How our system doesn’t work

Supposedly the Western Star – the province’s west coast daily – has never liked or supported Danny Williams.

Now before anyone starts clacking a comment just remember that is the official crackberry statement from the Premier’s publicity machine in response to a recent editorial in the Star that suggested the Old Man is getting a bit cranky and might want to consider retiring.

It’s a load of dung but that’s another story.

The Star editors this week could have decided to write an editorial on the revelation that the provincial government had royally screwed themselves and taxpayers with a botched expropriation of assets that used to belong to Fortis, Enel and Abitibi.

Sounds like a logical topic especially for a paper the crowd with crackberries would like you to think keeps a voodoo doll of Hisself that they stick pins into every day during the morning story meeting.  After all, what better story is there for the bunch of Danny-haters at the Star than this.

So what did the Star do with it?

Try this assessment on for size:

The ruling PCs stood in the House of Assembly this week and said the botched the expropriation of the AbitibiBowater properties in this province when they included properties that will likely require millions of dollars in environmental cleanup.

That aside, at least the Tories, to their credit, were up front about the blunder, and said so straight out without trying to couch it in some political song and dance.

Then they turn their attention to what the Star editorialists see as the real villain in this piece,  the five people on the opposition benches:

It’s time they admitted their shortcomings in the process.

It’s the duty of the opposition to challenge the government on legislation it brings before the house, and make sure these kinds of potentially expensive hiccups don’t make it into law.

They were asleep at the switch in this matter — there’s now way around it.
They dozed in their seats, didn’t ask enough questions ... and let the bad legislation become the law of the land.

It should be a lesson for all concerned.

Our system works best when the tough questions are asked ... not when  government gets a free pass.

That last sentence is absolutely true.

We also know our system is not working in this case because the crowd at the Western Star can’t even get a simple fact right.  When they say that the provincial government was “upfront” about the blunder and didn’t couch their news in political rhetoric, well, nothing could be further from the truth.

A good 10 months elapsed between the time the crowd on the Hill discovered the shag-up and the first time they mentioned it publicly in this province.

That’s right 10 months.

But that’s just for this province. 

In Quebec, people there knew of the monumental blunder back in October.  That’s when a Quebec court handling the Abitibi bankruptcy protection listened to arguments in a case involving the provincial government and its ongoing war with Abitibi.

And when the provincial government finally did publicly mention they owned the mill, the news release made it sound like Abitibi had simply abandoned its property and that as a result, the provincial government was doing the noble thing and taking custody to protect the public interest.

None of the government narrative on this issue since May 2009 has been even vaguely close to the credit-worthy actions the Star editorialists invented.  In fact, so great a work of fiction is the premise of this editorial that its writers would be better off handing their resumes to the show driver on Doyle than wasting their time out there in the second city.

As if that hum were not enough for the Humber crew, though, the Star then decided to blame the Liberals and New Democrats. Apparently the whole thing while a government measure could have been avoided if only they had done their jobs.

Well, here’s a simple test:  look around and try to find anyone - any one person – in December 2008 who publicly doubted the wisdom of the expropriation and/or the haste with which it was done.

Go on and look.  We’ll wait until you are done.

No luck?

That’s hardly surprising.  The Western Star,  for example, thought that the expropriation was the right thing to do and praised the legislature – the full legislature, no less – for acting.  Not a peep about the possibility of mistakes or the need to slow down and let the opposition do its job. Not a word about how our system requires a bit of sober second thought, a bit of careful scrutiny lest someone make a colossal mistake of any kind.

If there were two people in the entire province publicly criticising the haste of it, let alone the expropriation itself, then that’s all there was.  We were summarily dismissed by all those, the opposition included, who shared the view that Abitibi, the friggers,  ought to lose all its stuff in the province.  We were discounted by those who trusted the provincial government to be careful and to make sure everything was done properly.  After all, they have never been wrong before.

Your humble e-scribbler singled out the NDP leader in December 2008 to illustrate how little thought had gone into the expropriation bill, but, in fairness Lorraine Michael is nothing more than an example of the views and attitudes of almost everyone in the province at the time.

And in the end, that post concluded, somewhat prophetically, that:

In the future  - perhaps a few months or even a few years - someone will look back on this time and wonder how such steps could be taken.  They wonder how the Churchill Falls deal could have be done, with the concurrence of all members of the legislature.

In the energy bill and now the expropriation bill – as exemplified by Lorraine Michael’s comments - they have a very simple answer. No one bothered to think.

And there it is, dear friends, the simple truth of the matter.  No one bothered, no one took the time to think. no one felt thinking might be even needed.  Let Hisself and the crew look after that.

No government ought to get such a free pass.

But in this case, the government got its free pass, handed to them gleefully by the legislature and everyone else.

The expropriation debacle is the result.

And if the Star editorialists want someone to blame for this fiasco they can look in the mirror.  They needn’t waste much time doing that, though.  There’s enough guilt to go around when it comes to people who let the government have a free pass on this issue.

Then again, for the past seven years that’s what this government has had:  a free pass. They are popular because they are right and right because they are popular as the sock puppets, Fan Clubbers and pitcher plants will tell you. Things worked out when it appeared the provincial government won.  After all, our system can’t be broken if everything turns out right.  Trust in the saviour of the moment and all will be well.  Anyone saying otherwise just hates Danny.

Such ideas seem so foolish now.

The reality is that just as it was in 1969, so it was 40-odd years later.  Back then the three opposition members – Gerry Ottenheimer, Tom Hickey and Ank Murphy – sided with the government.  So too did the province’s editorialists. Fast forward to 2008 and see the same thing playing out all over again.

Our system of government works when tough questions are asked and  when thorough, prompt and complete answers are demanded.  There must be consequences  - even if only in the form of criticism - when the answers aren’t received. 

All the members of the legislature have a responsibility to ask those questions but so too do editorialists and ordinary citizens have an obligation to pose questions and demand answers.

It is the government’s duty to answer them.

Our system of government in this province is not working;  it has not been working since 2003.  The Abitibi expropriation mess serves only to highlight just exactly how great is the risk that people in this province are taking as a result.

And until people  - ordinary citizens and Western Star editorialists alike - start to acknowledge that, the risk that more Abitibi fiascos will take place – or have already - will only increase.

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Innu vow to protest, continue caribou hunt

After a while, some of this stuff gets repeated so often you could be reading the news with an early undiagnosed case of dementia and not really know for sure that slowly you are losing your grip on reality.

Penashue.

Hickey. 

Innu. 

Protest.

Caribou.

Is it 2010 or 1987?

The answer  - at least for the old Canadian Press clipping below -  is 1987.  The first clue the story is older is the reference to “Innu Indians” and if you managed to slip by that one, the dead give-away is the mention of protests at a military runway.

Other than that, the rest of the story could be from events of the past six or seven years.  A group of Innu, protesting an issue they believe involves their aboriginal rights, decide to kill a few animals from an endangered herd.

A Penashue from Sheshatshiu, in this case Greg, speaks on behalf of the protesters:

''People ask us why we don't sit down and negotiate with government,'' said Greg Penashue, president of the Innu association. ''Well, that's not something I foresee in the near future.

Meanwhile, there’s a prediction of dire consequences from someone regular readers of these scribbles will recognise as a local favourite:

However, John Hickey, [right, shovelling something else in 2009] president of the Mealy Mountains Conservation Committee, said the illegal hunting could escalate into a full-scale slaughter of the herd.

''What's probably going to happen next year, in my estimation, is Metis hunters and hunters from other communities are going to start operating in there and we're going to have one big massacre in the Mealy Mountains,'' he said.

Now aside from the novelty of seeing the old story recycled in this way, there are a few other lessons to be drawn from all this.

Firstly, the Innu  - whether from Quebec or from Sheshatshiu – are past masters at using caribou hunts in sensitive areas as a way of attracting southern media attention for their political cause of the moment.

Second, the caribou herds involved have been used like this for more than 22 years and so far the herds have not been decimated.  There is good reason to doubt either the scientists views or, by referring back to that first point, what is actually going on.  Innu aren’t stupid people, individually or collectively.

Third, the same cannot be said for the white folks who – each and every year - fall for the same schtick without fail.  In that light,  John Hickey’s prediction of a “massacre” 22 years ago is laughable.  But he is basically no different than the crowd who have played the reflexive, knee-jerk white redneck role in the Annual Media Caribou Frenzy every year since.

What’s especially sad is that some of the biggest parts in the 2010 edition of the annual knee-jerk follies are played by a bunch of politicians who are supposed to be or who should be a heckuva lot smarter than they evidently are.  Felix, Danny and Kathy should know better than to get into the racket.  They aren’t being played for saps;  they have re-written the script for themselves and in the process done absolutely nothing to defuse the situation, strip the protest of its political value or advance the Lower Churchill land claim.

Rather, with their claims that charges might be laid they are showing themselves to be extraordinarily stunned.  As lawyers of some experience, Felix and Danny should both know that the aboriginal people of Canada have a constitutionally guaranteed right to hunt, fish and trap subject only to laws about safety and conservation.  In this case, showing any conservation issue is going to be highly problematic.  The facts speak for themselves.

In the end, if Danny and Felix try a politically-driven prosecution  - a la FPI and yellow-tail flounder, right - they can only lose as a matter of law.  They may secure the redneck vote and grumble about the friggin’ courts but that’s going to be of little use once the Innu have a much stronger political position as a result of pure stunnedness. 

On the other hand, now that Danny and Felix have built up an expectation that charges will be laid against the Innu – presumably knowing there is frig-all chance of a conviction – they are going to look like eunuchs if they decide that a prosecution is a waste of time and don’t lay charges.

They got into this mess, one suspects, for a very well-known habit of one of three  - Danny, Felix or Kathy - to shoot from the lip before the brain engages.  Henley v. Cable Atlantic is just one of many such examples. The people of the province have seen it countless times since 2003 and  - contrary to popular mythology – The Lip has cost taxpayers dearly indeed.  This case will likely prove to have a similar high price-tag attached to it.

Either way, the Innu will be stronger as a result of this little escapade. Building up sympathy among the southerners is a time-honoured part of their strategy and it will work now just as it did 22 years ago.

One potentially huge difference in the political response to the Innu outside Newfoundland and Labrador now versus earlier has to do with the level of interest of other governments in the whole affair.  If the feds were as attached to the Lower Churchill  as they were to low-altitude flight training in the 1980s or if the Lower Churchill project was more than a load of hot air, the federal politicians would be less susceptible to the political pressure that is likely to be applied to them very shortly.  There’s no way of knowing for sure – at this point – how they will react.

At the same time, these recent protests and the strong words being tossed highlight the huge cleavages within the Innu communities north and south of the Labrador-Quebec boundary. The white folks in this end of the province might want to consider that in a worst case scenario, there’s no guarantee “our Indians” will side with us against “their Indians.”  None of that bodes well for the Lower Churchill.

And if nothing else, all this highlights the sheer idiocy of believing that history started in 2003 and that – in an of themselves – the current lords and ladies ruling this place are inherently smarter than any average bear that went before.

If they were, then they wouldn’t have volunteered so eagerly to play the horse’s arse – yet again - in the pantomime that is Labrador hydro development.

April 22, 1987

Canadian Press

Innu Indians, locked in an escalating battle over native hunting rights and provincial laws, set up tents yesterday on the runway of a military airport.

Five tents were pitched at Canadian Forces Station Goose Bay by members of the Naskapi Montagnais Innu band to protest against the resumption of low-level flights by NATO fighter jets.

The Innu, who believe the flights disrupt the migratory patterns of caribou, were also protesting against the imprisonment of band members arrested on charges of illegally hunting caribou.

The tents, which were not disrupting airport activities, come after a winter of defiance by Innu from the central Labrador community of Sheshatshit.

The Innu, non-status Indians native to Labrador and Eastern Quebec, say they have killed at least 50 caribou from the protected Mealy Mountains' herd on the south coast of Labrador. The Innu consider the area part of their traditional hunting ground.

Six band leaders and Rev. Jim Roach, a Roman Catholic priest, are in jail awaiting a court appearance next week on charges of illegally hunting or illegally possessing caribou meat.

''People ask us why we don't sit down and negotiate with government,'' said Greg Penashue, president of the Innu association. ''Well, that's not something I foresee in the near future.

''How can they guarantee us rights when they throw us in jail virtually every day for practicing our traditional way of life?'' The Innu claim the right to roughly 300,000 square kilometres of land in Newfoundland and Quebec, saying the tribe was hunting caribou as its way of life before Newfoundland existed and has never signed a treaty giving up its rights.

However, John Hickey, president of the Mealy Mountains Conservation Committee, said the illegal hunting could escalate into a full-scale slaughter of the herd.

''What's probably going to happen next year, in my estimation, is Metis hunters and hunters from other communities are going to start operating in there and we're going to have one big massacre in the Mealy Mountains,'' he said.

Other native peoples in Labrador have also claimed traditional rights in the Mealy Mountains. The Innu receive government assistance in the form of subsidized housing, social services and hunting trips.

''If you get right down to it, the Innu went into a section of Labrador which is traditionally used by the Metis people,'' said Joe Goudie, president of the Labrador Metis Association.

''They have impinged on our land without consultation, without anything.''

The Mealy Mountains and the nearby Red Wine Mountains were closed to caribou hunting after the herd dwindled to less than 200 in 1975 from about 2,500 in the 1950s. The Innu are allowed unrestricted access to the George River caribou herd far in the north, whose numbers have mushroomed to more than 700,000.

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The Post-Danny World

Political junkies  - especially every Tory in the province - will no doubt be glued to their sets tuned to NTV and their exclusive interview with Premier Danny Williams from his home in Florida. That’s where he is recovering from surgery which – as we now know – took twice or three times as long as originally anticipated.

As NTV news director Fred Hutton teased it up, they’ll be asking a good many questions including one about the Premier’s political future.

Odds are good those same political junkies will be pondering a few more questions in the months ahead, regardless of what the Premier tells Fred.

Questions like:

• Who among the current provincial Conservatives has been organizing already to replace The Leader when he finally decides to head off to Sarasota permanently?
• Who among them has the biggest war chest?
• Which provincial Tories won’t be running for re-election whenever the writ drops next for a general election?

These questions and others related to them may well be the most pertinent political questions to ask in Newfoundland and Labrador for the rest of this year.

Well that and the perennial favourite:  “whatever happened to John Hickey’s lawsuit against Roger Grimes, anyway?”

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The Placentia Bay Nostradamus

If the Telegram editors ever get jammed up for copy, they could easily recycle Ray Guy columns from 40 years ago. 

Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between goings on then and now.

Back then, partridgeberries were the economic salvation of this cove or that harbour.  These days, cranberries will replace the income from a pulp and paper mill in Grand Falls.

Back then people were complaining about the great partisan conspiracy against the beloved saviour of His People.

These days, Bill Westcott is lacing into Peter Pickersgill on much the same basis. Poor Pickersgill has the extra misfortune of not only being the progeny of mainlanders but of being not pur laine hisself:

Despite spending a lot of his adult life in Salvage, we must remember PIC is not even an (Island-born) Newfoundlander, one of da boys! His genes, I think are rooted in Winnipeg and Ottawa.

That explains everything, of course.

There is no way the truth could be known by someone who wasn’t born here or who doesn’t live here.

Sure John Hickey said so dealing with another one of the confounded traitors:

Of course Mr. Waugh is entitled to his opinions on any and all Labrador matters, even as he writes from the comfort of his Nova Scotia home.

And Bill Westcott? 

He writes his truth from Florida.

That must be Florida, Bonavista Bay.

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When all they can offer is an E.A.…

There’s something about the life of provincial political parties that gets to be a bit predictable.

Like you can tell how healthy the party in government is by how successfully it attracts high quality, high profile candidates into its ranks after the first general election when it takes power.

You see one of the jobs the leader of a party gets to do is find candidates.  They get to pick the people or approve of the people who run for the party.  Leaders of parties in power usually have an easier time, but the leader still has some work to do in spotting talent and bringing it forward. 

Now some people like to think otherwise.

You’ll see comments in the local media lately that Hisself would not work with some of the current governing crop if this were his own private business.  But the thing is that Hisself actually did pick ‘em all.  And even if there were a couple he didn’t recruit to run or approve to run and work to get elected, he certainly picks the people who serve in his cabinet.

And it’s not just the health of parties in power that shows up in candidate selection.  Take a party like the provincial New Democrats during the leadership of the fellow now in Ottawa helping  Jack Layton keep Harper and the Connies in power.  Every by-election and general election seemed to come like a total surprise to them. The party never seemed to grow and never seemed able to capitalise on a couple of noteworthy successes in the 1980s.

Ditto the Liberals in the aftermath of 2003 or for that matter in Trinity North before the fellow changed teams.

Take a look at the pending by-election in the Straits and White Bay North. Just ignore the fact that the seat is vacated with unseemly haste by a fellow Danny Williams has come to rely on as a bit of an attack crackie alongside John Hickey.

Just notice that even though the seat used to be held by a Tory big-wing and even though said big-wig was looking to bail about six months ago and even though he made a firm decision a month ago, the best the Tories could come up with to replace Trevor was the guy who was Trevor’s constituency assistant.

You won’t see much mention of that in media stories on Rick Pelley but that’s who he was until today.

Now some executive assistants can wind up being superlative politicians in their own right.  But there’s something about a guy bailing out and his EA being the  one to get the nomination that makes you scratch your head.  Maybe what’s really so noticeable here is that Pelley is running a mere six years after these guys got to power.

Maybe it’s because the first Tory EA to run and get elected was in 2007, a mere four years after the party took power.  back in the 1990s, the Liberals got through two terms before the first executive assistants started turning up as candidates.  Before that there were fresh faces.

Now maybe there’s nothing to this at all beyond the original questions raised by the way Golden Boy Trevor Taylor bailed in the first place.

But still, maybe you only have to look at the stark contrast between what Taylor said back in 2001 and how things turned out to find out why the Tories got the candidate they got in this case:

I want to ensure The Straits & White Bay North is poised to ride the wave that's about to wash over this province. This is no time for backroom silence and backbencher obedience. Now is the time for the district to take a bold step in a new direction. It's a time for someone who will speak up loudly and effectively for this district, and people know that's exactly what they'll get in electing me.

Electing Trevor’s EA hardly would seem like a bold step in a new direction.

And as for that bit about backbencher obedience, well, these days everyone pretty well knows how much of a joke Trevor’s words turned out be.

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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.

-srbp-

Hard to put some black top on that

While the poll goosing machine may have tried to convince the good burghers of Labrador West that they would be seeing pavement before the snow flew, the wise people of the community likely knew far better.

At least this past week, they had the pleasure of listening to transportation minister Trevor Taylor explain why about a month an a half after he and cabinet colleague John “The Shoveller” Hickey  - left, doing his takogo kak puddin’ routine - promised the whole paving thing would be “accelerated”, they would like not be seeing much pavement this year on the Trans-Labrador Highway.

Seems that the contractor on the current tender ran into some problems shipping the equipment up from Sept Isles;  something about too big for the tunnels, so they had to unscrew some bits and dismantle some others.

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, it seems that there was a problem finding enough aggregate – crushed stone to you and moi – to go with the asphalt. 

But that didn’t just shag up the schedule for this year. 

Hoooo, no.

As Trevor told the whole of Labrador via Labrador Morning [mp3 link] that lack of aggregate meant the “accelerated” tender was actually not even out yet.

Trevor insisted though that the direction to the contractor was to do everything possible to get some pavement on the ground this season, even though the daily temperatures in Labrador this time of year hover around the “no go” temp for laying asphalt successfully. 

Apparently, Trevor  - on the right there,  looking over some ice control equipment - wants to make the people of Labrador west know that “we are serious” about the project.

Between the shag-ups with the road and the on-again, off-again hospital it will take a lot more than a teaspoon of hardened tar to convince some people that what they just saw the past couple of months from Hickey and Taylor wasn’t open mike night at Yuk-Yuks.

As it turns out though, the road work will not be accelerated, as anyone with half a clue could have told you. It was always planned for next year, planned that is by the people who do the work and know what they are talking about.

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Sullivan and Michael both wrong about government commitment to anti-scab legislation

New Democratic Party leader Lorraine Michael claimed that Danny Williams committed to introduce a law banning replacement workers during strikes.

Human resources, labour and employment minister Susan Sullivan claims that “[t]he government has never made such a commitment.”

Both are off base.

What actually happened is that cabinet ministers John Hickey and Shawn Skinner both indicated in 2007 that the provincial cabinet was reviewing the issue of labour legislation, including the need for anti-scab laws.

Hickey told CBC:

“Minister Skinner has advised me that inside the department, this whole legislation is under review, [and] I have taken the opportunity to review other legislation across the country … so these are issues that we as a government certainly are looking at dealing with.”

Skinner told the House of Assembly that the province’s labour laws were under review:

… I have indicated that the Labour Relations Agency, through its Strategic Partnership Initiative, is undertaking a review of all of the labour legislation in the Province. That will look at whatever the union representatives on that committee and the employer representatives on that committee wish to bring to the table for discussion. Once that review is complete, we will be in a better position at that time to look at the kinds of things will need to be updated in the legislation.

…

MS. JONES:  …My question today to the minister is: Are you prepared to move up the agenda on anti-scab legislation and have it brought to the House of Assembly so that we do not have situations like we have at Voisey’s Bay in the future?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SKINNER: Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated in my earlier remarks, we do have a strategic partnership between our Labour Relations Agency, the unions and the employers representative groups in this Province. We have a process in place that all parties have agreed to follow, and we will be following that process to do a thorough review and to make sure that any and all issues that are important to the people of this Province, be they employers or be they employees, will be reviewed and will be brought forward for consideration by the government.

We have undertaken that commitment, we will fulfil that commitment, and once we know what the results of that are we will decide then what actions can be taken.

Danny Williams might not have made a commitment about anti-scab legislation but two of his cabinet ministers sure did.

What Sullivan needed to explain is not who made a commitment but why it is taking more than two years to complete a review of the province’s labour laws.

Is this another example of something gone missing in action in the bowels of the Confederation Building?

-srbp- 

Stimulus. Response. Stimulus. Response.

Doesn’t anyone think?

Well, apparently Goose Bay mayor Leo Abbass thought enough of the negative connotations of a story in The Labradorian that he had to issue a news release to suck up to Labrador affairs minister John Hickey.

Apparently Leo thinks people are interested in his emotional state:

Mayor Leo Abbass is pleased with the work done so far. “Having thirty kilometers already completed, the widening and upgrading of eighty kilometers ongoing, and an additional fifty to be paved, will not only make the road safer for the travelling public, but also improve conditions for the transportation of goods into our region. We look forward to the completion of a hard-topped surface along the entire length of Phase I and the continued work on Phase II and III of the TLH.”

Of course,  they won’t finished the work until next year – as originally planned - even though a recent government news release may have misled some people into believe there was some sort of “fast-tracking” or “acceleration” to the paving.

Leo didn’t say anything about that, of course.  The sensitive folk of his town can just rest easy because Leo is “pleased.”

-srbp-

“Accelerated” Labrador roads work actually happening next year – as planned

The provincial government is  “accelerating” its commitment to road work in Labrador  - whatever the heck that means - but that doesn’t mean the work will be done in 2009.

A government news release issued last week started with these glorious words:

The Williams Government is accelerating its commitment to revitalize the Trans Labrador Highway (TLH) by issuing a tender to lay asphalt on an additional 50 kilometre section of Phase I from Happy Valley-Goose Bay towards Churchill Falls. Rather than wait until next year to award the contract, the Provincial Government is getting ready now to award this further work.

That’s additional as in more than the 30 kilometres scheduled to be paved this year and the 80 kilometres to be widened.

There was even a quote from Labrador affairs minister John  Hickey saying that “[t]his accelerated work on the Trans Labrador Highway is an excellent example of this government’s effort to realize its long-term vision for Labrador.”

But just like Tom Rideout couldn’t tell time, John Hickey and his colleagues are apparently having some difficulty with the concept “accelerated”.

As Hickey told The Labradorian this week: “We’re not sure if we’ll be able to get  all of that paving done this year, but it’s our hope to have it started.”

Now in this case, “accelerated”  would normally mean faster  than anticipated or than originally plan.  What Hickey told The Labradorian this week is that – despite his claims last week – the paving on the Trans-Labrador Highway between Churchill Falls and Goose Bay will be finished in 2001-2011…as originally planned.

Last week’s news release was evidently part of some sort of poll-goosing spin campaign.  Heaven only knows what Hickey’s most recent comments were all about. Maybe it’s yet another hickey-up.

-srbp-

Another Homer Simpson moment

So a couple of communities on the coast of Labrador are complaining of lack of action by the provincial government. One is a roads issues which falls under the responsibility of Trevor Taylor, the transportation minister.  The other concerns water and sewer work which is the responsibility of Diane Whelan, the municipal affairs minister.

To answer the media questions, the provincial government deploys John “The Shoveller” Hickey, the minister of Labrador Affairs.  His response sets him up for a big fall:

"I can't act on issues if people to raise them with me," Mr. Hickey said. "I got to say, these communities need leadership. Getting on an open line show is just not cutting it."

Now right off the bat, we have no idea which level of leadership Hickey is criticising:  Is it the mayor and town councils in the affected communities?  Is it the local member of the House of Assembly or is it his cabinet colleagues who are showing inadequate leadership by not bringing this issue to his attention?

But the real problem with Hickey’s comments is that he has set himself up for a huge political smack between the eyes.  All someone has to do is produce letters to his office concerning these issues and the old boy will look like a complete idiot.

Not a good spot.

And how likely, you may ask, is it that someone would be able to produce such correspondence?

Well consider that the issue of a road to connect Norman Bay to the rest of Labrador came up at the 2005 annual meeting of the Combined Councils of Labrador.  If a townie could find this on the Internet with a simple google search, surely John Hickey or someone from his staff could have noted this issue. And it’s not like Hickey wouldn’t have already been aware of these issues:  he attended a session with Labrador politicians. 

On top of that there’s the story in the Northern Pen - and reprinted  in the Western Star - from last February about a letter from one resident of Norman Bay to Barack Obama looking for help with roads.  This didn’t turn up in Hickey’s media clippings?

How about the letter the fellow says he wrote to …wait a minute…John Hickey:

Roberts said he's exhausted all possible avenues locally, having sent letters to Labrador MP Todd Russell and other federal politicians, as well as to Labrador Affairs Minister John Hickey.

Did John get the letter?

And if that wasn’t good enough, it’s not like the issue of roads in the area didn’t come up in the House of Assembly in 2007.  Again, a simple google search turned up a wonderful couple of answers from Hickey, none of which blamed others for the situation.  Rather Hickey just deployed the traditional bureaucratic response that he’d take the issues under advisement.

Then there’s the Northern Strategic Plan, which includes references to communities along the southeast coast of Labrador raising concerns about an inability to cost-share water and sewer work.  Hickey must have heard someone mention this stuff given that his picture and a message are included at the front end of the plan document.

So there it is:  Hickey says he’s never heard of the issues because no one has sent him letters.  There’s ample evidence he is aware of the issues in southern Labrador and that at least one person has actually written to him.

This is a classic Homer Simpson moment.  You can see the letters turning up all over the place and Hickey being embarrassed at his own stunnedness in making a comment that is only too easy to prove false.

All the rest of us can do is laugh and utter a “D’oh” in unison.

-srbp-

Lemme get this straight…

The guy who liked to recycle expense claims (in one case three times) and who serves in an administration renowned for recycling announcements (in some cases as many as eight times) is criticising another politician for supposedly recycling announcements.

Oh yeah and to make it even funnier, this same guy campaigned not once but twice for the guys he now criticises and he’d-a-been out there a third and fourth time if his boss hadn’t told him he couldn’t.

Can you say “credibility gap”,  boys and girls?

Maybe he’d have been waving around a signed contract for the feds to help pave the Trans-Labrador Highway.

Speaking of HMV, where exactly is that lawsuit against Roger Grimes, John Hickey?  If memory serves, Hickey was suing Grimes for something Danny Williams actually said.

Now there’s a brilliant law suit for you.

By the by,  who is stunneder in that case:  the guy who gave the advice to sue or the guy who took it and wound up paying the bill out of his own pocket?

Tough call.

Oh yes, and this latest release recycling news release is itself recycled.

-srbp-

Voice of the cabinet minister make-over

Over at the redesigned voice of the cabinet minister website, there is now audio with just about every short news clip.  In some cases there’s a bit of video.

In the story on a news release from opposition leader Yvonne Jones, the audio clip is from Dave ‘Sentence Fragments” Denine, the intergovernmental affairs minister. 

Denine got scooped by the opposition, but never let it be said that VO didn’t make sure the CM got his own words on a story.

But that just raises another bunch of questions.

Denine’ s the guy who should have been talking about the fact the federal Conservatives aren’t delivering on their 2005 promise.  After all, that’s the government talking point to try and deflect attention from the fact that most of them bought the Connie bullshit umpteen times after 2005.

For an opposition party, reminding Denine and the rest of that fact would be the logical starting point. 

They could drag in John Hickey, the minister for Labrador Affairs who campaigned a couple of times on the bogus battalion alongside his federal Connie cousins.

And if all else failed, they’d could  now tee off on Denine and Hickey for failing utterly to hold the federal Connies feet to the fire, to use that horrid phrase.

Instead, Jones goes after Stephen Harper as if she was a federal politician.

All is not lost in the local opposition world.

Jones now has the chance to go headlong at the local crowd. Denine – obviously knowing nothing at all about the military  - refers to a bunch of buildings constructed decades ago for the air force as “first-class” infrastructure for the army.  He then tells VOCM that he’ll be going back and have a chat with the federales to see where Goose Bay fits in.

Hint:  it doesn’t.

Jones could be pinging political hit after political hit against the skulls of two incompetent cabinet ministers for building up false hopes in the people of Goose Bay when they should have known  - and should now know – much better.

Shame on Dave and John, should be her line.

Shame on Steve is just too easy, too obvious and totally meaningless locally.

People around these parts  - especially Bond Papers readers - already knew not to trust the federal Connies on the bullshit battalions. 

All Denine does in his voice clip is pretend the promise is real.

Just wait until the ABC Leader gets back.

-srbp-

PurPle haZe

“Who the f*ck’s he trying to impress?” came the voice of a steadfast friend as soon as the phone came up close to an ear.

“Who?” says your humble e-scribbler still choking back the hello.

“Ignatieff” he said, then reeled off a section of some online story about the Liberal leader’s statement that he will let Liberal members of parliament from Newfoundland and Labrador vote against the federal budget this evening even though the party caucus will be voting for it. Five of the six had already said publicly they’d be bucking Iggy and the caucus anyway.

“No one,”  says your scribbler.

“Well, he’s doing a great job.”

“You know,” he added after a long silence, “sometimes it seems like you and me are the only ones around this place not on acid.”

He hung up the phone as if this was just a snippet of an ongoing conversation.

A couple of days ago, another old friend brought up Michael Ignatieff’s increasing tendency to refer to the country  - Canada  - as The Federation.  “I thought Danny was the only trekkie”, he’d said over a coffee, “but that stopped once he got a piece of the action and became a have province.”

The second friend took to calling him Sarek after that. “Buddy started out playing a Romulan, you know,” he reminded, tapping his finger on his nose, as if that meant something.

The Canadian Press story my steadfast friend had been reading over the phone had a few more of those mind-benders in it.

There was Danny Williams praising Sarek for letting members of caucus buck the whip:

“He shows real courage this early in his leadership to be making a move like that. The MPs are being allowed to do what they need to do on behalf of their province and I think the fact that a national leader recognizes that is very important.”

Williams’ own caucus, of course, is not allowed to think for themselves without permission from the Premier’s Office, let alone follow the direction of another party leader. 

The six federal Liberals from Newfoundland and Labrador got bombarded with telephone calls and e-mails this past week, most of them coming from Williams’ caucus directly or at their behest. The original orders came from the 8th, of course.

Someone on the 8th even managed to rouse John Hickey out of his hibernation.  Hickey, who is rumoured to have some  cabinet responsibilities, has been all-but-invisible until the day after Groundhog Day. He called the local morning call-in show on voice of the cabinet minister to list all the wonderful things for Labrador his master could have done with federal money. 

Things like the a power line designed to take the hydro-electric power that wasn’t going off to somewhere else in North America down to the island of Newfoundland.  This would somehow benefit Labrador even though there was no provision for any juice to bleed off to light the odd home in Labrador.

Or the Trans Labrador Highway.

Never mind that Hickey, as highways minister once claimed to have a deal with Ottawa on the thing already on his desk only being forced to admit that he really didn’t.

This is the same John Hickey, incidentally,  who sued former Premier Roger Grimes not for what Grimes said but for what Danny Williams said Grimes said. No one knows what became of the lawsuit.

On another part of the front, the mayor of St. John’s, good Provincial Conservative that he is, took time from walking by a Tim Hortons drive-through to insist the Liberals must vote against the budget or risk their political careers.  At the same time, he tells a national radio audience he can’t wait to get his hands on the federal infrastructure cash.

The foolishness isn’t confined to this latest racket the Premier’s Office acknowledges something called purple files it creates to prepare the Premier for media interviews. The most accountable and open government in civilization denies they exist when reporters ask for them under the province’s open records laws.

Then there is Equalization.

Aside from anything else, a surprising number of the crowd filling up comments on news websites or calling the talk shows on the voice of the cabinet minister think it is time to separate from Canada.  Ottawa is not giving us enough handouts, they say, so we should pack up and leave and get no handouts at all. 

The more loopy of the crew have taken to suggesting that Newfoundland should join with Quebec in a separate country.

The host of the night-time version of this psychedelic extravaganza of the airwaves fuels the chat with his preamble to the show the night of the budget vote. This is the same guy who, as editor of a local newspaper – the Independent – mused about separatism, denied he was a separatist when he ran for the New Democrats last time out and now is back banging the drum about a need to rethink the place of Newfoundland and Labrador within Canada.

Such is politics in Newfoundland and Labrador these days.

Such is public policy in Newfoundland and Labrador these past five years.

And a week after declaring that the budget changes would cripple the province’s economy, Danny Williams is praising Ignatieff for something that, in the end, means absolutely nothing. The budget still passed and the money will go – if it ever really would go – and anyone not in a state of altered conscious would wonder what the fuss was about in the first place.

What about the cash? 

Even Danny Williams is nonplussed this Tuesday.  Williams admitted to reporters on Tuesday afternoon that the federal government will only lift the O’Brien 50% option for this year.

This warp in space-time continuum - Newfoundland circa 1959 - once confined to one part of The Federation has spread.

The five members of parliament who panicked when Danny called did not waste time thinking of what they might do. Like say, finding out if what Danny said was right.

And if it turned out he was, come up with a plan of their own.  Maybe work on the caucus and government to see if a deal could be worked.  Maybe even try proposing an amendment that suspended the specific change for one year. That’s something Danny Williams wanted at one and – since it was aimed at once province – likely wouldn’t upset too many applecarts.  It might have passed.

As it turned out, the one year suspension was an option that the feds already tossed out at some point – did any reporter think to ask when the feds told the province this? - and Danny Williams accepted.

But the Liberals couldn’t even take credit for having anything to do with it.

Instead, Michael Ignatieff asks Stephen Harper if he would entertain a change.

Harper says no.

Case closed.

The six MPs get a pass on the whip – just this once, Iggy insisted – because springing a change is no way to run a Federation. Other provinces, affected as seriously or moreso than Newfoundland and Labrador by the Equalization changes, get no such consideration.  While it is no way to run a federation, according to Iggy, it is apparently not enough of no way to cause a change in who is running the place.

No clearer message could they send.

They might have even considered saying they did not want to become party to the excuse that whatever bad budget decisions this current provincial administration makes over the next three years, Danny Williams can say it’s all Harper’s fault even though that wouldn’t be close to true.

They could have left the job of backing Danny against the unions to the provincial labour leaders, the head of the province’s labour party and the former provincial labour party politician now sitting in Ottawa from this province.

And even if the amendment failed, the whole Liberal caucus might have showed it was willing to try something substantive. Something that ultimately didn’t look like they were responding to the sound of a bell coming from the blackberry upside Danny’s head as he drove his Avalanche down the Parkway.

Or was it the Queensway?

Meanwhile, the Liberals ought to know – every single one of them in Ottawa – that this is not a one shot deal. 

Williams will be back.

He knows what he can do to the federal Liberals and Ignatieff’s promise that this permission is a one-off won’t mean a thing. 

A guy who tells a gaggle of national and local reporters that he has been building up a war chest for when the “feds” come after “us” again, is not a guy who is going away any time soon. 

In a year’s time, Sarek might be the fed Williams is at war with. 

He’ll be back sooner than you think.

-srbp-

ABC Comedy Central - Masters of our own domain

where the truth is stranger than fiction

The UnLove Boat - In the season premiere of a series now in its 60th season, a provincial cabinet minister (played again this season by Provincial Conservative Clyde Jackman) bitches and moans incessantly about the quality of service provided by Marine Atlantic.

Yes, we know that's the same format, script and concept for every single episode of the longest running unreality show in political history.  Jackman managed to come up with a novel twist to open this season:  blaming a federal Conservative candidate for driving up the cost of gasoline worldwide and causing a North American economic slowdown, both of which were the real major causes for the reduction in road-bound tourism.

Highlights from last season:  In an episode titled The law of diminishing visitor returns, Jackman showed that doubling the provincial tourism advertising budget didn't produced the extra visitors everyone hoped for.

Yes, that's right, non-resident visitors, the people most of us would regard as tourists, actually contributed only 43% of the total economic activity generated by the province's tourism industry. ... We are spending more per visitor to attract them, but the return per visitor is diminishing.

In an episode called Didn't I see those at Canadian Tire?, Jackman's department bought a billboard at Ottawa airport that was billed as including "an actual clothesline hung with quilts".  It was based on the idea that people in eastern Ontario have never seen either quilts or clotheslines, apparently, hence they would be impressed by "actual" ones.


5 Wing:  In the season opener - Shocked and Odd - Provincial Conservative cabinet minister Tom Hedderson writes letters trying to get an elite anti-terror unit based in Goose Bay 18 months after the public learned the soldiers were going to another base in Canada.  Hedderson claims to be shocked by the news. Odd that he missed it.

Hedderson replaced the previous star John Hickey in the no-action comedy.

House:  Now in its fifth season,  less and less takes place in each House episode each year as the program morphs into a show about nothing.  In the budget episode from last season, finance minister Tom Marshall uttered the immortal words:

We are standing tall as powerful contributors to the federation – as masters of our own domain, stronger and more secure than we have ever been before.

-srbp-

The Sunday scuttlebutt

If the rumours aren't worth following then the truth is sometimes much stranger than fiction.

1.   Loyola Sullivan is now reportedly out of the country and not taking Harper's phone calls. The only thing funnier than rumours are Connie candidate travails are the ones about the Dipper hunts. 

2.   Former newspaper editor (his last horse died under him twice)  Ryan Cleary is looking for the NDP nod in St. John's South Mount Pearl.  This could make the South interesting if for no other reason than Cleary would likely quickly start whining as reporters started giving him a dose of the stuff he's dished out.  The guy's shown himself to have a thin skin. 

3.  A close reading of the Danny Williams e-mail from earlier the week would make you think that all the Provincial Conservatives had to do was state their support for the government ABC campaign without any obligation to campaign for anybody but Conservatives.  That pretty much clinches it:  there is such dissension within caucus that even the Premier couldn't force his colleagues to join the fratricidal policy without risking his own political neck.

4.  Even if we aren't going to see natural resources spokesperson Kathy Dudnerdale - a great typo from voice of the cabinet minister last week - knocking doors for Walter Noel, savvy federal Liberal fundraisers have it covered.

Some were reportedly thinking of sending donation requests to the 44 Provincial Conservatives in the House of Assembly with a promise to send a copy of the tax receipt to the Premier as proof they've acted on their commitment to ABC. 

If the Tories would send over their membership list, the Liberals will probably ensure everyone one of the Provincial Conservatives is on side.

5.  Liberal Siobhan Coady will be taking full advantage of the ABC this time out, turning for the third time running to a connected advertising firm to look after her campaign needs. Idea Factory has been the source of provincial Tory campaign advertising for a while now and recently added former Mike Harris and Danny Williams government staffer Carolyn Chaplin to its stable of considerable talent.

6.  Some Ottawa political staffers got a chuckle out of Danny Williams' reference to the Blue Shaft, given that it's also the nick-name of a fairly popular sexual device. They got a bigger chuckle out of the Harper "Daddy" ads but for a different reason. Some are watching to see if bears pop up next in the Connie ad campaign. 

7.  From the "Separated at Birth" file, both Danny Williams and Stephen Harper said this week they expect to be on the receiving end of vicious personal attacks during the upcoming campaign. Okay, those of you keeping track of how much these two are alike just ran out of paper.  Switch to a computer where the pixels are free and the space for storing data is almost endless.

8.  Speaking of vicious personal attacks, surely Provincial Conservative cabinet minister John Hickey - a man who's campaigned for the federal Conservatives at least once - is thinking of suing outgoing fish minister Loyola Hearn for defamation.  In a recent interview, Hearn called Hickey an "idiot". 

Hickey has a lawsuit against former Premier Roger Grimes for things Danny Williams said Grimes said but apparently didn't.  Confused?  So was Hickey.  But if you sued over something someone didn't say, surely you'd be fast off the litigious mark for a pretty obvious insult hurled straight at you, for the whole world to read.

And where is that lawsuit?  Likely right next to the contract with federal government to pave the Trans Labrador Highway.

9.  Provincial Conservative Cynthia Downey ran for the federal Conservatives in the last election, once the Provincial Conservatives decided to wholeheartedly endorse their federal brethren.  For her troubles, Downey found her campaign wrapped up in the Old In-Out In-Out scheme (scam?).

Fast forward to 2008 and with her provincial leader on the Family Feud warpath, Downey is dutifully joining in, savaging the federal Conservatives for doing things like booting people out of the country after their refugee applications have been rejected.

Check the party platform Downey back last time on deportations.

Right there in black and white: "rapid execution" of deportation orders.

And on a related matter, help and old e-scribbler out here:  who used to call the Great Oracle of the Valley's talk shows about the Portnoys?

10.  And they have it on tape, most likely. How many more quotes like this are out there?

"I think Atlantic Canadians are going to be very pleasantly surprised and pleased with the performance of Mr. Harper," said Williams.

The provincial aspect of the last federal election campaign was rather curious, especially considering that the version offered in the CBC summary linked here isn't quite in keeping with events as they unfolded. 

Williams may have kept a relatively low profile for example, but his cabinet and caucus were out there flogging CAA:  Connie Above All.  And Jack Layton?  Santa Jack promised everything the Premier desired;  Santa Steve promised to talk about it.

Steve got the Provincial Conservative support.

Yeah, and this whole ABC thing isn't a Family Feud.

-srbp-

The safest Conservative riding in Canada. Not.

That's what your humble e-scribbler thought too, until he bothered to check the facts.

Turns out the seat currently held by Norman Doyle has voted other than Blue a fair bit since 1949.

Years	MP	Party
1949-1953	Gordon Higgins	Progressive Conservative
1953-1957	Allan Fraser	Liberal
1957-1963	Jim McGrath	Progressive Conservative
1963-1968	Joseph O'Keefe	Liberal
1968-1986	Jim McGrath	Progressive Conservative
1987-1988	Jack Harris	New Democratic Party
1988-1993	Ross Reid	Progressive Conservative
1993-1997	Bonnie Hickey	Liberal
1997-2008	Norman Doyle	Conservative

 

Jim McGrath racked up the biggest margins in previous elections, capturing over 70% of votes cast in some elections.

If you want to check for yourself, follow the summary at Wikipaedia down to the bottom.  The data at the Wikipaedia entry is taken directly from Elections Canada  and Library of Parliament results.

-srbp-

Phoning it in

Education minister Joan Burke turned up this morning as the first caller on Open Line with Randy Simms.

She was calling from Stephenville, or "from the district" as Simms put it.

He made it sound like Burke was just back in her district for a visit.

After all, that's likely what you'd expect given that the department she runs is headquartered in St. John's. Being a minister is usually a busy life, even in the summer, what with the meetings related to cabinet and the meetings in the department and just being available to sign all those letters that have to be signed even in an age of computers and e-mail.

Thing is, Burke likely wasn't just stopping in for a visit.

And she likely isn't the only minister who tends to head back to the district during the times the House isn't in session.

Something keeps coming back to your humble e-scribbler about a comment Burke made having to do with ministerial expenses. There was a document establishing her primary residence, which, if memory serves, government officials expected would be in St. John's while she held Her Majesty's commission. The declaration was part of determining what set of expense rules from treasury board would apply.

Burke's comment stood out as she found that form a bit problematic, given her primary residence was in Stephenville. There was some mumbling criticism about the whole arrangement reflecting the "old boys club" of politics.

Now memories can be faulty, not the least of which being the one between the ears of your humble e-scribbler, so it's possible that wasn't exactly what was said.

The old boys club crack just stood out, though, because it was from straight out of left field. Why would it be surprising that an employer would expect you to live within easy commuting distance of the place where your job was located? There's something sexist in that?

Anyway, Tom Marshall is another minister not originally from the capital city who seems to spend a whack of time working from somewhere other than the Confederation Building.

Sit and think for a second and you could probably come up with a bunch of ministers who have offices and work responsibilities in the capital city but who seem to spend a huge amount of time not in the office.

Well, not in the main office. Marshall likely has a suite in the provincial government building in Corner Brook. Burke too, could likely scare up a bit of space in Stephenville.

John Hickey? Patty Pottle? Trevor Taylor? Tom Rideout when he was still a minister? Charlene Johnson? Kevin O'Brien?

These are just tossed out as possible examples because their districts are not within typical daily commuting distance of the metropolitan region.

Any of them keep two offices and work from home, home being somewhere other than within an easy commute of Sin Jawns?

This is not just a matter of some mouldy old rule after all. The cost of maintaining duplicate offices can be steep. Add to that the cost of having to grab a quickie flight at full fare from Stephenville - for argument sake - and then hopping back the same day just to do a media scrum.

Then there are the regular cabinet meetings and the committee meetings and all the rest.

Pretty soon, the cost of commuting like this would get to be a tidy sum.

Then there are the intangible costs. It would be much easier to meet and discuss some business face to face rather than do it by e-mail or over-the-phone. Ministers living in St. John's - where their main office is located - also have the chance to be more accessible to news media in a slow period during the summer. It gives all sorts of opportunities to increase the amount of information government provides to the public on its activities.

Well, that assumes government wants to give more information or that ministers are capable of doing more than parroting prepared lines, but let's just work on the assumption the current situation is an aberration in the great scheme of things.

Still it seemed a little odd that Burke was in St. John's for a 2:45 newser on Tuesday and then bright and early on Wednesday morning was safe on the west coast again.

Maybe it's just a misperception but then again, there have been too many references to some sort of dual office arrangement over the past couple of years to make it a case of being completely mistaken.

There's a subject for a little bit of investigative reporting.

In the meantime, it might be worthwhile to keep track of the number of cabinet ministers who are phoning in their media hits during times when the House is not in session.

-srbp-

Humber Valley Resorts - new business plan

Flip to Crazy about Newfoundland and you'll find some interesting information on Humber Valley Resorts, the high-end real estate development started by former Indy publisher Brian Dobbin.

A major reorganization and refinancing effort has been underway since late last year. This is the first hint of the new initiatives aimed at stemming losses reported in the last two fiscal years and becoming profitable.

The post comes - apparently - from an e-mail sent to owners of existing chalets by the new Newfound NV chief executive officer Jayne McGivern following her first visit to the property.

Key initial points
* Newfound wants to retain the operation of the resort within the company
* The primary focus will be to build high-end chalets
* Tennis courts will be added [Update: Dan from Crazy advises by e-mail he made an error on the swimming pool mentioned in the original. He's adjusted his own post accordingly]
* Focus on completion of the road system, cycle paths and verge landscaping
* Reduce the property sales activity - to create a more controlled build plan

There are some other interesting developments, though, including this:

As a postscript - Jayne McGiven [sic] also met Tom Marshall the provisional [sic] finance minister and local MHA representative [sic], and apparently made it clear that the company would not continue to fund the only tourism flights from Europe, and reinforced that if tourism is to succeed the provisional government [sic] needs to take a much more active role. I also hear that her suggested solution is the resumption of the London to St Johns route. (Not that great for Western Newfoundland in my opinion). [Emphasis added]

There were hints of this publicly already. The Telegram reported in early June on Newfound NV's annual report for 2007.

Since late 2007, the company has reorganized, reduced losses and introduced a new management team to further develop properties in Newfoundland and the Caribbean, estimated in the company annual report to have a value of US$227 million.

The annual report describes the efforts made at turning around the company's fortunes:

As mentioned in my statement last year, we have been addressing the construction issues and although some still remain we did achieve our aim of accelerating the construction program during 2007 and we are making healthy margins on new build.

During the year, we carried out significant construction work on over 60 chalets resulting in an increase in revenue in local currency from construction and furnishings of 66% to US$ 21.3 million. We have nearly completed the construction backlog inherited at the time of the Newfound acquisition in 2006 and, subject to suitable funding being in place, it is hoped that all of the remaining outstanding contracts will be started during 2008.

In 2007, the first full year of operation of the 18 hole golf course, we won four prestigious awards including Golf Magazine (golf.com) Best New International Course 2007 and ScoreGolf Magazine's Best Canadian New Golf Course 2007. The credit for this must go to our Golf manager and his team.

We have recently signed an agreement with Monarch Airlines to run a weekly Boeing 757 from Gatwick to Deer Lake to cover both the summer and winter seasons, thus supporting the expected increase in vacation traffic. Although the charter at present makes a financial loss until such time as vacation numbers increase, it is an important part of both the operations at Humber Valley Resort and its future development.

Notice that there is no reference in the annual report to finding financial subsidies for the charter flights. In fact, the last statement suggests the current losses will be rectified once vacation numbers increase.

The idea of government paying for or subsidizing flights was first hinted at publicly by Brian Dobbin in his farewell column in the last issue of the Indy.

Humber Valley Resort showed a lot of people how good our tourism product can be to international markets, but it is now controlled by a mostly non-Newfoundland group of shareholders who see it only as an asset amongst others. While a private company we invested over $15 million just in marketing our tourism product internationally and providing air service from Europe. I know of no other international developer in the world who paid for weekly overseas flights for four years. Although I remain a shareholder in the company, I don’t expect our board will accept that kind of capital expenditure in the future on something they rightfully see as the province’s job. [Emphasis added]

Commercial air service, including international service, is available to Newfoundland and Labrador from London via several carriers. Air Canada discontinued year-round service between St. John's (YYT) and Gatwick in 2006 due to reportedly low traffic volume. It announced at the time it planned to introduce summer-only service in 2007.

Following the Air Canada announcement, Newfound's charter carrier at the time - Astraeus - began competing with Air Canada on the summer service run in 2007.

Both carriers subsequently withdrew from the St. John's to Gatwick run, although the provincial government only attacked Air Canada. The provincial transportation minister John Hickey offered a convoluted - and often incorrect - version of events.

The idea of the province having some financial involvement in the flights is a new twist though. In comments made to CBC in December, Newfound Group president Jeremy White referred to a request for the provincial government to lobby Air Canada to restore the direct Gatwick-St. John's flight. He also said government had offered to help defray some of the marketing costs for Humber Valley.

No representative from Newfound NV is listed in the provincial lobbyist register, as of 25 July 2008.

Humber Valley general manager Paul Shelley is a former provincial tourism minister. [Update: Dan from Crazy reports by e-mail that Paul Shelley is "long gone" from Humber Valley. He's now in St. John's but still with Newfound NV.]

Brian Dobbin, still the major shareholder in Newfound NV according to the 2007 annual report, sits on the provincially-appointed Ireland business partnership board.

Between 2006 and 2008, the provincial government was the "anchor advertiser" at the Independent, Dobbin's weekly newspaper, according to comments by editor Ryan Cleary.

In summer 2007, the Indy featured a front page story on Astraeus and its weekly service. The piece attracted considerable criticism:

This week, Cleary himself has shown the folly behind this thinking; has demonstrated that independent ownership does not guarantee editorial independence. The main story on page one of this week’s Independent (July 20) is what journalists indelicately call a “suck piece”. It takes up more than a third of page one, then turns to a massive two page spread inside. And nowhere in the article does Cleary disclose to whom he is sucking up.

In other words, there is a blatant hidden agenda.

Cleary and photographer Paul Daly took a round trip to London, thanks to free tickets from Astraeus Airlines. In return, Cleary lectures us that the flight was less than one-third full, and that the airline does not have a “bottomless pit of money.” The headlines exhorts us to “Use it or lose it.”

Actually, Cleary didn’t need to accept the free tickets to write this piece. He could have secured the essential information from a face-to-face or phone interview. But no matter – I don’t begrudge a reporter a freebie here and there, as long as there is full disclosure.

Nowhere in the body of the article does Cleary bring himself to say the tickets were free. You have to read the photo caption to discover that “the airline provided the paper with two round trip tickets.”

Update: 'ullo, 'ullo. What's all this then? An eagle-eyed reader has noted that the provincial government's tourism statistics report for 2007 claims there's been an increase in commercial airline travel by the infamous "non-resident" visitor to the province and that air capacity has gone up likewise.

The number of non-resident air visitors reached an estimated 81,100 to
the end of April 2008, an increase of 5.0% over the same period last
year.

...

Air capacity has increased significantly to Newfoundland and Labrador
for the summer of 2008 compared to the summer of 2007 with the
exception of international/overseas outbound direct. Not including the
Newfoundland to London, UK flights, there has been an overall increase
in air access of 6.9% flights (23 additional flights per week) and
14.3% or 3,353 seats per week

That "non-resident" visitor thing is such a joke. It's like you sleeping in another part of the house when the in-laws come to visit and then claiming that in addition to the endless string of visiors from out-of-province, your living room had a few "non-resident visitors.

Tourists are tourists. Visitors are visitors. The provincial government need to find another term for what they describe, and what is a legitimately business activity. But, they need to separate it from the real tourism statistics more clearly than they do. That way, the public can see - transparently - what kind of impact the tourism advertising budget is having on the market.

-srbp-

Hat tip to Gary Kelly for the link to the Crazy post. Humber Valley has potential. It will be interesting to see how it grows, hopefully without public subsidies.