Focus

According to CP — or the Telegram's on-line headlinist — [and CBC, too] Williams, in Our Throne Speech, is focussed on child care and human rights.

Which is a strange way of looking at things, since it is clear, almost from the outset, what Williams is, in fact, focussed on the past:

Newfoundland and Labrador has come a very long way since My Government was first elected to office in 2003. Beginning on day one, in a determined effort to weather the immediate financial crisis and chart a responsible course toward long-term self-reliance, My Government demonstrated real leadership by taking decisive action. Since then, it has taken a responsible approach to spending. It has streamlined programs to make the most of every public dollar. It has cut red tape and business taxes to get employers growing and hiring. It has given generous raises to public sector workers and tax breaks to everyone in the province. It has cut income taxes and increased benefits for seniors and families. It has led the country in measures to reduce poverty and enhancements to student aid. It has invested unprecedented amounts in infrastructure, making dramatic improvements in roads and highways, wharves and bridges, ferries and terminals, schools and hospitals, long-term care centres, public housing and municipal infrastructure. And most of these investments – in fact, an overwhelming 80 per cent – have been in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. My Government has invested in industries and enterprises offering brighter futures to thousands: agriculture and aquaculture, fisheries and forestry, mining and energy, manufacturing and innovation, tourism and culture. It has renegotiated the Atlantic Accord for a gain of two billion dollars. It has negotiated higher royalties from offshore oil and equity stakes in offshore projects worth tens of billions of dollars and unlike anything the province has achieved before. It has secured the underfunded pension plans, turned around the fiscal decline and achieved impressive and important upgrades of the province’s credit rating.