Fact-check in aisle 4

Here's how Kathy Dunderdale defended her decision last fall to give herself and the House of Assembly a Thanksgeaster holiday:

Premier Kathy Dunderdale is defending her decision to keep the legislature closed until spring.

She said she expects the government would be working until December to prepare legislation, and next spring is the earliest it would be tabled.

BondPapers consults the Order Paper and, not surprisingly, finds that excuse wanting.

The CBC report continued:

Dunderdale has questioned the value of spending time in the house of assembly.

"I don't find it a place for a very healthy, open, constructive debate to start with," she said,

"Most of my issues are around the quality of debate and the research and the fact that you can pretty well get up in the house of assembly and say whatever it is you like. You don't have to be concerned with truth."

The Telegram's Russell Wangersky — he's not even one of the Newfoundland Wangerskies — identifies the proximate cause of the that lack of rigorous debate.