Getting what she wished for

On April 7th, Premier Kathy Dunderdale-2011 wrote what has become the election-time traditional letter to Uncle Ottawa (conspicuously non-textual PDF link), in which she raised, among other things:

The federal Budget released on March 22, 2011, proposed cuts to the budgets of federal entities like the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Department of National Defence, Marine Atlantic Inc., and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which deliver important programs and services to the people of the province. [And, more importantly to the provincial government, generate nicely-income-taxable payrolls and production-taxable spending - ed.] As we move into a period of program restraint on the part of the federal government, it is important that Newfoundland and Labrador is not disproportionatly affected again.

What would a Conservative government propose to do to ensure that federal jobs are maintained in the province and to increase the number of federal government decision-making positions located in the province?

What would your government do to ensure that any fiscal restraint measures would not disproportionately affect any programs and services delivered in the province?

So, Premier Dunderdale-2011 was concerned about cuts in the late Conservative federal budget.
The same budget which the Harper Conservatives promised, throughout the late election campaign, to re-introduce if re-elected. This part of their agenda was cleverly hidden deep on page 2 of the Conservative party's platform.

The same Harper Conservatives that Blunderdale and most of her spineless caucus underlings campaigned for, even if half-heartedly or for show in some cases.

And now, to the surprise of pretty well no one who can read one or more of Canada's official languages, Tony Clement announces that he's ready to start the promised cutting... with a little bit more cutting on top of that for good measure. Bill Curry reports for the Globe and Mail:

Tony Clement says he’s prepared to shut down programs and shrink the public service in order to deliver as the man in charge of wrestling Canada’s deficit to the ground.

...

“I’m of the view that this has to be done,” he said in an interview Thursday. “This was a clear, rock-solid commitment that we had during the campaign and failure is not an option.”

Mr. Clement noted that his spending review will come up with $4-billion in annual savings that must come from the $80-billion Ottawa spends on direct federal program spending, and not transfers to the provinces.

“So we have to look at our direct program spending and that includes wages and salaries and professional services and grants and contributions and other operating costs,” he said.

“Yeah, there are going to be reductions,” he said. “I don’t want to sugarcoat that. There are going to be reductions and we’re going to try and make it as connected as possible to Canadians’ actual expectations of what they want government to do.”

So when the Harper Conservatives gore a sacred cow or two in Newfoundland and Labrador — and they will — and the Dunderdale 2011 Party squawks about it — and they will — someone, please, remind Kathy Dunderdale-2011 that she voted for 'em.