The Sir Robert Bond Papers
The real political division in society is between authoritarians and libertarians.
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Churchill Falls and Muskrat Falls - Background
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08 July 2013
Some inconvenient truths: goring some educational sacred cows #nlpoli
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Friday turned out to be Post-Secondary Education Day with a post here on the impact of the freeze on tuition fees and a fascinating Telegram...
07 July 2013
VOCM more like Fox and Sun #nlpoli
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VOCM’s newsroom is taking a massive step downward with a headline on the Liberal leadership. On Friday, Dwight Ball stepped down as interim...
05 July 2013
Great Political Quotes: Tax Shelter edition #nlpoli
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“We lost, but that passion for fighting the injustice of a retroactive law change — that passion I will bring to the Liberal Party of New...
The price of subsidy – MUN Tuition
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In early June, a CBC investigation revealed that Memorial University is charging special fees for some international graduates students. Th...
04 July 2013
A long way from best in class #nlpoli
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Cathy Bennett’s leadership launch event was organized as one would expect. Her speech was scripted and, hand gestures and all, well rehear...
03 July 2013
The Campaign Starts… #nlpoli
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Okay anyone who believed Cathy Bennett was “thinking about it” over the weekend know that she was already getting her Liberal leadership cam...
02 July 2013
The Politics of Fashion #nlpoli
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As it turns out, Corporate Research Associates president Don Mills had lots to say to the St. John’s Board of Trade besides a few guesses. ...
01 July 2013
The Great War and Newfoundland Nationalism #nlpoli
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This is a revised version of post that originally appeared on July 4, 2012. ___________________________________ Mark Humphries is an ...
Commemoration Day, 2013 #nlpoli
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Tread softly here! Go reverently and slow! You let your soul go down upon its knees And with bowed head, and heart abased stri...
29 June 2013
Did his nose just grow… again? #nlpoli
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According to Nalcor boss Ed Martin, the absence of a mere $15 million of old-fashioned 2D seismic was an obstacle to multi-billion dollar g...
28 June 2013
The Crucible #nlpoli
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If the Conservative Party in Newfoundland and Labrador threw out people who had been a Liberal or a New Democrat before, there wouldn’t be e...
27 June 2013
Water and beans #nlpoli
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You don’t make the kind of telephone calls Cathy Bennett has been making if you aren’t already headed toward an announcement you will go aft...
26 June 2013
Cathy Bennett to seek Liberal leadership #nlpoli
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SRBP expects that Cathy Bennett, chair of the Bennett Group of companies, will announce her bid for the provincial Liberal leadership next w...
Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act and municipal politics #nlpoli
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You mean the Hell’s Angels won’t be deterred by a committee of people telling Doc O’Keefe what they think he should do? -srbp-
Will he bring more than guesses? #nlpoli
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Corporate research Associates president Don Mills is in St. John’s on Wednesday to speak to the Board of Trade. He’s already teased up his ...
24 June 2013
The Year of Living Dubiously #nlpoli
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Conflict of interest is great thing to deal when there is a chance of stopping it or dealing with it, not six or seven years later . Back ...
21 June 2013
Cost Creepy Crawlies #nlpoli
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Maybe it’s the lack of independent corroboration in this Telegram article that just sends a chill up your spine. That’s the one where Nal...
20 June 2013
The Article 82 Question #nlpoli
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Statoil announced on Wednesday that it had found an unspecified quantity of oil in its Harpoon property about 500 kilometres offshore Newf...
19 June 2013
The New Chinese Connection #nlpoli
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Premier Kathy Dunderdale took off for China on Tuesday as part of a new effort to get Chinese state-owned companies to invest in the provin...
Why aren’t they happy? #nlpoli
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Here are some screen captures for your consideration. CBC’s Jeremy Eaton took the video as part of his coverage of a great announcement. ...
The Ever-Changing Provincial Energy Plan #nlpoli
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Premier Kathy Dunderdale told delegates to the provincial offshore oil and gas industries association on Tuesday that the provincial govern...
18 June 2013
Arse-lighting #nlpoli
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Nothing says make me leader of a party that seems to have accidentally struck a chord with voters than spreading false information and then ...
Sexism Alive in Canadian Politics #nlpoli #cdnpoli
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Sexism is alive and well in Canadian politics but it isn’t coming from any of the places you might expect. Donna Dasko is a co-founder an...
17 June 2013
Montana Time #nlpoli
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Both CBC provincial affairs reporter David Cochrane and Telegram editor Russell Wangersky had opinion pieces this weekend telling the pro...
14 June 2013
Ministerial Whimsy #nlpoli
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Ever wonder why the provincial government passes laws and then never puts them into force? Like the Sustainable Development Act that the ...
13 June 2013
Inquiring Minds? You don’t want to know. #nlpoli
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Denial and evasion, wrote Andrew Coyne last week, are only making worse three political scandals. He’s referring to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford ...
12 June 2013
Concerning Partisan Communications from Non-Partisan Government Officials #nlpoli
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Keith Hutchings issued a news release on Tuesday to respond to”inaccuracies on CETA negotiations.” That’s what the headline on the release ...
11 June 2013
And then magic will happen: Kennedy #nlpoli
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Corporate Research Associates obscures what little useful information there is in its quarterly polling by converting party choice numbers t...
10 June 2013
If at first you don’t succeed… #nlpoli
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Shoot your self in the foot yet again. The Conservative candidate in Cartwright – L’anse au Claire is committed to proving his party runs ...
07 June 2013
Get worried-er #nlpoli
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Here are a bunch of stories all of which would deserve a post of their own but that are presented here cut down to the barest of bare essent...
06 June 2013
Get Worried #nlpoli
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Not surprisingly, a band of familiar faces turned up at Nalcor’s annual public meeting to put questions about Muskrat Falls to Ed Martin, ...
05 June 2013
Rumpole and the Big Smoke #nlpoli
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Here’s the official summary of a judge’s decision in a recent arson case: Accused was charged with arson. The Crown failed to prove bey...
Fluidity #nlpoli
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As a rule, cabinet ministers should be able to tell you exactly what government policy is on any given subject. They all sit at the same t...
04 June 2013
IOCC cuts staff #nlpoli
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The Iron Ore Company of Canada has made cuts to its offices in St.John’s, Montreal, Labrador City and Sept Iles, according to the weekly new...
Off track betting #nlpoli
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That big, ginormous phone-banging-up, trade dispute thingy with evil Ottawa? So not happening any more. "We seem to be back on trac...
Familiar tunes amid the Shifting Balance of Power #nlpoli
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All the talk the past week or so about negotiations between the crowd in Confederation Building and the crowd in Ottawa brought out the con...
03 June 2013
No Surplus to Supply #nlpoli
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Critics of the Muskrat Falls development pointed out over 18 months ago that the project would have problems meeting its electricity commitm...
31 May 2013
If they do it, it is wrong #nlpoli
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On Monday, Kathy Dunderdale said it was wrong for the federal government to try and jam her up by connecting the federal loan guarantee on M...
The Divide Deepens. #nlpoli
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David Cochrane called it right the other day in the scrum with Kathy Dunderdale. He asked if she was laying the groundwork for a failure at...
30 May 2013
There’s something to be said for eloquence #nlpoli
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Russell Wangersky is a fine writer with a keen and insightful mind. He is also an editor at the province’s largest circulation daily. Th...
Dunderdale and Dalley tell different trade talk stories #nlpoli
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Premier Kathy Dunderdale ( via NTV ): We’re looking for a ‘carve-out’ on the minimum processing regulations … so they’ll be exempted, a...
29 May 2013
Kathy Dunderdale's Give-Aways #nlpoli
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There is something about Kathy Dunderdale’s speech to the Board of Trade that leaves you decidedly uncomfortable. Part of it is the mentio...
28 May 2013
Do we have it? #nlpoli
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Kathy Dunderdale had a pretty easy audience on Monday for her relaxed, ambling speech about a whole bunch of stuff. It was the St. John’s ...
27 May 2013
Like Father. Like Son. #nlpoli
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So after a teaser column in the Telegram last week that was more creative fiction than serious history or memoir, John Crosbie explained wh...
24 May 2013
Lowest Cost Option #nlpoli
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Note: The words glory hole and shaft in this post are terms used in the mining and oil and gas industries. The provincial government is alm...
23 May 2013
Polling Voters #nlpoli
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If you are still mulling over the British Columbia election result and the polls, take a look at this post by Eric Grenier at threehundredei...
It just doesn’t stop #nlpoli
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There’s a new anti-Conservative picture around town. This one is via Twitter (@openionated ). -srbp-
Beth and Expenses #nlpoli #cdnpoli
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All this talk of Senator Beth Marshall and her hefty annual stipend for chairing a committee that has met once in two years brings to mind ...
22 May 2013
There’s no crap like old crap #nlpoli
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And John Crosbie’s recent column (May 18) in the Telegram about Churchill Falls contains some of the oldest - and completely unsubstantiat...
21 May 2013
Political Grab-Bag #nlpoli
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For the first day back after a long weekend, here are some short snappers on some issues swirling around these days at the national scene.
20 May 2013
Stagnation and Decay #nlpoli
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The House of Assembly finished its spring session on Thursday after what appears to be one of the shortest sessions in the past 30 years. ...
17 May 2013
The NAPE Poll Income #nlpoli
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As it turns out, Harris-Decima used household income not individual income for weighting the poll they did for NAPE. Keith Dunne, NAPE’s com...
16 May 2013
Self Skew-ered #nlpoli
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Two thirds of tax filers in Newfoundland and Labrador report incomes of less than $35,000 per year. The Harris-Decima poll released by th...
The Fruits of A Very Poisonous Tree #nlpoli
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Premier Kathy Dunderdale said on Tuesday that the province will have problems now that it doesn’t have a federal cabinet minister from this ...
15 May 2013
The Decline of the Forest Empire #nlpoli
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While an official with Corner Brook’s municipal government understandably has to say wonderful things about the economy in the west coast c...
14 May 2013
Steep Curves and Third Place #nlpoli
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Liberal leader Dwight Ball told CBC’s David Cochrane this past weekend that his job as Opposition Leader came with a steep learning curve. ...
The $150K Communications Audit #nlpoli
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Poor Jerome Kennedy. They sent him out Monday to explain to reporters what the government got for its $150,000 audit by Fleishman-Hillard ...
13 May 2013
Keep on churnin’ #nlpoli
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You can add another five changes to the record of senior executive appointments cabinet has made since the beginning of the year, according ...
Where was Fairity’s contract chopper? #nlpoli
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In the wake of the tragic death last week of Joseph Riche, it shouldn’t be surprising that some people, including some politicians , are bla...
10 May 2013
More on the 2009 Rift #nlpoli
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The Kremlinology post on Trevor Taylor, Paul Oram and the apparent policy disagreement in cabinet in 2008/09 generated two contacts (a twee...
09 May 2013
Kremlinology 44: the 2009 Rift in Cabinet #nlpoli
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Trevor Taylor left politics in 2009 in an unseemly hurry. One minute he was there. Next minute? Gone from cabinet and the House of Ass...
08 May 2013
Tom Marshall’s Dead Muskrat Sketch #nlpoli
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Tom Marshall used to be the finance minister. He’s the guy who consistently, year after year, spent more than the people of the province ...
07 May 2013
And you want to be my latex salesman? #nlpoli
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Last week SRBP noted that the provincial cabinet seems to be having some difficulty getting legislation into the House for debate. Normal...
Ground Control to Major Tom #nlpoli
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New Democratic Party leader Lorraine Michael asked natural resources minister Tom Marshall in the House of Assembly on Monday about Husky’s...
Not the arse-end of the world … #nlpoli
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Check out the 2012 Hydro-Quebec annual report and you will find a lovely chart showing trends in energy prices in northeastern North Americ...
06 May 2013
Why separate? #nlpoli
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Last week, the federal Auditor General pointed out many serious problems with the state of offshore search and rescue. Last week, the usua...
03 May 2013
Husky sizing up natural gas offshore Newfoundland and Labrador #nlpoli
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Husky Energy is sizing up the potential of developing natural gas offshore Newfoundland and Labrador within the next decade, according to th...
Light Session #nlpoli
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As of May 2, there are a mere six pieces of legislation on the list of bills currently set for debate in the House of Assembly. It seems t...
02 May 2013
Seen on a pole somewhere #nlpoli
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-srbp-
01 May 2013
Political Translator: No’durn Strategy #nlpoli
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Former premier Tom Rideout has an accent typical of the northeast coast of Newfoundland. in his days as a cabinet minister after 2003, Rid...
Province settles Fortis asset grab for $76 million #nlpoli
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Natural resources minister Tom Marshall announced in the House of Assembly on Tuesday that the provincial government had settled with the l...
30 April 2013
Wanted: a good row #nlpoli
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One of the unreserved joys that comes from writing these scribbles is the moment when a post sparks something. Like on Monday, when a simp...
29 April 2013
Annual GDP Change #nlpoli
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A release on Friday from Statistics Canada showed that the provincial economy shrank by almost 5% in 2012. They even supplied a lovely cha...
26 April 2013
The 2013 Q1 Churn Appointments #nlpoli
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One of the great things about having orders in council readily available is that people can find information. That’s exactly why the curre...
25 April 2013
Today in history…
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April 25 is the 218th birthday of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment . -srbp-
24 April 2013
Wiseman violated privileges and rights of all members #nlpoli
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Ross Wiseman violated Gerry Roger’s rights as a member of the House of Assembly. He did so, by his own initial ruling, with no evidence wh...
23 April 2013
Don’t feed the Crazies #nlpoli
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First, slander is something defamatory that someone says. Libel is what you call a defamatory comment that is printed. So a poster would...
Taxing the Imagination #nlpoli
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What is it about the provincial Conservatives and income tax? Kathy Dunderdale rabbited on about it last fall and again in January . La...
22 April 2013
Some free advice #nlpoli
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The Premier’s daughter tweeted this comment last Wednesday night. Few people consider the impact that political life has on the families...
19 April 2013
Dunderfarce 2 #nlpoli
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As if the week hasn’t been going badly enough for her, Premier Kathy Dunderdale decided to make it all the worse on Thursday with her scrum ...
18 April 2013
#Dunderporn and #Dunderfarce #nlpoli #cdnpoli
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What was the tragedy of the orchestrated political lynching of an innocent member of the House of Assembly by the provincial Conservatives ...
17 April 2013
The Keystone Kops and their Kangaroo Kourt #nlpoli
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The Conservatives in Newfoundland and Labrador are politically deaf. They only hear themselves. Former fisheries minister Trevor Taylor u...
New telephone tax to pay for 911 service #nlpoli
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The provincial Conservatives could haul in up to $7.7 million through a new tax on telephones to be introduced ostensibly to pay for provin...
16 April 2013
The “Significant Impact” of Open Line #nlpoli
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Cleaning out the home office has turned up a few forgotten gems. One of them related to the political impact of open line shows in the pro...
15 April 2013
Oblivious Neutron Bomb #nlpoli
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Even at the worst of their leadership feuding Jean Chretien and Paul Martin never frigged each other over the way Kathy Dunderdale and Jerom...
12 April 2013
The Keystone Kops Ride Again #nlpoli
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We already knew that the provincial cabinet had abandoned their budget before the document had been debated in the House. That happened las...
11 April 2013
Talk Radio – Communication Tool or Just Local Banter #nlpoli
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International Association of Business Communicators (Newfoundland and Labrador) presents a professional development luncheon: According...
10 April 2013
The Transformation #nlpoli
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Provincial Conservatives in Newfoundland and Labrador have a political philosophy that is equal parts Machiavelli, Kafka, and the Three Sto...
09 April 2013
F*ck you in ASL
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-srbp-
Edging #nlpoli
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Over at cbc.ca/nl, John Gushue has an excellent column on the recent prosperity , in particular the apparent contradiction between a suppose...
08 April 2013
The Lady is for Turning #nlpoli
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Only a few days ago, natural resources minister Tom Marshall was telling us that the Premier was an Iron Lady. A compassionate one, mind y...
05 April 2013
Kremlinology 43: We Love the Leader! #nlpoli
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Twice last week, provincial Conservative politicians offered unprompted endorsements of Kathy Dunderdale’s leadership. Natural resources m...
Political Will and Public Policy #nlpoli
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The SIDI simulation of government spending that we’ve run this past week might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but these sort of thought exerc...
04 April 2013
Well on the way to Debt Freedom #nlpoli
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According to economist-consultant Wade Locke , the provincial government’s “Sustainability” Plan includes a debt commitment: The long-run ...
03 April 2013
Responsible Public Spending #nlpoli
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You don’t need drugs or alcohol to get the feeling of dizziness or stupor like you smacked your head with a hammer. Hard. Repeatedly. Just...
02 April 2013
The Road Not Taken #nlpoli
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The number is a hard one to wrap your mind around. $15.6 billion. That’s the amount of oil royalties and mining royalties the provincial...
01 April 2013
Damn the finances! Full spend ahead! #nlpoli
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We don’t know precisely what economist Wade “ the Can-Opener ” Locke is doing to earn his loonie from the Newfoundland and Labrador taxpay...
The Public Debt #nlpoli
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One of the greatest political frauds committed by the current administration and its supporters is the idea that they have lowered the publi...
The joke’s on us #nlpoli
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From the current issue of Canadian Business comes this little ad that is not an April Fool’s joke from energy company currently running the ...
Federalism and the Newfoundlanders: 64th birthday edition #nlpoli
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April 1, 2013 marks the 64th anniversary of Newfoundland’s confederation with Canada. Here are a few older posts on the subject that stand...
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