Special Sycophancy Statement

This is a Special Sycophancy Statement issued by the labradore Sycophancy Observatory.

This past week was Budget Week, and with it, the customary barrage of Williams Government self… congratulation.

In 2004 there was a barrage of 28 Budget Bonanza press releases, but this was in the wake of Our Dear Dirge of a speech. It was also, importantly, before the adoption of the official ideology that He/We Are The Province. Danny Williams-Government was yet but a twinkle in a Comms Director's eye.

In 2005, there were a whopping 35 Budget Blowout press releases, but only eight which attributed budgetary goodness to Danny Williams-Government. Of those, seven were issued by John Ottenheimer (whatever happened to that nice fellow?) and one by Joan Burke.

Iin 2006, with either the many, many, many comms directors who have to write them, or the few reporters to have to read them, having cried uncle, the budget blowout shrank dramatically in size, down to 13; more or less where it has remained ever since. Incidentally, what is the ratio of (Directors of Communication + Communications Specialists + Press Secretaries) to (Reporters who cover legislative and provincial government affairs on evena part-time basis) anyway?

However, 2006 was also the year in which the Danny-Centered Budget was born. It had modest beginnings, to be sure, but both of the Danny Williams-Government budget releases that year were issued by The Man himself.

In election year 2007, there were twelve budget press releases, plus two attached backgrounders, of which twelve attributed sunshin to Danny Williams-Government. Fully four of these were issued by Mr. Williams-Government himself, three by Joan Burke, two by Tom Marshall, and one each by Dianne Whalen, Shawn Skinner, Ross Wiseman, and Trevor Taylor, with a supporting cast of seventeen ministerial co-announcers.

In 2008, there were eleven budget releases, ten of which were Danny Williams-Governmenty, but only three of which gave the top nod to DWG himself. Almost unbelievably, the one minister who issued a press release that was full of budgetary sweetness and light, but utterly devoid of DWGosity, was — if you can believe it — Joan Burke.

Which brings us to 2009, in which we are back up to thirteen budget-day morsels, twelve of which successfully attribute all of the good budgetary news, and none of the bad, to Williams-Government.

To write and issue these thirteen releases, it took a total of 36 Directors of Communication + Communications Specialists + Press Secretaries credits, yet there are only 26 Ministerial “quotes”. This, even after firing up Cliché-o-tron 2009 which robotically insert the words “strong” or “strengthen” into all but two of the thirteen. (Pride and Determination, the other two of Our Dear Cardinal Virtues, took a breather this year.) You would think with Cliché-o-tron 2009 doing so much of the heavy lifting, the humans could have put their time and talent to better use.

It took nine different comms shop people (worth their weight in gold, no doubt) from five different departments, to tell us that We are Standing Strong in the Fight Against Poverty, unlike that pro-poverty party.

Curiously, however, the release itself only “quotes” two Ministers: Himself and Susan Sullivan.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Matthews, Roger Scaplen, Jennifer Collingwood, Erin Molloy, Tansy Mundon, Ronalda Walsh, Ken Morrissey, David Salter, and Jenny Bowring, for shattering the previous record of a mere seven credits set in 2007 and 2008.

Finally, once again this year there was one release which noticeably failed to give Danny Williams-Government His due, which is Our due.

This time it wasn’t from Joan Burke.