A Brief History of Hatred

O.D.P. lately tells Peter Walsh of that nefarious, Quebec-owned newspaper chain:

“I hate giving timelines for negotiation because sometimes they take on a life of their own, but if you assume six months from the end of last year, that’s the outside I would hope a Hebron (deal) would be done by then[...]”

Harrumph.

Our Rob Antle, reporting for The Telegram of May 26, 2004, wrote:

Premier Danny Williams is confident Paul Martin's Liberals will soon make a public announcement on potential increased oil revenues for the province.

But now that the federal election is underway, Williams is giving a deadline for when he expects to hear some news.

"We certainly can't go beyond two weeks on this," the premier said. "I have to give it a fortnight, to give it a reasonable period of time."

As one of the early salvos of Equalization War One, Our Dear Premier said, as reported by Dene Moore of Canadian Press on October 15, 2004:

[Finance Minister press secretary Pat] Breton said they hope to have an agreement in place by Oct. 26, when the first ministers meet in Ottawa to discuss the federal equalization program.

Williams insists that a deal will be in place by then.

"That's the deadline. It has to happen before the 26th," Williams said Friday.

The province had originally hoped a new accord would be in place by the end of summer.

And Rob Antle reported for The Telegram the next day:

"There are no stumbling blocks (in the way of a deal), because I have a firm commitment from the prime minister of the country, and I insisted on that commitment ... so that's the deadline," Williams said. "It has to happen before (Oct.) 26."

O.D.P. told Jennifer Fry of CBC Radio's The House, on October 30, 2004:

...you know, we had a deal, we have an agreement which is very clear, very unconditional, very unequivocal. You know, there's no misunderstanding on it. And when we did not receive our commitment from the Government of Canada by the deadline which was imposed, which was prior to the equalization meeting on the 26th, then I felt that there was no other alternative.

Brian Flinn reported in the November 9, 2004 edition of the late Halifax Daily News:

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams gave Prime Minister Paul Martin one week to cave-in on a new oil and gas revenue deal yesterday as he agreed to return to the bargaining table.

Rob Antle, poor, poor, Rob Antle, wrote in the December 10, 2004 edition of The Telegram:

"We mutually agreed that this matter is going to be resolved before Christmas - that was agreed by the feds and by both provinces," Premier Danny Williams told The Telegram Thursday.

And again, the overworked and underpaid Mr. Antle quotes O.D.P., a week later:

"We're a week away from the close of business before Christmas, so time is drawing very, very tight," Williams told reporters Thursday. "I won't allow us as a province to be just jammed on a deadline, quite frankly.

"We will know over the course of the next week whether this is going to be on or off, whether, the term was used, we fail it or we nail it."

Ooooooh — with a "quite frankly" and a rhyming couple, you just knew Danny meant business.

While off Christmas shopping or some such, O.D.P. had Elizabeth Matthews tell CP on December 21:

"Premier Williams has been pretty firm on the Christmas deadline, and Wednesday is pretty much as close to Christmas as we're going to get."

By January, O.D.P. was already showing his penchant for lying through his — re-writing recent, easily-verifiable history, telling Craig Oliver on CTV Question Period:

You know, there's not going to be a firm date because I've now been accused of setting deadlines. Every time there's a deadline to meet, which has been set by the federal government, I get accused of setting the deadlines.

And that was just Equalization War One.

Then there was the First War of Hebron-Ben Nevis. Once again, Rob Antle, February 5, 2006:

Talks on the possible development of the Hebron-Ben Nevis oilfield will end by early April, according to reports in the national press.

Premier Danny Williams told the Globe and Mail in a story published Saturday that the province and the Hebron consortium agreed to that deadline two weeks ago.

Williams told the Globe the oil companies wanted to "bring it to a head quickly." The premier indicated he is willing to work within that time frame.

O.D.P., who hates giving timelines for negotiations, did just that on the Harbour Breton fish plant file in 2006:

Harbour Breton decided Wednesday the Barry Group should operate the former Fishery Products International fish plant.

...

Earlier Wednesday, Premier Danny Williams said he wanted a decision by the end of the day from the town about who they wanted to run the plant, and that the cabinet would likely approve the decision the town made.

A month later, another fisheries-related deadline agreed to by Mr. Hates-Deadlines:

Federal and provincial politicians have set a deadline for making decisions expected to restructure Newfoundland and Labrador's bruised fishing industry.

Williams Government laid down a deadline-gauntlet on January 13 last year:

Five Newfoundland politicians implicated in a spending scandal have until Monday to begin repaying $1.6 million in constituency allowance overpayments or risk facing legal reprisals, the province's finance minister warned Friday.

If they don't refund the money or make satisfactory arrangements for repayment by then, the province will seek judicial enforcement to collect the money, Tom Marshall said in an interview.

"We've issued the demand letters," he said. "We've asked for the money to be paid back. We've indicated that we're prepared to consider reasonable terms of repayment."

"If not, we'll take it to the next level."

Of course, O.D.P. has shown his — how you say? — disdain for other deadlines; namely, those that are imposed on him or Williams Government. As Dene Moore reported for the Canadian Press on August 16, 2004:

Ten months after becoming Newfoundland's premier, millionaire Danny Williams has yet to complete steps that were recommended to avoid conflicts between his substantial business holdings and his role as the province's top decision maker.

Williams, a self-made millionaire, has interests in the offshore oil industry, telecommunications and tourism.

Wayne Green, the provincial commissioner of members' interests, originally hoped his recommendations could be in place by mid-March. A second July deadline has also come and gone.

This was, of course, just a few weeks after proclaiming, “I'm a big believer in deadlines.”