A peek behind the curtain

By way of a provincial access to information request, a demonstration that even in the brave new Bill 29 world, five bucks can still sometimes yield interesting results.

This is an internal summary of media — including a fascinating review of social media — in the hours that followed the November 30th Muskrat Falls loan guarantee announcement.

Hello, "Known Critics".

MediaMonitoring.pdf by

Woe, Canada

VOCM's annual Questioning-of-the-Canada-Day came early this year:

July 4, 2005: Do you celebrate Canada Day?

July 4, 2006: Did you take part in any Canada Day activities over the weekend?

July 2, 2007: Do you plan to take part in Canada Day celebrations this weekend?

July 2, 2008: Do you celebrate Canada Day?

July 2, 2009: Did you celebrate Canada Day?

July 1, 2010: Are you planning any special celebrations for Memorial Day/Canada Day?

June 28, 2011: Do you plan to celebrate Canada Day this year?

May 21, 2012: Do you think the province and local MP's should boycott Canada Day this year as a protest of all the federal cuts by the Harper government.

Name game

In his column on Wednesday, the Telegram's Peter Jackson writes:

Furthermore, blurring the line between the ruling party and the government is not unique to this province. Just as the Harper Conservative brand has crept into core federal documents, this provincial administration has been rife with “Williams government,” “Dunderdale government” and similar partisan language.

In truth, this is not the Dunderdale government. It is the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The majority party may hold executive power, but the House of Assembly belongs to the people, and all MHAs have the right and the duty to debate and discuss the government’s business within its walls.

Criticism, if belated, of the "Williams Government" nonsense is always welcome — this corner beat that horse to death, and then beat the corpse — but, to her credit, Premier Dunderdale has quite conspicuously not adopted this particular personalissimo political "piece".

Better late than never?

Rob Antle of CBC, January 18, 2012:

The Newfoundland and Labrador house of assembly sat for the fewest days last year since the Tories took office, dropping the province further down the list of active provincial legislatures.

The chamber at Confederation Building was open for debate just 33 days in 2011.

Other than 2003, that’s the lowest figure in at least a quarter-century, according to statistics maintained by the Parliament of Canada.

Ahem. 2011.

2010.

2010 again.

2009.

2009 again.

This just in!

From VOCM on Saturday, the shocking and surprising news that Premier Kathy Dunderdale is pleased with Premier Kathy Dunderdale's cabinet:

Vexatiously Omitting Contextual Matter

Last Thursday, VOCM reported:

NL Leading Country in GDP Growth: BMO
Thursday, October 13, 2011

Despite the fact growth in the province's economy is cooling, Newfoundland and Labrador will still lead the country in GDP growth according to BMO. Economist Robert Kavcic says our economy will grow by 3.5 percent thanks to construction and offshore oil projects. He says the biggest economic driver is construction, with government spending expected to total more than one billion dollars in the current fiscal year. Kavcic predicts growth will decelerate next year as fiscal stimulus winds down.

BMO's full monitor, in fact, goes on to state:

Atlantic Canada should see growth below 2% through 2012. ... Newfoundland & Labrador is an exception, as it is expected to grow a robust 3.5% this year,
thanks to energy-sector investment and a continued commitment to aggressive capital spending by the Province. But, that pace will also cool by 2012 as some projects begin to wind down.

...

Saskatchewan is one of only two provinces (the other is Newfoundland and Labrador) on track to be in the black this fiscal year, and the only one projected to be there persistently in the future.

...

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Public Accounts for FY10/11 and midyear fiscal update for FY11/12 are pending. In this spring’s Budget, the Province projected a $59 mln surplus for FY11/12 (0.2% of GDP), after an estimated $485 mln surplus in FY10/11 (1.6%). Budget balances were projected to switch to deficits in FY12/13 and FY13/14 ($496 mln and $310 mln, respectively), before returning to surplus in FY14/15.

Virtual Over-air Campaign Megaphone

Headline on this VOCM story now:

Last Day of the Election Campaign

Headline when it was first published on Monday morning:

Last Day of Premier's Campaign

Stop asking questions

A bit of a strange, passively-voiced conclusion to a CBC election commentary by Doug Letto:

How many of us have asked these questions:

- What would happen if oil production was interrupted because of technical problems or an environmental catastrophe?

- What if oil prices plummeted?

- What "other revenue sources" could we reasonably and quickly marshal to take the place of offshore royalties?

There has not been much talk of any of those scenarios in this election. Only a determination to exercise prudence and care in spending the income generated by oil. Perhaps, in the midst of plenty, this is a debate politicians can't stomach right now.

But it’s a talk that needs to happen once the campaign buses have been parked and the placards put away.

It's actually a talk that needed to have happened starting in 2006.

That was just after Danny Williams cashed the "we got it!" cheque, resulting from a campaign in which no one — literally, no one — in the local press called Williams out on the inherent contradiction in supposedly wanting to be a "have province" and collect equalization at the same time.

And that was the precise moment when, having lost precious CRA popularity points during the 2004-2005 battles with the public-sector employees, Williams resolved to fix the poll problem, permanently, by hiring more of them, and paying them more money.

The monstrous ramp-up in public spending was not invisible. It was plain as day for anyone who bothered to look.

A few of us looked. None of us who did own transmitter towers, or purchase ink by the hectolitre.

Perhaps the politicians can't stomach this talk during a fart-and-you-miss-it election campaign. They can't stomach it outside the writ period, either.

But the past eight years of passivity and silence, on big issues and little ones, from what used to be an active political press gallery, is nothing short of astounding.

Fair and balanced

Ummm... did CBC PEI hire the Ontario Tories to program their e-night graphics?

Five years later

The Western Star editorialist laments:

The Harper government has since said it will guarantee the financing for the project, but there is much more the feds could have — and still can do — to get multibillion-dollar project off the ground and make it more profitable.

For starters, if Ottawa had signed on to invest in the Lower Churchill, it could have included both phases of the project that had to be trimmed down because of the cost factor.

It’s not like this province is asking for a handout.

There is money to be made from clean hydro power and Ottawa could have made some cash for the federal treasury if politicians like Prentice had pushed for that to happen.

One wonders, in an information vacuum given the online inaccessibility of the paper's archives from the relevant period, what the Western Star thought, in its humble editorial opinion, about this:

In keeping with the provincial government’s agenda of developing resources for the maximum benefit of the people and continuing on the road to self-reliance, Premier Danny Williams announced today the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro (NLH) will take the lead on the potential development of the Lower Churchill hydroelectric resource. The decision was made following the assessment of the proposals short-listed from the Expressions of Interest and Proposals (EOI process).

"Just over a year ago, we embarked on a process to identify the best approach to develop the Lower Churchill hydro resource that would ensure maximum benefits and returns to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador," said Premier Williams. "Our team has thoroughly assessed and evaluated all of the proposals that were received through our EOI process, and today we are pleased to announce that the province in partnership with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro will lead the development of the Lower Churchill. It became clear that a Newfoundland and Labrador-led development presented the best option to realize our objectives to develop this tremendous, clean source of renewable energy."

On the day of that release, in May 2006, and possibly even in a now-expunged version of it, Chairman Dan actually used the phrase "go it alone" — a phrase which he used on numerous occasions afterwards on a go-forward basis [GIVE IT UP! - ed.]

Where has the Western Star been during all that time?

On second thought

VOCM headline, early Tuesday afternoon: Poll Shows a Tory Victory

VOCM headline, later Tuesday afternoon: CRA Poll Shows Little Change Before Election

The "votes" are in

The final tally is in, in VOCM's weekend Question of the Day:

It was awfully nice of someone or something to disable the "yes" option on Sunday, to allow "no" and "not sure" a chance to catch up. So very egalitarian.

Sadly, it failed, just barely, to make the top spot as the votiest Question of the Day of all time. That honour still goes to the one on November 19, 2010.

National Putz

Kathryn Blaze Carlson scribbles, under the hilarious headline "Stars Align to the Right", in today's National Post:

To be sure, an election is a finicky exercise, and observers are typically loath to predict the outcome. Still, conservative parties in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Yukon appear poised to retain power or at least pose a serious threat to long-time Liberal or NDP governments.

Can K.B.C., or anyone else, point out anything about the Progressive Conservative Party Dunderdale2011 of Newfoundland and Labrador that can, however, remotely, be classed as "right", or "conservative" with a small "c"?

Anything? Anything at all?

Sad statistics

Shannon Tweed misses Newfoundland, appears in 'Republic of Doyle' episode: 14,871 page views, and counting.

Better get used to Ice Caps: 8450 page views.

Drowning in debt: 649 page views.

Question of the day: Should we ask questions?

This, today's Question of the Day from VOCM, is the most succinct statement of everything that has been wrong with politics and public discourse in Newfoundland and Labrador over the past decade.

It would be unbelievable, if it weren't so... believable.

Hammer attack

VOCM reported Sunday:

Maclean's magazine hammered the newly elected St. John's South Mount Pearl MP in a recent article. The article looks at some questionable comments made by Ryan Cleary when he was involved in journalism. It points out that Cleary stated the NDP were a bunch of "losers," and "a small pocket of aging granolas and artsy-fartsies" that "Wouldn't win an election if they were given a 100-seat head start." The Maclean's article also attacks the separatist comments made by Cleary in the past, but Cleary says that he no longer feels that way. Cleary maintains that his personal mission in Ottawa is to seek a national energy policy that would liberalize electricity transmission, and to demand a judicial inquiry into the cod fishery. The Article cites a St. John's blogger who says Cleary may be an accident waiting to happen.

For the record, Macleans' Richard Foot's "attack" "hammering" Ryan Cleary is posted here.

Three guesses who the un-named (in the VOCM piece) "St. John's blogger" is. First two don't count.

UP-DE-DATE: The wording of the VOCM report was changed later in the day, removing the word "attacks":

Maclean's magazine hammered the newly elected St. John's South Mount Pearl MP in a recent article. The article looks at some questionable comments made by Ryan Cleary when he was a working journalist. It points out that Cleary stated the NDP were a bunch of "losers," and "a small pocket of aging granolas and artsy-fartsies" that "wouldn't win an election if they were given a 100-seat head start." The Maclean's article also brings up the separatist comments made by Cleary in the past.

Cleary says that he no longer feels that way. Cleary maintains that his personal mission in Ottawa is to seek out a national energy policy that would liberalize electricity transmission, and to demand a judicial inquiry into the cod fishery.

The Maclean's article cites a St. John's blogger who says Cleary may be an accident waiting to happen.

Cleary said to Maclean' that: "I don't think I have a big mouth. I just have something to say and I'm going to say it."

Good one, VOCM!

A strange yet bracing mixture of euphoria, elation... and irreconcilable antagonism. Best April Fools Day prank news story, ever!

Bang head here

The Western Star editorializes on Thursday:

We realize it’s difficult for some politicians to walk away from all the excitement of running the show and being in the public eye, but these three and those like them should realize they had their shot at making a difference in this province.

They should let those in charge now do what they think best ... without all the harping from has-beens in the cheap seats.

The paper's opinion has already been savaged, and properly so, here and here... to say nothing of the comments on the editorial itself and elsewhere on teh internets, but, remarkably, this is only one of the two stupidest editorials that the Western Star has published in the last nine months.

And not necessarily the very stupidest of the two.

Is there something in the water cooler? (Seriously — water cooler? maybe?)

This corner, for one, is looking forward to one of next week's Western Star editorials, which will roundly criticize Yvonne Jones, Roger Grimes, and possibly Clyde Wells, Steve Neary, Ed Roberts, Joey Smallwood, Jack Pickersgill, and Sir Robert Bond, for the appointment of Elizabeth Matthews to the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board.

Everything not very old is very new again

The Government of Canada, the government formerly known as Canada's New Government, has a new name that doesn't have "New" in it.


The Maclean's, The CTV, and The Globe don't seem to be overly impressed.

Where were they for the past eight years?

Well, besides shopping for kid gloves, that is?

Rex, screed thyself

A screen-cap from Rex Murphy's Thursday-night rant on The National:

While we're pointing out the ways in which Rex is off-base in what might otherwise have been a perfectly lovely screed about Cheryl Gallant, let's also take note of this passage at about 1:12 in:

One reason Ontario doesn't "count on" a coast guard, is because Ontario doesn't have any coasts.

This rather bold geographical statement may come as a surprise to anyone who can read a map of Ontario produced since 1889, when Ontario met tidewater in James Bay, while Ontario's coastguardlessness certainly relieves a good chunk of the duties of the Canadian Coast Guard's large Central and Arctic Region, which has — or had? — coastguardyish responsibility for the Ontario portion of the Great Lakes.