Please pee on my rug

Once again, Danny Williams Administration NewfoundlandLabrador has reduced its role, as a sovereign government with sovereign powers within provincial heads of jurisdiction, to that of another interest group going to Ottawa looking for cash:

“This work will provide us with a solid foundation on which to move forward with the restoration of the Colonial Building and the development of an innovative approach to interpreting the province’s fascinating political history,” added Minister Hedderson. “To that end, a request will be made to our federal counterparts for a contribution of funding for this very important project.”

Colonial Building is owned by the provincial government. It is under provincial jurisdiction.

It is increasingly clear that no front is too small in the Battle to Blame Canada. For everything. Rest assured, that this, like the Labrador highway, like the Mealy Mountain auditorium, like any of a couple dozen other Blame Canada irons smouldering quietly away in the Blame Canada fire, is placed there to hold in reserve for the next round of Blame Canada sabre-rattling rah-rah jingoistic PWG-waving hysteria that the Chairman may wish to whip up when the time — and the polling figures — suit.

“They won't give use the money to [FILL IN BLANK]. Are we even really part of Canada? Victoria to Halifax! Our fair share! Down with the causeway!”

Which makes it all the more obvious that Chairman Dan has not yet received the memo from the party he supported, and which he exhorted all his Comrade-Citizens to support, in the last two federal elections. For his benefit, it is excerpted here, from this source:

When governments are good at the things they need to do, everyone benefits. Making governments more focused on the things they need to do well will improve services and help build a climate for the overall economy to perform better. Advantage Canada will:

• Restore fiscal balance by limiting federal spending power

In restoring fiscal balance, Canada’s New Government is committed to limiting the use of the federal spending power and focusing new spending in areas of federal responsibility.

Canada’s New Government is committed to restoring fiscal balance. The result will be a principle-based transfer system, with a clearer delineation of responsibilities among different orders of government, and with greater overall efficiency for governments and enhanced accountability for citizens.

To this end, the Government is committed to:

• Limiting the use of the federal spending power.

In all the talk about fixing the supposed “fiscal imbalance”, Premiers heard what they wanted to hear. Those who wanted to hear “huzzah! we'll be getting more cash from Ottawa”... well, that's what they heard.

The real message in the “fix the fiscal imbalance” message may have been a little more subtle, and a lot less palatable to those provinces who view their role as bringing home not only their own-source bacon, but transfer-payment bacon and general federal program spending bacon as well.

Already, the federal Tories have used variations of this theme, that they won't “intrude” on areas of provincial jurisdiction, to justify everything from the failure to live up to political highway promises in New Brunswick, to the dismantling of federal literacy programs.

What are the odds that the federal Conservatives would look favourably on Hedderson's request, even if — and yes, this is a foreign concept to those who may be reading in Confederation Building — even if there were a program, voted by Parliament, with a design approved by Treasury Board, for that request to be directed to in a formal application?

Chairman, Hedderson, and the rest: don't say you didn't know.