Figure it out... once and for all folks... within Canada we have NO POWER to influence decisions. Dunderdale trying to be nice to Harper and build a relationship with him so she can have an influence over the federal decisions which affect our province, is like being kind and loving with the devil in the hopes he will convert to Catholicism.
While Danny Williams may be a bit of a hot head, he is not without some people skills in trying to get his way. Danny did try being fair with Harper in the hopes of future influence only to be screwed in the end!
Dunderdale, thinking that she can do better than her previous boss, was even kinder and more supportive of Harper, and this would result in fairer treatment from Harper.
When Harper was confirmed of his majority government in the recent election, his statement was "that he now needed to be a Prime Minister for all of Canada." To me it seems that he is either lying about his intent to do right by all of Canada's citizens or he does not see NL as a real part of Canada. I think we know Harper is a liar. He is a very disingenuous politician who could not care less about our province and our people.
With regard to this matter of closing of our Search and Rescue sub center, I reflect back to just a short while ago and the memorial service held immediately after the Cougar crash. Harper and Mackay, coming out of the Basilica with a solemn and mournful gait, was nothing more than window dressing. He could not care less about our people and the ability to keep them safe. The real proof is in how heartlessly he would shut down this vital piece of our search and rescue infrastructure.
In truth, our Search and Rescue capabilities need to be enhanced and added to, as per the investigations which were completed after the Ocean Ranger and Cougar disasters. In stead of this Harper has ruthlessly decided the best action is taking a major component of our functionality away. "When", not "if", this fateful decision causes the loss of more lives off our shores, will Harper and Mackay have the guts to come to the next memorial service? The answer: ABSOLUTELY YES they will show up, because, ultimately the initial ability to make this decision shows no conscience, and this same character trait, means that they certainly would have the "face" to show up here again and mimic the same crocodile tears that they did after the Cougar crash.
Very sad... how many more of our people need to be sacrificed before the recommended search and rescue infrastructure is put in place???
How much more of this blatant disrespect can we, as a people, tolerate?
Do we really need to learn this lesson again regarding the true character of Steve Harper?
Did our current premier actually believe that she could treat Harper differently and get better results?
Well, guess what? The people of NL did not buy in to it and they showed this in the way they voted in the last federal election. The people had Stephen Harper pegged and now Dunderdale and her colleagues are not looking very politically astute in unabashedly campaigning for Harper's candidates.
I guess, in fairness to Dunderdale and her government, this could be looked at as 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'. It was somewhat obvious from the polling in the last election that Harper was going to be the Primer Minister after the election, whether by minority, if not majority government. "You get more flies with honey" I suppose... but my real question is this: did Cathy Dunderdale and her government 'really' expect Harper to be a friend to NL as a result of their generous show of support to him?
Canada has the potential to be the greatest country on earth... however, this potential will never be realized as long as one part of the country is treated differently than another based on the number of electoral seats that it holds.
Our government is seeking a 'loan guarantee' for Muskrat Falls... they think we are all but assured of this favor, a favor which costs the federal government nothing, "ZERO DOLLARS". And yet, we still don't have this matter resolved. It was not mentioned in the budget which has since passed, and it seems to be a matter which requires more than just a signature of endorsement. Maybe there is no 'dragging of the heels' here, but it seems that matters which seem to be an enormous undertaking, ie 'senate reform' is already making its way through the channels necessary to potentially make it happen. I guess that is a priority and the loan guarantee and NL is not. Imagine that?
Showing posts with label NL and Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NL and Canada. Show all posts
Friday, June 24, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
NL and Canada 2011
Well Danny is gone. He certainly took aim at the federal powers that be.
The reactions here at home were typical:
"Way to go Danny!", "Give 'em another smack for me!"
OR
"How can you expect to get anything from Ottawa if you keep challenging them like that?"
The next phase in our history of co-operation is about to get under way with Premier Kathy Dunderdale. She has already had some interaction with the feds and she indicated that she is willing to be 'co-operative' but quick to add that 'we will not be kicked around'. Seems to be the perfect balance. NL wants to be seen as 'a team player' but wants clearly to reaffirm we are nobody's 'door mat'.
So what is in front of us?
We are definitely heading into a general election in NL and there is at least a 50% chance of there being a Federal general election. Kathy hopes to put this leadership thing behind her soon and get on with winning a general election. Stevie, a machiavellian if there ever was one, hopes this time he can get a majority government in Ottawa to 'rule' with even greater impunity.
The Canadian powerhouse which is the province of Ontario will be looking for change this time around. Look at who they elected to run the city of Toronto! PQ has felt the pain of the recent economic global meltdown and the resulting job losses. The west is still the west but they too have had their cages rattled pretty hard and their long term perspective must be a little less certain on a go forward basis. Atlantic Canada, well, in truth Atlantic Canada has not mattered that much politically in the past, may now become much more important as it seems getting 20 or 25 seats in Atlantic Canada could determine who gets to run the country. We know NL can direct its vote in one way or another as evidenced by ABC last time. Maybe this time the few seats we got might actually matter more than ever.
By the way, the single biggest political lesson that Stephen Harper could learn from the elections since Mulrooney is that PQ is not where you need to go to find additional seats. You can give them everything and suck up to them in every way possible and the Bloc is still going to come out of there with around two-thirds to three-quarter of the seats. In fact, maybe taking the stance of treating everybody in Canada the same, including PQ, might get you a bunch of seats in ON and in the West and would certainly resonate well in Atlantic Canada and NL in particular. But what about separation? Well the truth in all of this is PQ, politically speaking, is already gone, and it may be more encumbent on Canada to get a backbone so that the rest of the provinces can have something to latch on to.
This may be too big a leap for Canada. Most likely that is the case. So, how does NL play its cards then? Maybe, for the purpose of this brief exploration, we can assume that the PC party will regain the right to lead our government after the next election. So what would Kathy want to put on her wish list from Ottawa to try and sway our few seats in a specific direction?
Maybe a national energy grid and open transmission of electricity through PQ? There I go again. Asking too much means you might get nothing.
Maybe we could look at being able to have majority management rights of our fishery to the edge of the continental shelf? Darn, I gotta stop doing that... asking too much means you might get nothing!
What about getting the same share of our off shore oil royalties as does Alberta and Saskatchewan? I think that I am still asking for too much and risking getting nothing.
Well, what about a fixed link to Canada like PEI has constructed? That would be a big project costing big dollars... maybe that is too much to ask for also since we just got new ferries and too much tourism access to NL could mean less for other provinces.
What about getting massive funding, over and above what has already been requested, to allow Lower Churchill power to be shippped to the Island and then to Atlantic Canada? Well, that might be risky too since PQ has already indicated they think we would be getting unfair financial support to help economic development???
Maybe we could ask for a federal penitentiary in NL? Well, that does not seem like asking for the moon but it is very costly and Ottawa just announced a bunch of additional funding to address increased incarceration demands and NL was not on the list of sites for new infrastructure, so Stevie might have a hard time with giving in to us on that one, seeing how he never goes back on his word?
I think I may have figured out what we could ask for? We could ask for a few more senate seats for Conservative die-hards so that at least some extra tax revenue could come to NL. I guess then if Stevie is agreeable to that the only question become who gets the jobs? Any takers? Hey kathy, you must know somebody who is a long time political type, who maybe is in a job that they really don't want, and already has worked closely with some of the senators up there... and is sort of keeping their options open?
O My... ranting like this... does it really matter?... only to blow off a little steam I spose... ahh... relief...
I heard it said that "change happens when the pain of where you are is greater than the pain of where you need to go".
NO doubt NL is suffering, even though we seem more prosperous lately.
Certainly Canada is suffering, but it seems to have fared much better than the rest of the 'western world' during the recent economic melt down.
So I guess that means more pain is needed in order to get any 'real change'.
O Joy! More Pain...Just what 2011 needs to hold for NL and Canada. Does anybody really care?
The reactions here at home were typical:
"Way to go Danny!", "Give 'em another smack for me!"
OR
"How can you expect to get anything from Ottawa if you keep challenging them like that?"
The next phase in our history of co-operation is about to get under way with Premier Kathy Dunderdale. She has already had some interaction with the feds and she indicated that she is willing to be 'co-operative' but quick to add that 'we will not be kicked around'. Seems to be the perfect balance. NL wants to be seen as 'a team player' but wants clearly to reaffirm we are nobody's 'door mat'.
So what is in front of us?
We are definitely heading into a general election in NL and there is at least a 50% chance of there being a Federal general election. Kathy hopes to put this leadership thing behind her soon and get on with winning a general election. Stevie, a machiavellian if there ever was one, hopes this time he can get a majority government in Ottawa to 'rule' with even greater impunity.
The Canadian powerhouse which is the province of Ontario will be looking for change this time around. Look at who they elected to run the city of Toronto! PQ has felt the pain of the recent economic global meltdown and the resulting job losses. The west is still the west but they too have had their cages rattled pretty hard and their long term perspective must be a little less certain on a go forward basis. Atlantic Canada, well, in truth Atlantic Canada has not mattered that much politically in the past, may now become much more important as it seems getting 20 or 25 seats in Atlantic Canada could determine who gets to run the country. We know NL can direct its vote in one way or another as evidenced by ABC last time. Maybe this time the few seats we got might actually matter more than ever.
By the way, the single biggest political lesson that Stephen Harper could learn from the elections since Mulrooney is that PQ is not where you need to go to find additional seats. You can give them everything and suck up to them in every way possible and the Bloc is still going to come out of there with around two-thirds to three-quarter of the seats. In fact, maybe taking the stance of treating everybody in Canada the same, including PQ, might get you a bunch of seats in ON and in the West and would certainly resonate well in Atlantic Canada and NL in particular. But what about separation? Well the truth in all of this is PQ, politically speaking, is already gone, and it may be more encumbent on Canada to get a backbone so that the rest of the provinces can have something to latch on to.
This may be too big a leap for Canada. Most likely that is the case. So, how does NL play its cards then? Maybe, for the purpose of this brief exploration, we can assume that the PC party will regain the right to lead our government after the next election. So what would Kathy want to put on her wish list from Ottawa to try and sway our few seats in a specific direction?
Maybe a national energy grid and open transmission of electricity through PQ? There I go again. Asking too much means you might get nothing.
Maybe we could look at being able to have majority management rights of our fishery to the edge of the continental shelf? Darn, I gotta stop doing that... asking too much means you might get nothing!
What about getting the same share of our off shore oil royalties as does Alberta and Saskatchewan? I think that I am still asking for too much and risking getting nothing.
Well, what about a fixed link to Canada like PEI has constructed? That would be a big project costing big dollars... maybe that is too much to ask for also since we just got new ferries and too much tourism access to NL could mean less for other provinces.
What about getting massive funding, over and above what has already been requested, to allow Lower Churchill power to be shippped to the Island and then to Atlantic Canada? Well, that might be risky too since PQ has already indicated they think we would be getting unfair financial support to help economic development???
Maybe we could ask for a federal penitentiary in NL? Well, that does not seem like asking for the moon but it is very costly and Ottawa just announced a bunch of additional funding to address increased incarceration demands and NL was not on the list of sites for new infrastructure, so Stevie might have a hard time with giving in to us on that one, seeing how he never goes back on his word?
I think I may have figured out what we could ask for? We could ask for a few more senate seats for Conservative die-hards so that at least some extra tax revenue could come to NL. I guess then if Stevie is agreeable to that the only question become who gets the jobs? Any takers? Hey kathy, you must know somebody who is a long time political type, who maybe is in a job that they really don't want, and already has worked closely with some of the senators up there... and is sort of keeping their options open?
O My... ranting like this... does it really matter?... only to blow off a little steam I spose... ahh... relief...
I heard it said that "change happens when the pain of where you are is greater than the pain of where you need to go".
NO doubt NL is suffering, even though we seem more prosperous lately.
Certainly Canada is suffering, but it seems to have fared much better than the rest of the 'western world' during the recent economic melt down.
So I guess that means more pain is needed in order to get any 'real change'.
O Joy! More Pain...Just what 2011 needs to hold for NL and Canada. Does anybody really care?
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