Recently tagged politics
Today's vote: New England governors and the Lower Churchill
Eastern Canadian premiers and New England governors met Monday in Halifax … and the Lower Churchill project was on their minds.
The governors seem open to a new source of energy, but at least some want a resolution to the disputes between the provinces on transmission.
What effect do you think this will have on the Lower Churchill plan?
Tags: Lower Churchill, politics
Today's vote: What do the Liberals need most?
Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones nipped rumours in the bud Wednesday that she might be stepping down in advance of October’s election. The Liberals have a number of challenges, though, as they try to gain seats; two members of the four-member caucus are retiring, the party is in the red, and the PCs (despite a decided slip) still command the lead in public opinion polling.
What do the Liberals need to make big gains in October?
Tags: Today's vote, Yvonne Jones, politics
Today's vote: What do the election results mean?
The election has come and gone, and now it’s time to figure out what lies ahead. Here’s today’s question.
Tags: Today's vote, politics
Mr. Harper meets Mr. Hearn from Saint John
As sentences go, it was no doubt one that Conservative Leader Stephen Harper wishes he could have hit the verbal equivalent of a backspace-key.
After arriving at Robert French Memorial Stadium Thursday morning, Harper set to work introducing the party’s candidates in the region … although he wound up confusing St. John’s South-Mount Pearl candidate Loyola Sullivan with another candidate, and the area with a place in New Brunswick.
“I also want you to please welcome our other great candidates in the Saint John region - the Hon. Loyola Hearn,” Harper said.
A moment later, Harper realized his mistake. “Sorry. Loyola Sullivan,” said Harper, who smacked himself in the head. “Stand up Loyola and get a hand.”
For his part, Sullivan was laughing out loud as Harper corrected himself.
After answering reporters’ questions, Harper’s first move was to bring another apology straight to Sullivan.
Neither comment nor correction came, though, on that “Saint John” bit.
Tags: Loyola Sullivan, politics
Kathy Dunderdale has suggested critics of her are being sexist. What do you think?
Tags: Kathy Dunderdale, Lorraine Michael, Today's vote, Yvonne Jones, politics
Some pre-election rebranding for the PCs
I noticed something curious about the Progressive Conservative website, and a hint of what the Tories might have in mind as the October general election draws closer.
The address for the website is, of course, pcparty.nf.net … easy enough to type into a browser.
But this what you see after you hit enter. It redirects to a brand-new address:
The new address, dunderdale2011.ca, is what’s called a redirect, and is very common in web design and publishing. It indicates what the Tories have in mind for the campaign.
And if the address is not obvious, here’s what the landing page today looks like.
Yep. October is very much on the Tories’ mind.
Tags: Kathy Dunderdale, politics
The Danny Williams video the PCs didn't play
The Progressive Conservatives toasted the eight years in government last night. Everyone knows that it had originally been planned as a tribute to Danny Williams, until the former premier removed himself from the guest list.
The convention organizers played a video tribute to Williams, but not the message that Williams recorded. It features his wish that he meet in person with them at another convention, at another time. Comedian Mark Critich also makes a short appearance.
There’s no explanation why convention organizers decided not to play this video, although it was posted to YouTube.
Here it is.
Tags: Danny Williams, politics
Today's vote: The MHAs are coming back
The house of assembly reopens next week, with John Crosbie reading the speech from the throne. What do you expect?
Tags: Today's vote, politics
Today's vote: The Humber West tea leaves
The PCs won handily last night in the Humber West byelection. Humber West has the distinction of being a classic bellwether district: in every general election since 1971, voters there have sided with the party that happened to form the government.
It also was Danny Williams’s seat, and Williams won there in 2007 with one heck of a lopsided victory.
The Liberals put on a credible fight this time, but came up short, and candidate Mark Watton (a force within the Liberal ranks for many years) shows the party is attracting genuine talent.
What do you think of the results?
Tags: Today's vote, politics
Today's vote: The premier's security
CBC News has learned that the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has quietly assigned officers to protect Premier Kathy Dunderdale. However, the RNC is not commenting on what prompted the decision.
Tags: Today's vote, politics
Does Confederation Building have a familiar shade of blue?
If you’ve been driving by Confederation Building in St. John’s the last few months, you’ve no doubt noticed the scaffolding near large parts of the Newfoundland and Labrador government’s main complex.
Some of that $34-million refurbishment is now finished (read more about that work here), and the colour selection on the outside shows that the panels are changing from a shade of green to a shade of blue.
It’s the shade of blue that has raised a few eyebrows. “Tory blue,” according to at least one person of the Liberal persuasion.
In our newsroom, most people like the change, if only because the old colour scheme seemed, well, outdated.
As for the political influence? Well, we’ve seen things like budget documents and licence plates change from blue to red and back again over the years.
The change of colour on Confederation Building may be a coincidence, although we noticed that the different grades of blue in the photo above are, well, similar to the gradations on the 2009 budget documents, one of which is below:
Tags: Confederation Building, politics
Kathy Dunderdale ponders her options
Very soon after Kathy Dunderdale was sworn in as the 10th premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, reporters asked her if she would run in the upcoming leadership race for the Progressive Conservatives. “No,” she replied quickly.
That, we thought, was that.
Until the last few days, that is. Late last week, word went out that Jerome Kennedy, one of the frontrunners in the so-far unofficial race, was not going to run at all.
There’s been talk about other candidates - Rick Hillier here, Elizabeth Marshall there - but so far it’s just been talk.
So perhaps it wasn’t so surprising when Dunderdale opened the door during an interview with The Telegram.
“There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on me to reconsider, so I’ll take some time to think about that over … Christmas,” she said on Friday. “(But) I haven’t heard anything yet that’s made me change my mind.”
One of the last things Danny Williams did before retiring was to tap Dunderdale, who had been deputy premier, as his interim successor.
This sort of thing doesn’t happen often. In fact, it’s happened only once before, when Brian Tobin resigned abruptly in 2000 and arranged for Beaton Tulk to be sworn in behind him. Tulk had no leadership aspirations of his own, so he was seen as a neutral choice to take over as premier while Roger Grimes, John Efford and Paul Dicks prepared for what would be a pretty brutal battle.
Should Kathy Dunderdale enter the race? Would she have an unfair advantage, or does it matter? This is the subject of today’s survey. Cast a vote and let us know.
Tags: Kathy Dunderdale, PC leadership watch , Today's vote, politics
Powers to the people?
Quite a few political watchers in Newfoundland and Labrador were bemused when a website launched last week aimed at drafting Tim Powers as the successor to Danny Williams. Powers has two key ingredients for a leadership candidate - he’s from here, he’s conservative - but he doesn’t have the high profile of other contenders, including Jerome Kennedy or Tom Marshall.
Powers, who works in Ottawa and is frequently seen on the political chat circuit, is extraordinarily well-connected, and has a wide circle of friends and contacts, including us in the media. [You can follow him on Twitter here.] He told us this week he was “very flattered and overwhelmed” by the online draft movement, but was coy about what his next move might be.
“I’m just in a sort of quiet listening reflective mode but I’m not about to make any announcements or do anything dramatic at the moment.”
The picture above, by the way, is from 1999 - and from a period that Powers would probably like to forget. You may recall that Powers quit as the campaign manager for Paul Brown in St. John’s Centre in that election during the Brian Tobin juggernaut; Brown, and the party, cut Powers loose after it was revealed he had leaked a note with disparaging accusations about Liberal candidate Mary Hodder.
Mind you, that was more than a decade ago, and it’s far more likely that if there is skepticism about Powers locally, it’s because he was on the other side of the ABC campaign that Danny Williams launched leading up to the 2007 federal election.
Then again, there has been a very noticeable detente between the provincial PCs and the federal Conservatives. It’ll be really interesting to see how federal Tories like Powers fit into a post-Danny PC party.
Tags: Danny Williams, PC leadership watch , Tim Powers, politics
Today's vote: Should binding arbitration be entrenched for physicians?
We reported this weekend that the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association is floating an interesting proposal: it would give up the right to strike in return for having binding arbitration put in place for resolving physicians’ disputes with the provincial government.
The move comes as doctors vote on whether to accept or reject a government offer, and amid a particularly difficult bargaining round that has triggered a round of resignations from salaried specialists. Through it all, the government has refused to turn the matter over to binding arbitration.
What do you think?
Tags: NLMA, Today's vote, health, politics
Today's vote: Will power bills soar because of the Lower Churchill deal?
Shortly after Thursday’s Lower Churchill deal was announced, former Liberal premier Roger Grimes denounced the pact, saying it will mean free power for Nova Scotia’s Emera and higher bills for consumers in Newfoundland and Labrador. Nalcor admits rates are expected to go up, but said all of the options for replacing the oil-burning Holyrood plant would have meant increases, and the long-term projections are quite stable because of Lower Churchill power.
What do you think?
Tags: Lower Churchill, Roger Grimes, Today's vote, politics
Mark Critch gets the translated goods from Gilles Duceppe
As we understand it, 22 Minutes had wanted its sketch with Gilles Duceppe to resemble a bit from September with Danny Williams in which the Newfoundland and Labrador premier took French lessons.
No English lessons here, but Mark Critch’s translator-assisted conversation with Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe is a chuckle.
The segment appeared last week. You can watch the full episode here:
Tags: 22 Minutes, Morning funny, politics
Mad Hatter and tea parties
Saturday’s Restore the Sanity And/or Fear rally in Washington attracted more humour than usual, which should have been expected given the proponents were comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The above is just one of the signs depicted in this collection (a heads-up: some are not family fare).
Tags: Morning funny, politics
Harper and Williams turn the sod, if not the hatchet
It was all smiles this morning when Prime Minister Stephen Harper took part in the official sod-turning for the new $100-million Canadian Forces Station St. John’s.
At the prime minister’s side? Premier Danny Williams, who only a couple of years ago was doing pretty much everything he could to keep Harper from doing well in that fall’s federal election.
One of the victims of Williams’s ABC campaign, of course, was Fabian Manning, then an MP and now a senator. As you can see from Manning’s grin above, things were ostensibly on a positive note this morning in Pleasantville.
A nod to our colleague Azzo Rezori, who started a question to the prime minister with a note that fall temperatures were cooling but the world’s temperatures were rising. “How would you describe the climate of your relationship with Premier Danny Williams?”
Harper’s response (which is included in the video below) was measured, although at least he looked like he wanted to burst out laughing.
“I’ve never thought of it in terms of climactic analogies,” Harper said. “Let me just say I’ve always said Newfoundland and Labrador is a very important part of his country.”
Harper took time to note that Premier Danny Williams is “a very competent Conservative leader” that he supports, even though his party doesn’t have seats in the province. Then, the two apparently former adversaries went outside and dug their shovels into the ground.
Still, we all noticed that Williams almost couldn’t help but make a bit of a dig about his often-troubled relationship with the prime minister during the Igor benefit concert on Friday night.
“Try getting in a chopper with Stephen Harper,” Williams said, alluding to what it took to get two beer-distributing rivals on the same stage, as well as his visit to Trouty with the PM after Igor ripped it apart.
But, to be fair, the premier added: “Sometimes we have to make sacrifices in the interests of Newfoundland and Labrador, and I got to tell you, it worked out very well. So, it was a good day, to be honest with you.”
Interesting times, no?
Tags: Danny Williams, Stephen Harper, politics
Craig Westcott, Liberal mouthpiece?
The Liberal Opposition is set to announce one of Premier Danny Williams’s sharpest critics as its new communications director, with a surprising twist involving political stripes and media lines.
Craig Westcott has worked for more than two decades in the news media in St. John’s, but is perhaps best known to many as the federal Conservative candidate in St. John’s in the 2008 election.
His announcement as Liberal communications director is expected imminently.
He currently publishes The Business Post, a local newspaper.
Westcott held the federal Tory banner during the height of Williams’s “anything but Conservative” campaign, which the premier waged against Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Westcott has rarely shied in his criticism of Williams, so it’s more than reasonable to wonder what that will mean for the Liberals’ media campaign in the coming session.
In our newsroom, there was a discussion about what Westcott’s relations with the media will be like. After all, Westcott is known among his peers for burning the odd bridge or two (or three) over the years. In one well-known tale from 1990, Westcott quit from the St. John’s Telegram, but not before taping his key above the door of the paper’s diminutive editor.
Tags: Craig Westcott , media, politics
Brian Peckford returns to political life ... in B.C.
Brian Peckford was premier of Newfoundland for a decade, and he’s been out of office for more than twice that long. Indeed, for 17 years, he’s been living in Qualicum Beach, in British Columbia, and has been active in business circles on the “other” west coast.
A report in today’s Victoria Times-Colonist indicates that Peckford is returning to political life, at least as an advisor for the B.C. Conservative Party.
From the report:
“The two parties in the legislature today have failed to provide British Columbia with the confidence needed to govern and have offended citizens with tax-and-spend policies,” said Peckford, 68.
“The B.C. Conservatives will be a credible vehicle for change.”
Peckford has maintained his associations with the federal Tories, too. Could a return to active politics be in the cards?
Tags: Brian Peckford, politics
Batman and Robin mix it up over the Lower Churchill
The Lower Churchill megaproject excites some strong emotions, particularly on how best to develop it. Why, then, couldn’t Robin and Batman have a racket, too?
This was created by the Batman and Robin Comic Generator, which allows you to handcraft any conversation you’d like. I created a separate one on my own blog in February, when the Fortis proposal for downtown St. John’s was on the go.
Tags: Lower Churchill, Morning funny, politics
St. John's flag to fly over Mount Pearl ...
… but only for a week.
Relax, Mount Pearl folk, you’re not about to swallowed up by the amalgamation-hungry bigger city to the east. Instead, your mayor came out on the wrong side of a bet.
St. John’s Mayor Dennis O’Keefe couldn’t help but boast at Monday evening’s meeting that he won a small bet over a senior men’s baseball game with Randy Simms, the mayor of neighbouring Mount Pearl.
St. John’s was playing Mount Pearl in that match, and you can guess which politician bet on which team.
The winner of the bet got the privilege of having his city’s flag fly outside the neighbouring city hall.
As well, O’Keefe revealed, Simms will have to wear a St. John’s baseball jersey to his next council meeting.
Friendly chatter aside, we in the newsroom won’t be surprised if the A-word is revived again, or conflicts of opinion about important issues (remember that crosstown extension?) become obvious in the weeks and months ahead.
Tags: Mount Pearl, St. John's, politics, sports
Slap-chop (minority parliament edition)
Last week, when a public opinion poll showed that the federal Conservatives’ lead had pretty much evaporated, the words “minority Parliament” seemed to be looming again.
Which brought to mind this sketch from the Rick Mercer Report:
Tags: Morning funny, Rick Mercer, politics
What is the best result that Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones can realistically expect in the 2011 election?
Tags: Yvonne Jones, politics, polls
A Regatta Day race to watch
The St. John’s newsroom fielded two calls today that were kind of similar.
It seems that both Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton are coming to the St. John’s area next week.
Namely, on Regatta Day.
We’re wondering whether Iggy or Jack be the bigger draw with the crowd.
Tags: Regatta, politics
Public-sector reliance?
Tags: blogs, government, politics
Taxes: A border issue
Not all that long ago, taxpayers in Newfoundland and Labrador were paying, oh, about 19.84 on many goods and services (that’s 12 plus seven plus, lest we forget, the joy of compounding). The HST came in and the rate was set at 15 per cent, and now is done to 13 per cent.
Back in the day, taxpayers here must have been envious of the lower taxes in Nova Scotia. Well, things have changed.
Nova Scotia hiked its HST rate to 15 per cent, effective July 1, as the Darrell Dexter government grapples with a bulging deficit. There’s already been an effect, as shoppers in Nova Scotia have been heading for deals … in New Brunswick.
So, we have a consumption tax rate two percentage points less than Nova Scotia, which positions itself as the economic hub of the Atlantic region. How significant is that?
