to be a political mastermind.  Surely there had to be some Mensa answer they would rationalize, an idea incomprehensible to mere mortals as to why such bizarre things were occurring. 

Even went things looked insane they figured there had to be a plan behind it all. No one had to tell them that at a board of trade speech;  they knew it already.

Yet, despite their faith, they remained perplexed.

Uneasy.

Unsettled.

Disquieted.

Your humble e-scribbler would suggest to these people that they think about the issue again, and about their conclusion, with one tiny difference:

Merely look on events without the assumption that there was some inscrutable genius at work.

Then look again at the conclusion they reached.

Invariably, inevitably, predictably, at the point they reached a conclusion once again – devoid of the assumed secret and unknown brilliance – their faces turned ashen.

And they would go very quiet.

Quiet isn’t a word you’d use these days in some parts of Newfoundland and Labrador, is it?  Places where the Great Tory Revolution supposedly started.

That must be a very uncomfortable thought for some people.

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Trevor’s greatest hit

In honour of Trevor Taylor’s departure from politics, here’s a link to a post on what he said is his proudest accomplishment in politics.

The fibre-optic deal may well prove to be the railway branch lines of the information superhighway.  It was also one of the finest examples of a government that can’t seem to figure out what it is doing or why it is doing it but it does know the public shouldn’t get any concrete information.

Just remember:  Trevor picked this as his own political monument.

-srbp-

Kruger announces two week shut-down

Kruger announced Friday that Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited - the only paper mill left in the province - will idle the entire Corner Brook facility for two weeks starting October 12.

The company cites the high dollar and weak newsprint prices as the reason for the shut-down.

-srbp-

Simple-minded indeed

The provincial government didn't "invest" money in Rolls-Royce at all.

It just handed over a half million in cash, no strings attached.

It wasn't a loan.

They didn't buy shares.

They just gifted the company with public money.

re:

- The Telegram - St. John's, NL: Business | Investment more than just money: premier (view on Google Sidewiki)

h/t to the anonymous comment suggesting sidewiki.

Danny of the Dead

Don’t be surprised if you start hearing more of Danny Dumaresque in the weeks ahead as the former Liberal politician tries to raise his profile in anticipation of a by-election in The Straits-White Bay North.

The Other Danny is reputedly planning to turn up in Flower’s Cove for the Big Protest. That’s Step Two.  Step One was calling local radio shows.

The Liberal Party’s answer to Jim Morgan last tried for a seat in the 2007 general election.  He was defeated in Torngat Mountains by Patty Pottle and a gazillion personal phone calls from The Danny Hisself.

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Another drop on the way?

Could be, at least if David Rosenberg is right.

Rosenberg, chief analyst at Glusken Sheff and Associates, thinks the current pricing in the markets is based on the false assumption that corporate profits and gross domestic product have already rebounded.

He basis his opinion, in part, on an analysis of the price to earnings ratio for stocks.

Furthermore, the stock rally is pricing in an employment rebound of 2.1 million and a rise in bank lending of 16.5% on average. But both employment and bank lending continue to decline.

At its current valuation, Mr. Rosenberg said the S&P 500 is priced for US$83 in operating earnings per share, which is nearly double from the most recent fourth quarter trend.

Meanwhile, consensus bottom-up estimates are predicting US$73 in operating earnings per share in 2010, with US$83 not likely until 2012.

Rosenberg’s analysis puts stocks overvalued by 20%.

In a similar way, oil has been over-valued considering the huge drop in American demand and corresponding high inventories. Prices have been dropping both for crude and refined products. NYMEX gasoline fell six cents per gallon and ICE Brent crude fell three dollars a barrel in the past 24 hours.

-srbp-

Salty stories

Okay, so like all the Toronto media are worried about sodium in food.

The Grope has a story on it.

Ditto the national midnight Star.

And the mighty Ceeb! can’t be left out.

Lowering the sodium level in your diet is a good idea.

But if you really want a funny sodium story you have to look at anti-salt crusader Michael Bloomberg and his love affair with the shaker in NYC:

But Mr. Bloomberg, 67, likes his popcorn so salty that it burns others’ lips. (At Gracie Mansion, the cooks deliver it to him with a salt shaker.) He sprinkles so much salt on his morning bagel “that it’s like a pretzel,” said the manager at Viand, a Greek diner near Mr. Bloomberg’s Upper East Side town house.

Not even pizza is spared a coat of sodium. When the mayor sat down to eat a slice at Denino’s Pizzeria Tavern on Staten Island recently, this reporter spotted him applying six dashes of salt to it.

 

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To the good people of Straits-White Bay North: you can vote today to replace Trevor

Forget protest in the streets.

Protest where it hurts:  the ballot box.

Danny Williams campaigned in your district in 2001 and held out the Tory victory there and across the road for Wally Young as proof times were changing in the Tory favour.

Well, times have really changed.  

If you want to send a message to the government it will never, ever forget, then there is a simple way to send a message.

Vote today.

It’s called a special ballot.

Every person can request a special ballot including:

• an elector who has reason to believe that he/she will have difficulty voting on polling day perhaps due to work or personal commitments;

• a student who is in attendance at a recognized educational institution either inside or outside the Province;

• an elector temporarily residing outside the Province for a continuous period of less than 6 months who is unable to attend at either the advance or regular poll;

• an elector who is incarcerated in a correctional institution or in detention at the Waterford Hospital;

• a patient in hospital who will be unable to attend either the advance or regular poll.

All you have to do is contact the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, otherwise known as Elections Newfoundland and Labrador.

There’s a form to complete and send in.  You can find it in pdf format here.

They’ll send you back a voter kit which you can use to cast your vote right now.

But there’s no election yet, you may be thinking.

Doesn’t matter.

Under section 86(4) of the Elections Act, voters who meet those criteria above can ask for a special ballot no more than four weeks before an election or by-election is called.  Well, you and the rest of the world don’t know when the thing will be called but we know when the earliest date is that it could be called.

That would be October 2, the day Trevor said he is quitting the House of Assembly.  Any of you who knew Trevor was going could have already voted.  But since the rest of us found out today, you should be able to get a ballot and vote right now.

There is no legal reason for Paul Reynolds to refuse you the opportunity to vote under section 86(4).

And don’t worry about the fact there are no declared candidates.

Under section 86.4, you can write in the name of the political party you want to vote for instead of the name of a particular person.  Once a candidate is declared for that party, the candidate will get your vote. 

Voting is your right.

-srbp-

Kremlinology 5: hard to swallow that

In other instalments in the Kremlinology series, we introduced you to Trevor Taylor. There were a couple of signs that things were not right with Trevor Taylor and his relationship with the current administration.

Until today he was a cabinet minister in the Danny Williams crew.  He’ll be resigning his seat in the legislature next week.

Taylor pulled pin unexpectedly Thursday, announcing he was off to a new gig with a not-for-profit interested in Arctic ecology.  According to Taylor, he is going for personal reasons.  He said he made the decision a month ago, told the Premier a week and a bit ago and dropped it on cabinet today.

There’s a new job waiting for him that will involve working with a not-for-profit on fisheries management in places like the Beaufort Sea.

The real reasons are likely contained in all the pre-emptive denials Trevor tossed out in his scrum:

• He still loves Danny
• No dissention or tension
• Not running federally
• Nothing to do with Flowers Cove

Politics is hard on the personal life and when things get tough on issues like Flowers Cove, forestry and the fishery – all big issues in Taylor’s neck of the woods -  family members often bear the brunt.   The fact that Taylor hasn’t been able to make any headway with his cabinet colleagues on those issues doesn’t help.

His tone during the scrum seems stressed.  This is  a guy who doesn’t appear to want to leave politics. If he has issues within his family, a job that will take him over North America and involve work at the opposite end of the country doesn’t sound like a recipe for spending more time with the kids, as the phrase goes.

For his part, the Premier praised Taylor and said it might take until next month to sort out a new cabinet arrangement. A permanent replacement for Taylor would take longer.   Taylor has carried a few stinky parcels for the current administration, including the fibre optic scheme. 

Maybe Taylor’s departure speaks to frustration at his inability to change certain minds in the Confederation Building.  He spoke about getting into politics to make decisions on certain things.  One of them was likely the fishery, interestingly a portfolio from which Taylor was ripped in favour of some old-fashioned thinking. 

Trevor Taylor is a relatively young man who – until today – seemed to have a bright political future ahead of him, especially in a post-Danny Williams Tory party.  The fact that he decided to pack it in, rather than stick it any longer, might be a sign that kremlinology sometimes works.

Any other cabinet ministers or back-benchers feeling political heat these days?

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Can’t tell the candidate’s party without a score-card

Last time your humble e-scribbler checked, education was an exclusively provincial responsibility under the constitution.

Yes, the feds drop money into post-secondary education, but how it gets spent is a thing for provincial government authorities.

So if any order of government has to prepare young people for the future and a global, competitive economy, it would be the provincial government.

Research and development?

Both orders of government should be spending money on that.  The provincial should not be giving gigantic breaks to its buddies in the oil business.

So what exactly is Siobhan Coady doing calling on the federal government to deal with issues where the provincial government is apparently dropping the ball?

Apparently following the time honoured local political tradition of talking about things other than what your elected position deals with.

If you are running for school board, complain about the roads. If you are running for municipal government, complain about the hospitals, schools, and the provincial government in general.  If you are running for provincial office - blame Ottawa.

Or is it the other local tradition of talking about the need for more federal hand-outs to cover the bills for being more “independent”?  If that’s the case she has good company from at least one current politician and one wannabe.

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Have not?

Forget all the talk about Newfoundland and Labrador being a have not province.  Figures from the federal finance department tell a different tale.

	2004	2005	2006	2007
NL	7792	8572	8994	9936
PE	7489	7671	7874	8594
NS	5966	6422	7014	7701
NB	6895	7349	7849	8476
QC	6324	6493	6787	7108
ON	5652	5979	6261	6848
MB	7510	8080	8154	9235
SK	6465	7179	7768	8058
AB	7363	8050	8562	9461
BC	6828	7316	7578	8054

Leaving out debt servicing , Newfoundland and Labrador topped every province in the country  in spending per person in 12 of the  21 years from 1986 to 2007.  The province has been in the top three in per person spending in all but three years in that period.

Even more surprisingly, Newfoundland and Labrador has been in the top spot in all but two years since 1994. 

And the gap isn’t a small one. 

In 2007, Newfoundland and Labrador outspent Alberta by $500 per person. 

In 2003, the last year of the Grimes administration, Newfoundland and Labrador spent about $1300 per person more than oil-soaked Alberta.

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Tom Marshall, Time Lord

Now that Tom Rideout is gone, another cabinet minister has been afflicted with the strange tendency to confuse time.

In this case, it is justice minister Tom Marshall and the confusion is over how long the Green bill was debated in the legislature.  Marshall issued a news release on Wednesday weighing into the controversy over an eight percent salary hike given to members of the province’s legislature in July.

Marshall said:

This compensation is clearly laid out in the act which was widely debated and reported upon by the media at the time of its passing.

Widely debated?

Try a portion of one day’s sitting right at the end of the spring session in 2007.  The thing was whipped through the House of Assembly so fast a great many details of it were not revealed to the public.

Like the fact that the spending limits and other provisions didn’t take effect until after the fall 2007 general election.

Neither aspect was discussed at the time, nor was there much public discussion of the appointment of the salary commission that was set to work holding public hearings while most people in the province were caught up with summer vacations and other such stuff.

Old habits die hard, and some  - like the inability to tell time – die even harder.

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More problems for NALCO power line

Objections are now coming about the proposed power line that would skirt Gros Morne Park.

Hikers and outfitters are concerned the power line will affect caribou and spoil hiking trails in the area.

"We've been working for the past four years in the Portland Creek and Parson's Pond watersheds, and we're hoping that Nalcor will be able to compromise and find a more suitable route further east and north than the proposed route," said Paul Wylezol, chairman of the International Appalachian Trail of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Marine service facility in land-locked town gets free gift of taxpayers cash

Rolls-Royce marine is establishing what is touted  - by the provincial government but not the company - as a $10.5 million service centre in Mount Pearl.

Other Rolls-Royce marine service centres are located right next to the ocean, usually with wharf facilities as part of the complex, like the 40,000 square foot facility in Galveston, Texas or the 21,000 square foot plant  in Seattle, Washington.

Mount Pearl is land-locked.

Unlike the other Rolls-Royce service centres, the new one in Mount Pearl is actually quite far from the major shipping locales or construction yards where one might think it would be easier and cheaper to repair Rolls-Royce engines.

Of the great sea-faring cities of the world,  of all the great maritime cities of modern times, Mount Pearl isn’t a name that comes readily to mind.

So what exactly will these 36 employees be doing, one wonders.  Neither the news release from the company nor the one from its government benefactor gives any real indication.

Very odd.

But nothing is quite so odd as the idea of a multi-national company establishing a facility valued at 10 million bucks that needs a few hundred thousand – completely interest free – that they don’t even have to pay back to the public purse.  Supposedly this money will help defray the cost of equipment and training.

$500,000 against $10, 000,000.

Something doesn’t add up. 

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The Kings of Cuts

There’s something about Paul Oram that just seems so familiar.

Maybe it’s his similarities to the equally-perfectly coifed predecessor, Lloyd Matthews.

Yes the father of the Premier’s Chief Publicist occupied the health minister’s office until early 1997 when he was hastily shuffled out.  There was a massive revolt against the way government was handling health care. 

Take a second and read the old news releases from those days though, and you’ll find more than a few things that seem oddly familiar.  Stuff like reviewing health care in central Newfoundland with an eye to what could get “improved”:

Health Minister Lloyd Matthews will take the next 6-8 weeks to fully evaluate and consider the recommendations of the report into health services in Central Newfoundland. KPMG Management Consultants recently presented the final report to the minister following four months of consultation with individuals and organizations throughout the region.

"This review is a comprehensive analysis of current and future health needs for the entire Central Newfoundland region," said Mr. Matthews. "The report looks at the network of primary, secondary, chronic and community based care, and makes recommendations on how these services can be better organized and coordinated to meet existing health needs and to reflect the emerging health needs of residents in the region."

The minister stated he would now be presenting this report to Cabinet for consideration. "Once government has had an opportunity to consider the full report, I will be able to provide further details on health services contained in the report, as well as outline future directions for health services in Central Newfoundland," said Matthews.

The minister thanked all individuals who made presentations or submissions to the consultants during the period of review, for their interest in health service delivery.

Matthews released the review in March, 1997, after announcing it had been received in early January.  The project started the previous June.   It recommended a number of things, including renovations to North Haven Manor in Lewisporte to ensure it could provide service out to 2005.

There are a lot of things in Matthews’ ministerial past that seem oddly familiar to the current generation, as well as a few surprising differences.

Matthews didn’t have much money to play with either as minister or as a member of cabinet generally.  Paul Oram and his cabinet colleagues  - by stark contrast - have access to more cash than any cabinet in the province’s history.

Oram talks about health care cuts.

Matthews’ review of health care in central Newfoundland could note that since the creation of new health care boards (re-organized out of existence by Oram’s clan), day surgery had increased by 70% in Gander. Note, for example, the reference to demographic projections for 2005.

There’s a sense of planning and organization to the whole thing.  The re-organization started with a view to changing how health care money was spent so more could be pushed toward front-line service.   It may not have worked out exactly as intended, but there was a long-range goal based on the knowledge that by 2005ish, the population would be pretty much where it actually turned out to be.  That brought with it certain predictable consequences and government worked to organize a system that could provide needed care within the budget likely to exist.

Sometimes, the differences are startling.  Back in the 1990s, the health minister could commission a report, get it and then release it within six weeks.  When was the last time Oram and his colleagues managed to get a report on the street within six months of getting it in hand? 

Compare as well, Matthews’ language to that used in the past 48 hours or so.  The emphasis on changes in the 1990s was ensuring that the government could continue to meet health care needs despite limited funds and what was anticipated to be skyrocketing demand. 

There’s a decidedly less positive sound to the way Oram put it:

“Our government faces a difficult decision to make regarding the types of services we can offer in the long-term, how much we can continue to invest as a province and identifying how we can improve the quality in our programs and services across the province.”

Still through it all there are some common threads, ones that transcend the superficial nonsense Oram got on with the other day by referring to cuts in the 1990s. 

He might do well to check with some of his predecessors, people who had a real hard time running the department but who managed to get through it with their reputation intact.  Roger Grimes would likely give him a good pile of advice. So too would Herb Kitchen or Julie Bettney.   Lloyd Matthews wouldn’t:  if memory serves, he got into political hot water largely due to the way he presented himself publicly.

How Oram handles himself might determine who really gets remembers as being the Kings of Cuts: Danny Williams and his crew or the guy Danny used to call the King of Cuts.

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Meeker gets behind the ad that is driving ‘em bonkers on The Hill

Geoff Meeker is back from vacation and is lighting things up at his Telegram blog, “Meeker on Media”.

The latest post is the text of an interview with the people behind a series of ads that are keeping political controversy alive in central Newfoundland.

“The reaction from the area MHA's has been disappointing to say the least,” said the spokesperson. “Clearly there are larger influences at work here. Susan Sullivan, whose light was shining so brightly (new MHA, cabinet appointment) has probably dashed her re-election hopes due to her inaction and complicity. Clayton Forsey and Ray Hunter have also placed themselves in jeopardy. Many say that Ray Hunter has achieved his goal of a two-term pension, so does not care either way (his record clearly speaks to this). Municipal officials have been even more inept – Mayor Rex Barnes and his council have failed to grasp the magnitude of this, and have, in fact, been shameless in praising the scraps falling from the provincial government table.”

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