No complaints

Commentators from — "up West"? — who use the rather meaningless phrase "down East" pretty well tip their hand from the start that they don't really know what they're talking about.

And it would be the case for this Lawrence Martin colum, even if he didn't seal the deal by claiming:

Extending his autonomy push to other regions smacks of smart politics as well. Headwaiter to the provinces? How about head cashier at the polling booths. Westerners will lovingly see it as a kick at the Toronto-Ottawa dictatorship. It's gravy for la belle province and down East, loud guys like Danny Williams won't be complaining.

Ah yes. Danny Williams, Autonomist.

Oh sure, he (or his crack research team) learned the phrase, probably on a layover at Dorval-PET en route to a Canadian Idol final or some such, even going so far as:

To that end, My Government will harness the desire among Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to cultivate greater cultural, financial and moral autonomy vis-à-vis Ottawa. Our priority is the well-being of successive generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, including those who live here now and those we welcome to join us from all over the world. My Government will affirm Newfoundland and Labrador’s status as a distinct people, not uniform in lineage but multi-cultural, one nation inclusive of many nations living in harmony together.

But what is Danny Williams' "autonomist" vision?

Let's see... maximizing federal funding for provincial government initiatives and heads of jurisdiction; maximising the number of federal civil servants (and their provincially-taxable incomes) in the province; "going it alone" on the so-called development of the so-called Lower Churchill — once Ottawa agrees to underwrite the enterprise and absorb the risk; and, of course, the mother of all autonomist dreams, maximizing the size and duration of federal transfer payments to the province.

Boy, do all that, and soon there'd be enough money coming in from Ottawa that we could afford to separate from Canada!

And oh yeah — all the while running as far, as fast, from the one bit of autonomism that has actually been offered up to him.