Fernando 2: Liberals start Tory-style poll goosing #nlpoli

It's August and Corporate Research Associates is in the field.

On Tuesday, Ed Joyce told the people of Holyrood, Isles aux Morts, and Jackson's Arm that they would each be getting new fire trucks.

No, Ed didn't deliver a new fire truck to each community.  He held a news conference to announce that the three communities fire trucks were on order.

Hmmm.

Why would anyone hold a big announcement to say that government had put money aside for a new fire truck for three towns?

Go back and read that first sentence again.

Yes folks.  The Liberals - tanking in the polls - are going to try and goose that CRA poll with some happy news.

Whitbourne, schools, and democracy #nlpoli

Parents in Whitbourne took the provincial government's English School District to court over the closure of the local school.

They won.

It's proof that a few determined people can use the tools at their disposal to fight for what they believe in.  They don't need some government-paid consultant, no matter what someone angling for a government job might suggest.  People need only have the courage of their convictions.

Courage.

Convictions.

That's all you need.  That's how democracy works.

Trump and Proto-Trump and babies #nlpoli

Speaking about his popularity and the loyalty of his supporters:

"They say that I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." 

Donald Trump.  Sioux Center, Iowa, January 2016 

And on babies...

Speaking about the popularity of a guy who was once the opening act on a triple bill with Donald Trump and Rudy Gulliani,  Craig Welsh once said this of Danny Williams:

And what I mean by "he can get away with doing it" is that the premier's popularity is such that he could strangle a baby in the middle of the Avalon Mall parking lot with the assembled provincial media in attendance and there would be people that would say the baby had it coming.

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Gandhi, Mandela, and a guy in a chicken suit #nlpoli

If the provincial New Democrats had sent a garden gnome around the province, odds are that the photos he'd have brought back would be more interesting than the stuff Earle McCurdy is posting from his wanderings around the province this summer.

This is a picture Earle tweeted on Monday from a coffee shop in Gander.  Admittedly, it has been a few years since your humble e-scribbler has visited Suburbia-in-the-Woods, but recent news reports suggest that there is a sizeable population of folks still there.

Well, enough at least that a fellow of the political stature of Chainsaw Earle might possibly manage to draw enough of an audience on his own account as to populate a decent size photo.  And certainly enough if the local squad of New Democratic Party zealots got all together in one spot, they might be able to pass themselves off as  something resembling a handful, if not a bunch.

But one person?

That's just embarrassing.

CF(L)Co v. Hydro-Quebec (Court of Appeal) #nlpoli

The full text of the Quebec Court of Appeal decision in Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation v. Hydro-Quebec:  pdf

Sucks to be you Update:  Did CBC NL suck back this tweet linking to their story on the Churchill Falls decision:

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Continuing continuity #nlpoli

In the face of thousands of well-informed people telling Dwight Ball that the provincial government must change direction to survive, in the face of mountains of evidence that the province has been on the wrong course since 2005 or so, and lately, in the face of dire warnings from the folks who advise others about the value of the government's bonds,  Dwight Ball will continue to do what everyone knows doesn't work.

The provincial government is abandoning its economic plans, as the Telegram's James McLeod would have it last Friday.

Well, not really.

The Unhappy Gang #nlpoli

The provincial cabinet ended a "retreat" at The Rooms by holding a news conference on Thursday using as a backdrop posters commemorating the slaughter of the Newfoundland regiment at Beaumont Hamel a century ago.

Not exactly the kind of image you want to have but at least it fit with a new poll from MQO that shows the Liberals are now in third place behind the provincial New Democrats with the Conservatives on top.

You can see the party choice numbers in the table, below.  April and July are MQO.  May is Corporate Research Associates.  Compare the MQO numbers:  the Conservatives have grown eight points since April and are now in first place.  The Liberals have dropped five points and are in third place.

Reforming the courts #nlpoli

The numbers in Tuesday's post showed all the time spent in the court in each seat,  totalled up for the month, averaged,  then divided by seven to give an estimate of full-days the courts in the province actually sit.

Judges do other work besides sitting in their courts.  But you really have to wonder if the courts are as overtaxed as some would have it when you have so many of the judges spending as little as three days or even six days a month, in total, actually sitting in court hearing evidence or motions or what have you.

The truth is the Provincial Courts  are not burdened at all. According to people familiar with the operations of the courts, about 85% of the charges laid in Provincial Court never go to trial.  There are either plea deals or the charges are withdrawn.

The truth about Danny Williams, Hydro-Quebec, and the Lower Churchill #nlpoli

Danny Williams promised he would never cut a deal on the Lower Churchill with Hydro-Quebec unless it included redress for the 1969 contract.

But as Kathy Dunderdale revealed in 2009,  Williams spent five years secretly trying to sell the Lower Churchill to Hydro-Quebec without any redress at all.

Then Williams got pissed off because Hydro-Quebec wasn't interested.

Here's what Dunderdale told VOCM's Randy Simms in September 2009 about Williams' desperate efforts to get a deal with Hydro-Quebec:

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One Danny does Two Ronnies #nlpoli

In an exclusive interview, VOCM's Fred Hutton caught up with Danny Williams to talk about Williams' latest project.

The former premier is teaming up with his old sidekick Ed Martin to headline a Florida dinner theatre tribute to the late, diminutive comedian Ronnie Corbett.

One Danny does Two Ronnies will premiere on the Labour Day weekend at his new dinner theatre in St. Petersburg.

Williams said he was looking forward to being back in the limelight.

He said that he is working on plans to tour arts and culture centres in Newfoundland and Labrador with the show in 2017 as the opening act on a triple bill with Anna McGoldrick and the Carlton Showband.

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Good-bye John #nlpoli

In their last year in office, the provincial Conservatives went on a patronage bend on top of the patronage bender they started in 2003.  They came into office promising reform and - you guessed it - did exactly the opposite.  If there is no greater fraud than a promise not kept, then then Old Man and his cronies were the biggest political fraudsters in the history of political fraud.

We told you about this last July when Paul Davis appointed political operative John Ottenheimer to replace political operative Len Simms as head of the provincial government's housing corporation. After the Ottenheimer appointment, Davis and the Conservatives kept going with the questionable appointments.  The swap of the chief judge in Provincial Court remains highly suspicious and unexplained, as does the sudden firing of the High Sheriff.  The former is one the new Liberal administration genuinely could not do anything about.  The former High Sheriff is now suing the provincial government for wrongful dismissal.

The Liberals could have and should have done something about all the others.  It was a way of setting a new tone for their administration and demonstrating that things that are wrong cannot stand.  For some unknown reason, Dwight Ball would not commit to reversing the Ottenheimer appointment  - on principle - when Davis made it a year ago. When he took office, Dwight Ball decided to leave not only Ottenheimer but all the other Conservatives appointees in place.  And when he unveiled the new appointments commission, Ball had a third opportunity to set a new standard for government appointments by getting rid of the old, wrong ones.

He didn't.

Now, Ball has punted John Ottenheimer.  We do not know why.  No one from the provincial government did any interviews. The minister responsible for the housing corporation issued a news release announcing Ottenheimer's replacement.  Everything else that we know - including the size of Ottenheimer's severance - came from Ottenheimer himself.

How many days does a Provincial Court sit? #nlpoli

If you listen to some people,  Provincial Courts in the province are seriously overloaded such that with the loss of a couple of court houses - not judges, but buildings - we could see cases running upwards of 49 months or more and therefore causing massive constitutional problems.

Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, as statistics on Provincial Courts show.

Some others would have you believe the courts cannot become any more efficient than they are.

Again.  Truth.  That claim.  Not even close to the same thing.

So what is the sitch in the courts?

Justice and the budget #nlpoli

The latest in a string of little budget dramas ended on Friday afternoon. A group of lawyers that included former Conservative party president John Babb launched a court case to try and force the provincial government to re-open the courthouse in Harbour Grace.  So Friday afternoon ,  justice minister Andrew Parsons announced that the government had decided to reverse the decision to close the court buildings in Wabush and Harbour Grace.

Parsons said the government had managed to find savings to offset the cost of opening the courts. He also said the government would keep the courthouses open to avoid running afoul of  a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in  R.v. Jordan.  Babb made the same argument about the need for the courthouse in Harbour Grace.

Both Babb and Parsons know that the entire dispute here is over a building and a couple of jobs that go with it.  They also know that the particular building makes absolutely no difference to scheduling a trial.  And therefore, they both know that the SCC decision in Jordan had nothing to do - truthfully - with  Parsons' decision.  Why they said something other than the truth on Friday is another matter. 

In-house and cheap #nlpoli

Provincial government communications consists chiefly of making up vacuous comments for ministers to recite.

They are called key messages.  In the uncomms-speak of the government bureaucrats,  they are KMs, pronounced Kay-Emmzzz.

On Thursday, two rating agencies downgraded the province's rating with a negative outlook.  Not surprising but definitely not helpful since the government has already exhausted its political capital for nothing thanks to the complete disaster last spring.

Anyway, let's take a look at what Moody's said about the government's finances.  Specifically let's look at what they said about the negative trending.

The future of the information commissioner #nlpoli

Donovan Molloy will be the new information and privacy commissioner.  He'll do a fine job, to be sure, but there is something about the appointment that seems a waste of the talents of a fellow who has been the director of public prosecutions.

He'd have made a fine judge, but the last time he applied for that position Molloy got screwed over by the guy in charge at the time.  Eventually, the former deputy minister of justice managed to get himself appointed to a seat where - as he well knew - we didn't need a judge at all.  

And about 11 days after that,  the chief suddenly and for no apparent reason quit his job as chief judge. Cabinet replaced him just as quickly and with no reason whatsoever vaulted his wife - the third most junior judge on the provincial bench at the time - to replace him. 

All very odd, if not downright suspicious.  

Molloy would have also made a fine deputy justice minister.  Too late for that now.

The New Approach in Uncommunication #nlpoli

There are times when you look at a government news release and just laugh.

Apparently, people who catch fish illegally are now called "abusers."

The gang at fish and wildlife caught a few of these "abusers",  according to the release, and these people are now facing charges related "to illegal poaching."

Okay.

No qualified candidates? What nonsense. #nlpoli

Let's make two things clear at the outset.

First, the Globe and Mail is a rag.  It's reputation has more to do with snobbery than the quality of its content.

So right away, that the Toronto rag  wrote a story about the fact there are no candidates from Newfoundland and Labrador in the finals for the Supreme Court seat vacancy is the political, intellectual, and legal equivalent of some entertainment television show telling us anything about anyone named Kardashian.

Second, no one ought to be named to the Supreme Court of Canada based on their province of residence.  The qualifications for sitting on the highest court in the country ought to be about anything but something that has nothing to do with knowledge of the law, sound judgement,  belief in justice or any of the other qualities we would cherish in a judge.

With that said,  it is preposterous that there are no qualified candidates for the SCC from Newfoundland and Labrador.

Utter nonsense.

The historic franchise decision #nlpoli

Tuesday was one of the most important anniversaries in our political history.

As labradore reminded everyone, July 19 was the 70th anniversary of the day on which residents of Labrador - male and female alike - were able to voted in elections in the place then known as Newfoundland.

We mark the anniversary of the dates when women gained the right to vote.  Well, in Newfoundland and Labrador we should do something to recognise the date on which the Commission Government enfranchised an entire swath of people who had previously been left out solely because of where they lived in the country.

Talk about a colonial mentality.

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Apologise for what? #nlpoli #cdnpoli

The Government of Canada never operated a single residential school for aboriginal people in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Not one.

That's why aboriginal people in this province weren't included in the settlement of the class action lawsuit several years ago and why they were excluded from the apology that went with the settlement.

The  recent settlement of a claim by aboriginal people in this province was an effort to make the lawsuit go away and in the process, the Government Canada:

• effectively absolved the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador of its legal and ethical obligation to all the people who attended residential schools under its exclusive jurisdiction and who suffered physical, sexual,  and psychological abuse at the hands of individuals at the schools, and,
• ignored people who are not aboriginal who suffered abuse in schools in Newfoundland and Labrador.  They will get nothing.

Now there's talk of an apology.

There should be one, but it should not be coming from Ottawa.  The only apology that means anything at all should come from the government legally and ethically responsible for running or overseeing the residential schools involved.

And someone needs to extend compensation to the non-aboriginal people who suffered abuse as well.

To do anything else is to perpetuate an injustice while making amends for another.

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The right decision on shrimp #nlpoli

On the surface, it looks like a classic political compromise.  The federal government caved to political pressure and reallocated the shrimp quota to give more to the inshore sector.  But, they also lowered the shrimp quota by 42%, consist with the reduction in the stock since 2014.

Not surprisingly,  news of the quota reduction brought complaints from the fisheries union.  It remains, even without Earle McCurdy,  one of the most backward and reactionary agencies in the province. We have too many people in the industry chasing a dwindling resource but the fisheries union does not case about the sustainability of the industry.  The fisheries union and its political allies have no interest in reforming the industry into one that is sustainable and profitable for all those involved.