The Sub-National Post

The National Post, which seems to have no circulation or staff east of Montreal, tears several strips off Our Dear Premier today:

Re-electing a clown

And to think that in the early days of his government back in 2003, we fairly gushed over the prospects of Danny Williams transforming Newfoundland and Labrador into a "have" province. Back then, though, he was pledging to wean his province off dependence on federal welfare. Instead, Mr. Williams has chosen bombast and continued addiction to Ottawa's handouts. While his militant schtick has proven wildly popular in Newfoundland — he won re-election on Tuesday with nearly 70% of the total vote — it will prove toxic to his province in the long run.

Almost from the start, Mr. Williams showed himself to be a tub-thumping populist from the Huey Long school. He stormed out of a first minsters' meeting on equalization when then-prime minister Paul Martin dared suggest equalization to have-not provinces should begin to go down once they've reached "have" status. Later, Mr. Williams ordered all Canadian flags pulled down from above Newfoundland's provincial buildings. After Stephen Harper and his Conservatives took over in 2006, Mr. Williams ran national newspaper ads against the federal government, urging people to vote "ABC" -- Anybody but Conservatives.

The Premier also likes to talk tough with the oil companies looking to develop his province's Hibernia South and Hebron offshore oil fields. This, too, has proven itself popular with voters but has cost the provincial economy hundreds of millions -- if not billions --of dollars.

Thanks to Mr. Williams' demands for "superroyalties" from the oil companies, the Hibernia field has been shelved for the foreseeable future and the Hebron field will now go ahead only because Mr. Williams swallowed his pride and made major concessions.

Like all demagogues, Mr. Williams is fond of the pronoun "I" -- as in I won the deal with the oil companies through my personal "determination and strength of conviction." If " I've accomplished anything here, I just think it's that: Pride in Newfoundland and Labrador." Only I can back down Stephen Harper. His victory speech on Tuesday evening barely acknowledged that he had a caucus and party around him.

Meanwhile, while Mr. Williams was huffing and puffing his way to victory, Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald was quietly negotiating a settlement in the Ottawa-Atlantic equalization skirmish. Under terms of his deal with the Harper government, Nova Scotia may accept the new equalization formula offered in last spring's budget, or it may opt for the old formula any time it feels the new one is shortchanging the province.

The same deal is open to Mr. Williams, but he has painted himself into such a rhetorical corner to win re-election, it's hard to see how he could agree -- even though it is a better deal for his province than the one it currently has.

Mr. Williams is a character. Of that there is no doubt. But his outsized ego and inflammatory stunts are hurting the people who voted him into office.

Quick notes:

1) The comments about Danny's toxicity and hurting the people who voted him into office? Right on the money, and, some years hence, will be read as some of the most prescient things ever written about Our Dear Premier. You may not see it yet — but you will.

2) If the National Post were to bother checking its own backfile, it would find that Danny's ad campaign did not overtly call for an "ABC" vote. That was the obvious subtext, yes, but that message appears nowhere in the literal text of the ad. (Thanks to Salty Sleveen for preserving that ad for posterity.)

3) And, if the National Post had so much as a stringer in Dannystan, or had bothered to fly, drive, or boat someone in for the election campaign, it would know that Our Dear Premier's favourite pronoun isn't "I", it's the Royal "We".

Otherwise, boy, it's gonna be fun to hear Our Dear Ex-Ambassador frothing at the mouth this afternoon.

UPDATE: Bill didn't bite!

4) You can only storm out of a meeting if you storm into it in the first place.