Autonomy! No, really!

First, Danny "Autonomy!" Williams decided that a federal "guarantee" — notice, he never said "loan guarantee" — was just the thing he needed to so-called "develop" the so-called "Lower Churchill:

Does your party support efforts to develop the hydro-power resources of the Lower Churchill River System for the primary benefit of Newfoundland and Labrador, including the provision of a Federal Government guarantee to proceed with the project?

Then, Danny "Masters in our own house!" Williams and his minions ran around telling the fib, to anyone gullible enough to believe it, that the current Prime Minister had promised such a loan guarantee. (The fibbiness of the statement can easily be determined by referring back to Harper's own words, not the ones that Danny, as he so often does, put in someone else's mouth.)

Danny "Step by step!" Williams repeated the lie, a most unparliamentary thing to do, in the House of Assembly on May 8, 2006:

In the letter that I wrote to the Prime Minister, he replied: We support the proposal in principle and believe that it is important to Newfoundland and Labrador to have a greater control of its energy. As well, a very important statement was made by him when he was in St. John’s on December 6, and that was to CBC. He said: I talked to Premier Williams a number of times on this. I have always been clear. I think he is looking for the federal government to play some kind of role in the way of a loan guarantee. I said: We are certainly prepared to do that. That is pretty straight and unequivocal, Mr. Speaker.

This was, incidentally, the same day, the same glorious day, when the clouds parted, and beams of golden sunshine cast their light across Newfoundland. And Labrador, and Danny "Go it alone!" Williams announced that We would Go It Alone on so-called "developing" Our so-called "Lower Churchill".

As late as this year's Throne Speech, Danny "PWG" Williams had Our Dear Lieutenant-Governor utter the following claim:

My Government will continue to be assertive in holding the Government of Canada to its commitments and obligations to Newfoundland and Labrador, including its promises regarding 5 Wing Goose Bay and Lower Churchill development.

(Those promises regarding the Lower Churchill "development" would be... what, again, Dear Premier?)

It's a funny thing that: "going it alone" by getting someone else to take on the financial risk.

But this is Dannyland. Or Dannystan. Or NewfoundlandLabrador. Or whatever it is that Our Dear Premier has changed the name of the province to, Terms of Union notwithstanding. We Are Above The Terms of Union.

Which means as funny as Going It Alone with other people's money might sound, it's bound to get funnier.

And sure enough, it does.

Our Dear Premier's Our Dear Energy Plan calls for Going It Alone on the so-called Lower Churchill by securing federal funding to build Our Dear Transmission Line to deliver Our Dear Labrador Hydro to the island of Newfoundland.

(How'd all Our hydro get onto their rivers, anyway?)

To wit:

The Provincial Government, through NLH, has investigated the long-term options to address Holyrood emissions and decided to replace Holyrood generation with electricity from the Lower Churchill through a transmission link to the Island. This replacement provides an excellent opportunity to partner with the Federal Government to reduce GHG emissions.

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador will:

• Build a transmission link between Labrador and the Island in conjunction with the Lower Churchill development and seek Federal Government financial assistance in the context of GHG emission reduction initiatives.

• Work with the Government of Canada and other provinces, as well as with industry to develop a technology fund that will invest in transmission for the Lower Churchill Project and wind opportunities.

Not only does Labrador not get the same access to its own so-called "Lower Churchill" power as Newfoundland does, the federal government is expected to subsidize the resource transfer!

Still, you have to hand it to Danny "Our people are proud nationalists!" Williams.

"Our people are not content to tolerate a future of relying on others economically," he made hizzoner Ed Roberts say this past spring.

And it's true.

And at the rate Danny "Self-Reliance!" Williams is going, soon there'll be enough money coming into the province from Ottawa every year, that we'll be able to afford to separate from Canada altogether!

Still, there's one curious Go-It-Alone element missing from Our Dear Energy Plan.

Yip. You guessed it.

It is utterly silent on the subject of the loan guarantee that Danny Williams still probably believes Stephen Harper promised him in 2005.