Of Great Leaders and little boys

"God bless Mummy, Daddy, and Joey Smallwood." A housewife explained to Joey Smallwood on a radio programme on his last day in office after 22 years that her three-year-old son said this in his prayers every night.

To find a comparison to Smallwood one has to go to Nkrumah, Nasser, or to Castro perhaps, and try to imagine him as head of a province within a state. There has never been anything like him in Canada and it is impossible to conceive that there ever will be again. "Dictator", "saviour", "visionary", "demagogue" are some of the labels applied to him, and some are true.

- Richard Gwyn,
The Times of London,
February 24, 1972

This brings me up to another story, Mr. Chairman, that our Premier does have an influence on young and old alike. I would like to take this time to tell a little story about my grandson, Wesley, who, at the time of the visit to our campaign on October 8, was at the campaign headquarters when the Premier attended. I was looking at Wesley and saw him looking up at the Premier, who was standing on a chair and giving a talk, and since that time, of course, as a two-year-old, he was quite amazed and he never forgot that incident, to the point now, when he sees the news come on at six o’clock, he says: Come on Poppy Terry, the news is on; let’s go see Premier Danny Williams.

A couple of months ago I saw him with an imitation cell phone, talking to somebody on the telephone. I said: Who are you talking to? He said: I am talking to Premier Danny Williams.

So, Mr. Premier, if you get a call any day this year from a little fellow asking you to reduce the prices on tandies and tookies, you will know it is Wesley.

- Terry Loder, MHA,
in what passes for a legislature,
April 8, 2008