The Dunderdale-O’Brien Confusion #nlpoli

In a scrum on Wednesday, May 23, Premier Kathy Dunderdale said:

“What we are talking about, in fact, is a two hour window here.”

In the House of Assembly on Thursday, May 24, Premier Kathy Dunderdale said:

I have asked Minister MacKay for an explanation of the gap that occurred on January 30 in the search when there was a five-hour period that they were not engaged in the search. The answers are not satisfactory; the protocols need to be changed.

There is no five-hour period in the Burton Winters search that matches whatever Kathy Dunderdale is talking about in that exchange in the House of Assembly.  In fact, it’s pretty hard for anyone with even a sketchy knowledge of the events in Makkovik in late January and early February to figure out what Kathy Dunderdale is getting on with.

The Perfect Storm #nlpoli

“In the fishery of the very near future,” SRBP wrote in February, “fishing subsidies like federal employment insurance wage subsidies,  state-sponsored marketing schemes and the stalinist political control of the economy… will all go by the wayside. International trade talks are already laying the groundwork for massive change.”

The very near future arrived this week.

Dare to be Stupid

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And she believes this crap is brilliant #nlpoli

Arguments are so much more convincing when claims match with the evidence.

Otherwise you wind up with a credibility gap.  It’s bad enough for ordinary people, but when you are – for example – the Premier of a province, having people doubt that what you say is true, you are pretty much headed for disaster.

Now Kathy Dunderdale has had a problem with getting things straight before, so, for many readers of these e-scribbles, this latest episode will come as no shock.  They can just look at this as more evidence of the problem the Premier has with figuring out a whole bunch of things lately.

Feds call Dunderdale’s bluff #nlpoli

In an interview with CBC’s David Cochrane, federal intergovernmental affairs minister Peter Penashue called Premier Kathy Dunderdale’s bluff about a public inquiry into the death of Burton Winters.

Penashue said:

"This is a legally initiated process and everyone would have to co-operate."

Dunderdale has criticised the federal government over Winters’ death.  That’s despite Dunderdale acknowledging – eventually – that provincial officials had responsibility for conducting the search for Winters when he went missing.  As recently as Tuesday, Dunderdale continued to try and smear Winters’ blood on federal officials.

The Fairity of Regurgitation #nlpoli

Municipal affairs minister Kevin “Fairity” O’Brien stood in the House of Assembly on Wednesday “to highlight the continued progress in implementing the Provincial Waste Management Strategy in our province.”

Wonderful stuff it could have been.

The only problem is Fairity really didn’t provide an update.

Dumbed down or just clearer language? #nlpoli

Via Monkey Cage comes a link to a study that shows that the average speech comprehension level in the United States Congress has dropped a full grade level in the past seven years. It’s dropped to 10.6 from 11.5.

Over the past 16 years,  the Republicans and Democrats have traded places when it comes to scoring lower grade levels on the comprehension scale.  The party scores were never more than 0.2 or 0.4 apart, but since 2006, the Republicans score lower than the Democrats.

Grandmother, what big teeth you have #nlpoli #cdnpoli

Political leaders have a moral duty to the people they serve.

There are times for politicians to fight for their constituents.

And there are times when responsible political leaders must help a community to heal.  In the wake of the tragedy in Makkovik, Premier Kathy Dunderdale should be helping people to come to terms with a tragedy.  Instead, the Premier is abusing people who have put their trust in her to do the right thing.

Public debt and financial mismanagement #nlpoli

A few days ago, Stephen Taylor posted a table from a 2010 study that showed how big Quebec’s public debt is compared to that of countries around the world.

The results weren’t pretty.

A similar comparison for Newfoundland and Labrador isn’t pretty either.

Fiscal conservative, you say? #nlpoli

One of the more curious comments from provincial Conservative supporters lately has been the claim that they support the current Connie administration provincially because they – the supporters – are fiscal conservatives.

labradore has already challenged one such claim with a look at the provincial labour force figures.  Here’s the chart from labradore’s post. It shows the public sector as a share of the total provincial work force:

Yes, friends, the “fiscally conservative” provincial government has produced a massive increase in the size of the provincial public service since 2007.  And, lest any of these “fiscal conservatives” try to justify the Connie actions with talk about the unions’ favour excuse – catch-up – notice that the chart shows that Newfoundland and Labrador had no catching up to do.

While you are at it recall that the current labour force in the province is the largest it has been for quite a while.  So the current “fiscally conservative” provincial Conservatives employ a larger percentage of a larger labour force in a very fiscally unconservative way.

But there’s more to it than that.

Making bad decisions: the Twitter edition #nlpoli

The Premier’s communications  - Glenda Power  - sent a couple of twitter messages to CBC’s Curtis Rumboldt on Friday.  She was apparently correcting him on the impact closing Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited would have on the Muskrat Falls project.

Simply put, that’s not true.

It worked so well for Roger #nlpoli

Kathy Dunderdale is apparently off to Ottawa.  According to voice of the cabinet minister:

There's no word on when the Premier will be flying to Ottawa, but according to the MHA for Mount Pearl South [Paul Lane], it will be soon. Representatives from the Premier's office have confirmed that Dunderdale has requested to meet with the feds sometime in the near future.

Meanwhile the Fisheries Minister says he's making a separate visit. Darin King says he'll be meeting with his federal counterpart to express concerns over the continued cuts in Newfoundland and Labrador. King says the fishing industry, search and rescue, and everything attached to the sea is of importance. He says the fight is not over.

She needs to work out some “fustrations”, maybe.

More likely, she is trying on the “Fighting Newfoundlander” suit to see if it fits.  The fact she is trying it on – after explicitly rejecting it when she took over from Danny – is another symptom of the basic problem. If she had a plan, a set of priorities, an agenda, then she wouldn’t have the problems in the first place that are causing her frustrations.

Another Premier tried this once.

Changes in Corner Brook #nlpoli

1. You’ll get a very good sense of what is going on at Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited from Gary Kean’s piece in the Saturday edition of the Western Star.   As hard as it might seem to believe, some people thought the company was bluffing about the financial state of the mill.
2. Meanwhile, political bums are very tight.  Would a mill closure – if it came – hasten Tom Marshall’s exit from politics or delay it?
3. While all that is going on, Imperial Oil’s terminal at Corner brook is up for sale as a result of the company’s announced plans to shut its Dartmouth refinery.
4. Update:  CBC has posted the raw video of natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy’s scrum on Friday about CBPPL. Find it here:  http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/NL/Featured/2169456094/ID=2236615293

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Death watch in Corner Brook for province’s last paper mill #nlpoli

Kruger, the owners of Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, are reassessing the viability of the mill in the west coast city on Friday after unions at the mill rejected a company proposal to restructure the company’s pension plans.

In a statement issued Friday, natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy said:

We are facing a grave situation, one which could potentially lead to the closure of Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited. Kruger is now reassessing the viability of its operations in Corner Brook. This obviously could have very serious ramifications for the employees and the entire Corner Brook area.

The provincial government wants the company and the unions to negotiate a settlement to the dispute.

Built in 1923, the mill at Corner Brook was the second paper making operation in Newfoundland after the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Corporation mill at Grand Falls.  AbitibiBowater announced that it would close the mill at Grand Falls in 2008.  The provincial government expropriated the mill and all of AbitibiBowater’s assets in the province before they could shut the mill.  Ab closed its Stephenville operation in 2005.

The Corner Brook mill is heavily subsidised by the provincial government.  It is the largest private sector employer on the west coast of the island.

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The Federal-Provincial Puzzle #nlpoli

Premier Kathy Dunderdale is frustrated.

“Extremely frustrated”

“What is it that we have to do down here to get your attention?” she asked, rhetorically, on Thursday.

She expressed that frustration in the House of Assembly in response to questions from Liberal leader Dwight Ball and in a scrum with reporters.  Dunderdale aimed her barbs most especially at defence minister Peter MacKay.

If the Premier is having trouble getting her message through to the federal government, attacking an influential cabinet minister in public for something he didn’t do won’t help matters.

It just piles bad tactics on top of flawed strategies.

Stephen Harper’s Goose Bay promise #nlpoli #cdnpoli

 

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Household Division Band Rehearsal

This one is for all the musicians…band musicians, that is.

The bands of the guards regiments of the Household Division are among the best bands of their type, made up of the some of the finest musicians in the world.

Here’s a massed rehearsal recorded earlier this month and posted to youtube.  leaving the music to one side for a moment, it’s fascinating to watch the director and how he conducts the rehearsal.  Watch how the musicians respond to his direction and how they adjust and adapt.

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Felix the Crap #nlpoli

Justice minister Felix Collins offered a spectacular example on Wednesday of how serious is the current administration’s political problem.

Collins makes a complete arse of himself trying to explain why he and his colleagues are refusing to act on a promise they made in 2007 to introduce legislation that would protect public servants who disclose information  - in the public interest - about wrongdoing in government.

The video of Collins’ scrum with reporters is worth watching

How’s that again, Jerome? #nlpoli

Natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy in the House of Assembly on Wednesday explaining some of the financial aspects of Muskrat Falls:

The one thing I need to make clear though to the people of this Province that any equity investment in Nalcor is on the basis of the project being sanctioned. The money stays in the Department of Natural Resources and is then disbursed to Nalcor as money is spent, Mr. Speaker. Also, it does not go to the net debt of the Province because it is a capital investment. In this particular case, Mr. Speaker, we have a revenue generating asset which can produce monies and revenues for this Province, along with hydroelectricity, for 100 years. [Emphasis added]

In the first bit he describes how the cash goes from the provincial government to Nalcor.  That would be the $2.9 billion they plan to spend on the dam itself. 

The problem comes with that bit in bold print.

Here we go again #nlpoli

Few people who pay attention to public life in this province will forget the abuse the provincial government  - particularly former Premier Danny Williams  - heaped upon Max Ruelokke for having the temerity to be a better candidate to head the offshore regulatory board than the guy the premier wanted to stuff in the job.

Ruelokke had to sue the provincial government to force them to do what the law directed.

So detestable was the provincial government’s – i.e. Danny’s  - behaviour that the judge who heard the case stated in his decision:

Having considered the above, I find that the conduct of the Respondent (in relation to the Applicant) has been callous and “reprehensible” and is deserving of “reproof and rebuke”.  Accordingly, I will exercise my discretion and award the Applicant his solicitor and own client costs.

We may be headed for the same mess again.