That way it should be: Tuba Christmas!
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25 December 2010
24 December 2010
Delacourt and the political rumour mill
From Susan Delacourt at The Toronto Star comes a column taking issue with two of her colleagues at other publications who have taken, it seems, to writing about a rumour as if it were true.
Delacourt quite rightly chastises her colleagues and truthfully her metaphorical pen has an edge to it that ought to cause corporeal real wounds it is so skilfully wielded.
Journalism involves investigating tips or questions, determining their accuracy, and telling the public the facts. The difference between Misters Spector and Cohen is that they seem to have taken a little shortcut there, or worse, done it backwards. They've reported the rumour and asked other people to investigate. I would hope that Mr. Cohen is not teaching young would-be journalists to do the same. Apart from being supremely unfair, it's also just plain lazy.
Over the past few weeks, the local political world has been beset by all manner of story. Your humble e-scribbler tossed up two separate ones so that readers could be aware they are out there. Neither was presented as fact.
One of them merely added a bit of colour to what had existed as whisperings but that was quite clearly becoming fairly obvious true: within the Conservative party someone - alone or in concert with others – had resolved to avoid a leadership contest over the next couple of months and instead have Kathy Dunderdale carry on as leader of the party and, by default as premier, until sometime after the 2011 general election.
The other, as David Cochrane reliably tweeted, is one that he tells us all he’d checked into it a couple of weeks ago and received a denial from Danny Williams’ publicist.
That one is important, though, not for the substance of it but for the fact that it existed in the first place. Danny Williams’ left abruptly and without apparent cause or explanation. As a result, a great many people are wondering why Williams left as quickly as he did. A great many of those are Conservatives who have been left very unsettled by his departure.
And if nothing else, the rather speedy exit he made created the climate in which the party is now engineering a little story to avoid a leadership contest of any kind at least until after October 2011. People are searching for an explanation. The Maple Leafs’ rumour seems as good as any of the others that are flying around the entire province but which are more obviously preposterous.
In a sense, that’s the same sort of discussion Susan Delacourt offers after slapping her two colleagues. She recounts the story of the rumour story itself. That’s actually quite useful since by telling the whole tale, Susan has helped inoculate people against this sort of foolishness in the future.
Nothing kills corruption like daylight.
Good on Susan for spreading a little daylight on this nasty infection.
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Krampus!
Think of him as the anti-Claus or the Counter-Nicholas.
In many parts of central Europe, Saint Nicholas may bring presents to the good boys and girls but Krampus is the one who deals with the naughty children. Some versions have him coming around at the same time as Nicholas. Others have him coming around a few weeks beforehand.
As you can see from this video, the tradition continues and attracts quite a large crowd as various interpretations of Krampus roam the streets.
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23 December 2010
Connie Leadership 2011: Fairity got the call too!
Kevin O’Brien told VOCM is isn’t interested in replacing Danny Williams.
Did anyone else have him in the race except your humble e-scribbler?
Sheesh.
No one wants to be Ernie Eves.
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Marshall wants Dunderdale for Premier
Of course he does.
The fix is already in.
“This is not the leadership you are looking for” Update: As the Telegram reminds us all, Tom Marshall pledged to take time over Christmas to think about the leadership. Christmas must have come and gone while no one was looking.
It’s almost as if someone called him up and told him the right decision to make.
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The horrors of democracy
From a recent Telegram editorial:
Democracy is a messy business but as this bill demonstrates, in a healthy democracy parties can reconcile their contending points of view in a compromise that works for all. In the end, the health care bill passed the Senate unanimously.
The Congress also passed a bill repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that discriminates against homosexuals serving in the American military. And those are just some of the measures passed as the members head off to a Christmas break. The legislators will be back in January, incidentally, hard at work passing laws and keeping the current administration accountable to the people whose money the government spends.
All that noise that hurt the ears of the Telegram editorial board is, in fact, an essential feature of any democracy worthy of the name. It is, to be sure, a very necessary and very natural expression of a thriving society where people can argue about ideas, have strong disagreements and then find a middle ground that allows everyone to move forward.
Compare to the current goings on in Newfoundland and Labrador. The legislature sits for a handful of days a year. When it does sit, as in the eight day wonder just completed, the members spoke about a handful of pathetic bills that did little more than change the punctuation is some straight-forward bills. They spoke about those bills – debate is hardly the word for it - with some of the most incoherent speeches delivered in this or any other legislature on the planet.
At the same time, the governing Conservatives are busily working to avoid having any sort of open political competition within their own party for the Premier’s job recently vacated in an unseemly haste by Danny Williams. These denizens of the proverbial smoke-filled rooms and politicians like Jerome Kennedy and Darin King are afraid.
They are afraid not only of debate, perhaps, but of their own inability, ultimately, to bring people together.
They seem to be genuinely distrustful of politics itself. After all, debate and reconciliation, are core features of politics in a democratic society.
Seriously.
The problem in 2001 that Tories are pointing to was not that the Liberal leadership produced differences of opinion. Those differences exist as a matter of course in every group of human beings. The political problem for Liberals came from the fact that Roger Grimes hard trouble bringing people together on his own team in a common cause.
The Conservative effort to deliver a leader without an open competition will do nothing except point out that the Conservatives not only lack a suitable replacement for Danny Williams, they are desperate not to risk their hold on power. What’s more, Jerome or Darin or Kathy know that they lack the leadership skills to reconcile the factions within their own party. Otherwise they wouldn’t stand for a back-room fix.
And in the process, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should be highly suspicious of whomever the back-rooms boys settle on to run the Conservative Party. After all, how can the people of Newfoundland and Labrador trust them to bring people together in much larger causes than who gets to head the Tory tribe?
Politics is supposed to be adversarial and the more open the differences the easier it is for people to consider the various aspects of difficult ideas. Consider what might have happened, for example, had the legislature done what it is supposed to do and forced the cabinet to explain and fully justify something like the Abitibi expropriation.
The job of holding government accountable is not just for the opposition. Government members have a role to play as members of the House.
Newspapers and other media also have a role to play in a healthy democracy. Usually, the role is to question and to criticise those in power. Yet instead of showing any enthusiasm for democracy, the Telegram editorial board is slipping into the same anti-democratic way of thinking it offered in March and April 1931. At that time, the country supposedly needed a break from democracy and the Telegram was all in favour of it.
Simply put: just as one could not be a democrat and support the imposition of an unelected government in 1931, one cannot support democracy and hold out the recent session of the legislature as anything other than the embarrassment that it is.
If, as the Telegram editorial board contends, the most recent session of the United States Congress is a sign of moral bankruptcy and if the House of Assembly is a repository of nobility and virtue by comparison, then let us all hope the province is very soon beset by every form of political debauchery the human mind can imagine.
There is, after all, something much more horrible than democracy.
Those same Republicans are now saying these heroes, many of whom suffer from chronic respiratory diseases, must stand aside until the country’s fattest fat cats get to keep their three per cent tax holiday.
And from the news:
One could hardly imagine any greater depth of moral bankruptcy.
The US Senate on Wednesday approved a long-awaited multi-billion-dollar health package for emergency responders to the terrorist attacks of Sep 11, 2001.Moral bankruptcy indeed.
…
The legislation was to be passed later Wednesday by the House of Representatives and sent to President Barack Obama's desk for signature. The approval by both chambers of Congress would come on the last day before lawmakers head home for a holiday recess.
Democracy is a messy business but as this bill demonstrates, in a healthy democracy parties can reconcile their contending points of view in a compromise that works for all. In the end, the health care bill passed the Senate unanimously.
The Congress also passed a bill repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that discriminates against homosexuals serving in the American military. And those are just some of the measures passed as the members head off to a Christmas break. The legislators will be back in January, incidentally, hard at work passing laws and keeping the current administration accountable to the people whose money the government spends.
All that noise that hurt the ears of the Telegram editorial board is, in fact, an essential feature of any democracy worthy of the name. It is, to be sure, a very necessary and very natural expression of a thriving society where people can argue about ideas, have strong disagreements and then find a middle ground that allows everyone to move forward.
Compare to the current goings on in Newfoundland and Labrador. The legislature sits for a handful of days a year. When it does sit, as in the eight day wonder just completed, the members spoke about a handful of pathetic bills that did little more than change the punctuation is some straight-forward bills. They spoke about those bills – debate is hardly the word for it - with some of the most incoherent speeches delivered in this or any other legislature on the planet.
At the same time, the governing Conservatives are busily working to avoid having any sort of open political competition within their own party for the Premier’s job recently vacated in an unseemly haste by Danny Williams. These denizens of the proverbial smoke-filled rooms and politicians like Jerome Kennedy and Darin King are afraid.
They are afraid not only of debate, perhaps, but of their own inability, ultimately, to bring people together.
They seem to be genuinely distrustful of politics itself. After all, debate and reconciliation, are core features of politics in a democratic society.
Seriously.
The problem in 2001 that Tories are pointing to was not that the Liberal leadership produced differences of opinion. Those differences exist as a matter of course in every group of human beings. The political problem for Liberals came from the fact that Roger Grimes hard trouble bringing people together on his own team in a common cause.
The Conservative effort to deliver a leader without an open competition will do nothing except point out that the Conservatives not only lack a suitable replacement for Danny Williams, they are desperate not to risk their hold on power. What’s more, Jerome or Darin or Kathy know that they lack the leadership skills to reconcile the factions within their own party. Otherwise they wouldn’t stand for a back-room fix.
And in the process, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should be highly suspicious of whomever the back-rooms boys settle on to run the Conservative Party. After all, how can the people of Newfoundland and Labrador trust them to bring people together in much larger causes than who gets to head the Tory tribe?
Politics is supposed to be adversarial and the more open the differences the easier it is for people to consider the various aspects of difficult ideas. Consider what might have happened, for example, had the legislature done what it is supposed to do and forced the cabinet to explain and fully justify something like the Abitibi expropriation.
The job of holding government accountable is not just for the opposition. Government members have a role to play as members of the House.
Newspapers and other media also have a role to play in a healthy democracy. Usually, the role is to question and to criticise those in power. Yet instead of showing any enthusiasm for democracy, the Telegram editorial board is slipping into the same anti-democratic way of thinking it offered in March and April 1931. At that time, the country supposedly needed a break from democracy and the Telegram was all in favour of it.
Simply put: just as one could not be a democrat and support the imposition of an unelected government in 1931, one cannot support democracy and hold out the recent session of the legislature as anything other than the embarrassment that it is.
If, as the Telegram editorial board contends, the most recent session of the United States Congress is a sign of moral bankruptcy and if the House of Assembly is a repository of nobility and virtue by comparison, then let us all hope the province is very soon beset by every form of political debauchery the human mind can imagine.
There is, after all, something much more horrible than democracy.
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Of Death Eaters and Horcruxes
From deep inside the Conservative bunker this past couple of weeks have come one consistent set of stories.
Someone doesn’t want to have a leadership contest. Whether it is the pressures of time on the party or fear of opening up internal divisions that just won’t heal, Conservative back-room boys have been trying to engineer a coronation.
Until Wednesday, those were just stories.
Then events started to unfold.
A couple of weeks ago, Darin King said he would take the time over Christmas to discuss his political future with family and friends. Christmas must have come early.
"My children are not that old — my son's in grade 11, my daughter's in grade 7 — my wife is a full time professional and I'm sure people would appreciate, its very taxing on the family, just time alone that you're away from home," said King.
"To consider taking on another challenge such as this at this point and time for me, it was our conclusion, that it's not in the best interest for us collectively as a family." [via CBC]
Reporters heard about King’s media scrum from a strange source: Jerome Kennedy. After announcing he was bowing out of the race because he had two teenage children, Kennedy told reporters that King would be along later with an announcement of his won.
And to confirm that the fix was in, both endorsed Kathy Dunderdale as the leader of the province’s Conservatives. By default, she gets to remain as Premier.
Now a young family or other unspecified family pressures are usually a genuine explanation of why someone leaves cabinet or even leaves politics altogether. But these aren’t young families. Both men have teenage children and they got into politics when their children were much younger – that’s the time when a young and needy family would be the reason for someone to stay out of politics.
Wednesday’s announcement by Kennedy and King sounds like someone who quits a job to spend more time with the kids and then goes after another job that would have him spend less time with the family. As a story, it just doesn’t hang together.
The stories about a back-room deal only grew stronger as time went by. If the latest whisperings are true, the back-room manoeuvres involved none other than Danny Williams Hisself. Williams was the only one who could contain the ambitions of so many for so long. And as it seems now Williams may have been the one who could convince the ambitious to bide their time a while longer.
There’s no question, though, that someone is working behind the scenes to manoeuvre everyone into a certain position. There might be a few more minor shoes to drop – maybe some staff changes in Kathy’s suite - but Darin King and Jerome Kennedy made it clear on Wednesday that the fix is in: it will be Premier Dunderdale leading the Conservatives into the election, whenever it comes.
How long the fix lasts, though, is another question.
Oh…
Just coincidentally, you might have noticed some changes to the government online phone directory lately. Right at the end of the listings for the Premier’s Office is an interesting entry:
Danny Williams is still listed in the office. He holds the position of “Premier Dunderdale”.
Makes you wonder.
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Update: Corrected time references.
22 December 2010
Williams to head Rogers sports empire?
Is that why he left office so suddenly?
@edhollett raises the persistent Williams to Rogers rumour on his blog. I called DW's people on this two weeks ago. They say "Not true."
Introducing Premier Dunderdale… along with a primer on the new Premier
Jerome! won’t be running.
And he dropped the hint that Darin, King of Uncommunication is also out of the race to be Premier.
Does any Conservative want to be Premier?
Kathy Dunderdale is only reconsidering her original pledge because people are encouraging her to do so. It’s not like she – or any other Conservatives for that matter – apparently have the requisite combination of ambition plus ideas to go after what used to be looked on as the most important political job in the province.
This sorry state speaks volumes for the utter devastation Danny Williams wreaked on the Conservative Party, let alone the political system in the province generally.
No one wants the job.
Either that or there is a move afoot within Tory circles to engineer an outcome without running the risk of a divisive leadership campaign. Even that doesn’t say very much for the current state of the Conservative Party or its pool of - ersatz? - leaders.
Undoubtedly, there’ll be more to follow. in the meantime, amuse yourselves with these oldies but goodies:
A Kathy Dunderdale Primer
A sample of posts on Kathy Dunderdale from the Sir Robert Bond Papers:
- “TARFU”
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Muskrat Falls: Internal contradictions 2
A $6.2 billion megaproject is green partly because it is supposed to displace 500 megawatts of electricity generated at Holyrood by burning Bunker C oil.
But now this green project will also open the chance for Nalcor to build a new thermal generating plant as well, this time burning natural gas. This is a new opportunity, supposedly.
Bonus contradiction: “Displace” is the word Nalcor uses to bridge the contradiction between what the politicians will tell you about the Holyrood generators and what Nalcor tells the public utilities board.
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Internal contradictions: the editorialist version
Compared to his glorious accomplishments, already praised by the Telegram’s editorialists, their concerns about a few file folders are mere trifling.
Things are slowly returning to the “normal” state of editorial sucking and blowing at different times on the same subject
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21 December 2010
Potholes and Compensation
If you want to spend a few minutes in that altered state of consciousness called being a cabinet minister, take a listen to an interview transportation minister Tom Hedderson did back in October with CBC Radio’s West Coast Morning Show.
The interview is about damage claims people are filing after using sections of the Trans-Labrador Highway. Seems that they’ve been hitting potholes and are looking to have repairs paid for by the provincial government due to supposed inadequate maintenance and signage.
In the course of the interview, Hedderson acknowledges that increased traffic has caused increased wear and tear on the gravel road – yes it is a highway that has no pavement – but he insists that his department is doing everything it can to keep the road up to snuff. He also acknowledges that the road surface will deteriorate after a heavy rain.
So yes, there have been claims for damages but the department won’t be paying anything because – by its own decision – everything they are doing is adequate.
To sum up:
1. There are potholes.
2. There is no compensation.
There is no compensation because the same people responsible for maintaining the road are the same people who make the decision about whether or not they will pay. Hedderson just rubber stamps the decision by officials.
There’s even a Pythonesque moment right at the start where the interviewer asks Hedderson if they have in fact paid any claims to anyone at all. No, says Hedderson. Cheese vendor Michael Palin couldn’t have done any better.
Later on, Bernice Hillier asks Hedderson about “legitimate” claims since, apparently Hedderson had said earlier in the year the department would pay for legitimate complaints. “Legitimate” claims get paid, it seems.
Hedderson’s definition of a “legitimate” claim is basically one they’ve paid.
And since they haven’t paid any claims… draw your own conclusion.
That interview aired on October 28.
On October 26, Hedderson issued a news release announcing changes to the Labrador coastal boat service because of improvements in the road network.
"Now that there is a highway link connecting the communities currently served by this run, the time has come to discontinue the passenger and freight service between Lewisporte, Cartwright and Happy Valley-Goose Bay," said the Honourable Tom Hedderson, Minister of Transportation and Works. "This is a natural step in light of the approximately $275 million investment in Phases II and III of the TLH and is consistent with the delivery and maintenance of transportation infrastructure and services in other communities that are accessible by road.”
Wonderful stuff. People can drive around now on this highway. In fact, more people are using it and will use it in the future.
But they shouldn’t expect that government will compensate them for damage resulting from using the roads.
That is, unless they use “more legal type means”.
That would be Hedderson-speak for getting a lawyer and filing a damage suit in Provincial Court. Given the laughable way Hedderson handles complaints to his office, that might be a good idea. Hire a lawyer who will fight bureaucrats and their self-serving, circular logic.
Anyone ever heard of a lawyer like that?
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20 December 2010
The triumph of provincialism
In what would otherwise be highly risible, the Globe’s Jeff Simpson laments the triumph of parochial interests in Canada politics while using as an example a provincial politician whom he apparently admires yet who epitomised the attitude Jeff apparently finds so troubling.
Two things on this for now:
1. Don’t worry: Jeff knows what risible means.
2. This is yet further evidence of why people in Newfoundland and Labrador should pay no heed to things that appear in the Globe and Mail.
It is just a newspaper.
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Dunderdale flip flops on future
She’s not running.
She’s running.
She’s not running.
And 24 hours after the last version of the story, Kathy Dunderdale is a model of decisiveness as she confirms she is now thinking about running to replace Danny Williams as Tory leader on a permanent basis.
She’s currently a caretaker leader and premier, as she previous told reporters she had “committed” to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
But give it a few days and an apparent tizzy inside her party and things are starting to look differently. Here’s how CBC described it:
"I opened the door a crack on it last week only because I've been under so much pressure to do so from within the caucus and from across the province generally," Dunderdale said at Government House, where she watched the swearing-in ceremony for David Brazil, who won the Conception Bay East-Bell Island byelection on Dec. 2.
"It's been quite overwhelming and it's very nice. But, I got to tell you, I still haven't had a lot of time to think about it but nothing has changed at this point in time."
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Williams’ abrupt departure “shocking”: Dunderdale
From the Friday Telegram;
In her former role as Williams’ deputy premier, Dunderdale ought to have been intimately aware of any major developments such as Williams’ departure. She likely wouldn’t have been alone.
And given that Williams had talked on several occasions about when he might leave politics, the party should have been prepared.
Apparently, they weren’t and the result is that the party is scrambling.
You can tell that the party leadership is confused and scrambling by two factors:
First, there are no declared contenders, let alone leading ones. The one heir apparent – Jerome Kennedy – is reportedly dropping out and may well leave politics altogether. Other than that, no names have bobbed to the surface two weeks after Danny Williams left office and three weeks after he announced his departure.
Second, the party hasn’t announced a process by which the party will select a new leader.
What’s been happening for the past week is a great deal of speculation about all sorts of prospective candidates, but none it involves serious contenders.
So empty is the field of people even taking a gawk that news media have reported that Kathy Dunderdale is not running, running and then not running again for the leadership all within a 24 hour period.
CBC ran a story on Thursday that featured Dunderdale saying she would not be running. The Telegram story linked above put it this way: “But Dunderdale said she may rethink that decision because of the support she’s getting to stay on.” The title of the story is “Dunderdale may reconsider running for premier full-time,” as if she was working part-time now. A day later, VOCM ran this story:
Taken together with the absence of any declared candidates, Connors’ report suggests that some party insiders may be trying to engineer someone into the job without a leadership race at all. Bear in mind that the party hasn’t decided on a process – convention or telephone voting – let alone even opened nominations yet.
It’s not like time is on their side what with by-election (s), budgets and then a fixed date for the next general election.
Seems that’s another Christmas present Danny Williams left to the provincial Conservatives right alongside the current leadership scramble and the Muskrat Falls bomb.
“The premier leaving was shocking to me,” said [Premier Kathy] Dunderdale. “My first thought was how are we going to do as a government, as a caucus.” [Telegram editorial insertion removed from quote]That pretty much says it like it is: Williams’s departure was unexpected.
In her former role as Williams’ deputy premier, Dunderdale ought to have been intimately aware of any major developments such as Williams’ departure. She likely wouldn’t have been alone.
And given that Williams had talked on several occasions about when he might leave politics, the party should have been prepared.
Apparently, they weren’t and the result is that the party is scrambling.
You can tell that the party leadership is confused and scrambling by two factors:
First, there are no declared contenders, let alone leading ones. The one heir apparent – Jerome Kennedy – is reportedly dropping out and may well leave politics altogether. Other than that, no names have bobbed to the surface two weeks after Danny Williams left office and three weeks after he announced his departure.
Second, the party hasn’t announced a process by which the party will select a new leader.
What’s been happening for the past week is a great deal of speculation about all sorts of prospective candidates, but none it involves serious contenders.
So empty is the field of people even taking a gawk that news media have reported that Kathy Dunderdale is not running, running and then not running again for the leadership all within a 24 hour period.
CBC ran a story on Thursday that featured Dunderdale saying she would not be running. The Telegram story linked above put it this way: “But Dunderdale said she may rethink that decision because of the support she’s getting to stay on.” The title of the story is “Dunderdale may reconsider running for premier full-time,” as if she was working part-time now. A day later, VOCM ran this story:
Dunderdale still not considering running for leadership
The Premier says she's not reconsidering a bid at the leadership of the Progressive-Conservative Party, despite her success in the last two weeks in ending some long-standing disputes. Kathy Dunderdale says she's focused on governance, not a leadership race.While Dunderdale is obviously not interested in taking the Premier’s job beyond the caretaker role she’s already accepted, take a look at the rest of her comment to the Telly:
Dunderdale says it hasn't been part of her consideration in terms of anything she's done in the last two weeks. She says she hasn't thought about it or changed her mind, but she says it's a business where you can never say never.
There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on me to reconsider…NTV’s Michael Connors reported on Friday that there is apparently concern in the Conservative caucus that they not have a divisive leadership along the lines of the Liberal one in 2001. That comment has been floating around the legislature for the past few days.
Taken together with the absence of any declared candidates, Connors’ report suggests that some party insiders may be trying to engineer someone into the job without a leadership race at all. Bear in mind that the party hasn’t decided on a process – convention or telephone voting – let alone even opened nominations yet.
It’s not like time is on their side what with by-election (s), budgets and then a fixed date for the next general election.
Seems that’s another Christmas present Danny Williams left to the provincial Conservatives right alongside the current leadership scramble and the Muskrat Falls bomb.
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