We Have Always Been At War With Lorraine Michael

December 3, 2007:

"Approximately 23,000 people in our province are employed in the voluntary and non-profit sector and approximately 187,000 people in our province volunteer, contributing a total of 35 million hours of valuable unpaid time to their communities and community organizations," said Minister Hedderson. "I am proud to be a part of a government that recognizes the invaluable role these people play in the betterment of our province and I am absolutely astonished that the Leader of the NDP would question the need for this important new function of government, and her apparent lack of support for the issues facing the volunteer and not-for-profit sector in the province."

May 12, 2008:

PREMIER WILLIAMS: There is pure, raw politics at its very best, what you are playing over there now. I would expect a lot better from you; I really would. You disappoint me so much when you go there.

I would have expected it from the previous Liberal government, the previous Liberal Opposition, because they stoop to that all the time. It would not have happened in Jack Harris’ day, I can assure you of that.

October 20, 2008:

"This great provincial party has taken our province in a whole new direction towards 'have' status and self-reliance. No more give aways, no more begging from others.… We will go forward as the best party in this province to take our people to even greater heights. So prepare yourselves Yvonne and Lorraine, 'cause the honeymoon is over."

June 4, 2009:

The political games are being played here, first of all by the leader of the New Democratic Party, who, when she started in politics, she got out on the right foot, but, the political games that she’s playing now are absolutely disgraceful, it’s sensationalism, it’s political opportunism, she is grabbing at a headline and not looking at the facts. In fact, what she stands for now is non-disclosure. She now stands for what the Cameron Inquiry was all about, and that’s keeping information non-disclosed to the public. That’s basically what she’s saying. I mean, Igottatellya, for a great party like the New Democratic Party, and the hard-working people like Jack Layton and Ed Broadbent and Jack Harris and other leaders in this province, Lorraine Michael disgraces those people.

September 16, 2009:

Today the Honourable Susan Sullivan, Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment, responded to misleading comments by the Leader of the NDP relating to the Provincial Government’s commitment to workers throughout the province.

September 25, 2009:

And then you get this narrow-minded, simple-minded comment. ... Basically Lorraine Michael comes out and says you can't spend that kind of money. If Lorraine Michael was running this province, God help us. That's all I can say.

November 27, 2009:

“This province is leading the country by example with its actions to reduce poverty and many other provinces are following suit,” said the Honourable Susan Sullivan, Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment. “Real progress has been made and for Ms. Michael to suggest otherwise demonstrates her lack of understanding of the complexity of this issue. As a government, we know we have more work to do. But we also know we are moving in the right direction. We have been encouraged to continue down the road we are on by the many agencies and organizations in this province that are well-informed advocates for vulnerable groups in our society.”

April 20, 2010:

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank you for the Sermon on the Mount. That was lovely; I really appreciated it. I do not need a lecture from you or anybody else, I can tell you that much.

We are trying to get this resolved. There is a letter that is going out this afternoon that is putting $79 million of public money on the table and offering close to Atlantic parity which is exactly what the doctors have been looking for. What more do you want?

You are just trying to grandstand, you are trying to make small-p politics out of it, you are trying to make us look bad and everything else, when we are trying to do the best thing, we are trying to protect the public purse. All the social things that we have done in this Province, whether it is in health care, it is on the municipal side, it is on the education side, it is in human resources and poverty reduction, it is never enough for you! There is never enough money around because all you want to do is criticize; get on the bandwagon!

[…]

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Mr. Speaker, what did we do when the ER-PR situation came up? What did we do when the oncologists wanted to meet? What did we do when they wanted to have a raise? We acted immediately. We gave them a significant raise which virtually put them close to Ontario parity. So we stepped up immediately.

What have we done as a government? We are now up to, I guess, close to $2.6 billion or $2.7 billion. That is what we have done; we have dramatically increased it. We have put money into information technology. We have put money into equipment. We have put money into long-term care facilities. We have put money into nurses.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible) nurses.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Yes, we have settled the nurses. Are you trying to get my goat because we bowed down? I will bow down to anybody if we want to get an agreement. This is about getting an agreement and bringing good health care to the people of the Province; not playing cheap, dirty politics like you do. Holier than thou, the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi!