Flash floods and flashbacks

Memo to Newfoundland & Labrador's journalists, radio hosts, and particularly local politicans of all party stripes and all levels of government.

This is how governments in this country are supposed to deal with Disaster Financial Assistance.

More here, and a reminder on how not to, here, and here.

Panderdemic

One of the founding principles of politics in Newfoundland & Labrador is that being popular is far, far more important than being right. Under Danny Williams, this principle has been elevated to the enth degree. The justification for any government action is retroactively provided by way of polling numbers in the media, as opposed to less relevant things, like evidence.

Health Minister Jerome Kennedy, today, takes that axiom to a level that even Danny Williams mightn't dare - overturning medical advice to re-prioritize H1N1 vaccination recipients on his own gut instinct because - wait for it - because sometimes society's expectations should trump medical advice.

Wow. Ladies and Gentlemen, Dannystan has a whole new Danny.

Distance. Education.

How's this for convenient?

"I’m not even aware of the timeline Memorial is working on. I have no idea when they are planning on announcing a new presidency."

- Education Minister Darin King, in today's Western Star

"An announcement is expected Wednesday regarding a new president for Newfoundland and Labrador's only university."

- the CBC, a few hours later.

More bafflegab

Education Minister Darin King, on the importance of getting legislation right:

“We have to make sure, when we pass the legislation, we have good solid research done,” said the minister. “The day it becomes adopted, it becomes law. We certainly don’t want to adopt piece of legislation and make it a law that is, in actual fact, going to restrict or inhibit Grenfell’s ability to succeed. It’s a very important piece of work and we’re giving it due diligence and making sure, when we’re ready to bring it forward, it’s done right.”

- Education Minister Darrin King,

in today's Western Star

This is the same legislation that this Minister of Education has been dragging his heels on ever since the last Minister of Education was relieved of her responsibility of dragging her heels on it, on a go-backward basis:

"We are just at the point, I guess, with a busy schedule in the house of assembly and certainly the tedious work in developing the legislation, that we didn't have sufficient time … for the full debate that it deserved"

- Former Education Minister Joan Burke,

CBC News, July 11, 2008

Well, we wouldn't want this important legislation to be brought forward without being "done right". Afterall, we've seen that episode before.

When Busy Ms. Burke was the Education Minister (and let's never forget how busy she was) she lamented the busy schedule of the House of Assembly. Now, as House Leader, she's doing her best to make sure the House is never all that busy again.

Here's an education, of sorts, for the province's Education Ministers, past and present.

All that "tedious work", the "full debate", the "importance" , the "solid research" and the "due dilligence" involved in this or any other piece of government legislation - it's the reason we have a legislature.

Now get back to work. The lot of you.

The Powers of personification

I was having a hard time this morning deciding which of Roy MacGregor's two pieces in today's Globe and Mail were more worthy of debunking.

Then my friend Tim Powers stepped up and made the choice a little easier. In Tim's puff piece on the miracle work of Peter MacKay, he floats this tired old canard:

"You can't cause change until a relationship exists to affect it. Peter, among others, has enabled a more functional relationship with Newfoundland and Labrador. For that many of us are grateful."

Let's get something straight here. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Minister Peter MacKay, the Conservative caucus, the Party or quite possibly the whole of the Canadian Government may have a dysfunctional relationship with Premier Danny Williams. That does not mean that any of them, jointly or severally, necessarily has a dysfunctional relationship with Newfoundland and Labrador.

UPDATE: Paul Wells looks at MacGregor's piece from another angle. And coins a great phrase in his comments section...

H1N1

Health Minister Jerome Kennedy has been (quite admirably I must say) providing near daily updates through media briefings on the status of H1N1 vaccination in the province since the pandemic became a front page story and major concern. While his briefings aren't on line, the announcement of each media availabilty is, and he's been before the microphones quite frequently, along with knowledgeable departmental officials.

What seems odd, however, is that despite these near daily updates, Newfoundland and Labrador is the only province which cannot provide an accurate accounting of how many of the 124,000 vaccines they have received have actually been injected to date.

Those statistics, for every other province and territory, are compiled in a report in today's National Post, which appears online, here.

I want my presence* in small packages (Part I)

Here’s Provincial Minister Tom Hedderson, in early 2008, in a press release “reiterating” a familiar call “for the Federal Government to increase its presence in Newfoundland and Labrador”.

"Our position continues to be that this province does not have its fair share of Federal Government decision makers and employees based in this province," said the Honourable Tom Hedderson, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. "This is a priority of our government and I will continue to raise this with our federal colleagues."

The history of this straw man of an issue goes back at least three election cycles. It crosses all party lines and was a necessary element of nearly every stump speech of nearly every politician seeking municipal, provincial or federal office in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Its recent incarnation finds it origins in a dubious political pamphlet doused in rhetoric, skewered statistics and an artificial varnish of academic credibility which lamented, among other things, that placing among the top four provinces in the country, in per capita federal employment, was an indication of overwhelming oppression or our people and our province,by Ottawa. (But that’s a story for another day.- ed.)

The Premier himself gave it prominence in not one, but two editions of his Christmas letters to Santa Election correspondence with federal political leaders.

“Does your party support immediate efforts to significantly increase the Federal Government’s presence in the province…”

But my oh my how things have changed. As both levels of government announced earlier this month:

"Beginning November 2, the skills development and employment programs that used to be delivered by the Government of Canada will be transferred over to the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador."

And it gets better - as the Telegram reported:

"As part of the deal, 75 federal employees are transferring to the provincial government."

So if the need for more federal employees being based in this province was purely one of principle, how does one explain this recent change of heart?

Could it possibly be those two Conservatives - the Stephen Harper who never saw a federal bureaucrat he didn’t want to disown, and the Danny Williams who never saw a Maple Leaf he didn’t want to haul down, have found a bit of common ground?

*Not my best pun, admittedly.

Lessons in Management

From the website of the House of Assembly:

The Thursday, November 12, 2009 meeting will be rescheduled

From a Press Release, November 9, 2009:

Speaker Roger Fitzgerald advises that the House of Assembly Management Commission scheduled for 2:00 p.m. today (Monday, November 9) will be rescheduled as there is not a quorum for the meeting.

From a Press Release, earlier on that same day, November 9, 2009:

Speaker Roger Fitzgerald advises that the House of Assembly Management Commission will hold its next meeting at 2:00 p.m. today (Monday, November 9) in the House of Assembly Chamber.

For those keeping track, that's the rescheduling of the previously rescheduled meeting which had to be rescheduled due lack of quorum - quorum being drawn from the Members of the regularly paid but irregularly sitting legislature whose main agenda item is the consideration of a report to reduce their pay and benefits which were scheduled to automatically raise before a Committe struck by the very same legislature even had a chance to hear or determine whether they should.

That's management for you.

AFTERTHOUGHT: A government that can beam its Premier into every classroom in the province can't facilitate a video conference?

Retention Pretension

Behind Winston's back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan.

- George Orwell, 1984

It's a disappointing day in the blogosphere, as it appears Winston Smith of Orwellian Spin is hanging up his mouse and keyboard. Too bad. At the very least he could have waited one more day for this little gem.

The Williams Government today launched its so-called Youth Retention Strategy, and, to quote the government's very own press release,

"(t)he launch was broadcast live over the Internet to an audience of thousands that included students in classrooms throughout the province."

You will recall that a few short weeks ago, at the outset of the school year, Conservative activists went out of their minds criticizing President Obama for his nationwide appearance to encourage school children to "work hard" and "take responsibility". He was singled out for inappropriate behaviour by conservative legislators and talk show hosts for inviting students to to write to him about how they might "help the President", despite the fact that previous Republicans, including George H. W. Bush had done precisely the same thing.

It generated a week's worth of rants and headlines, but it eventually blew over. Largely because Obama avoided politicizing the day, and released his remarks ahead of time to allay any concerns that he would.

In his speech, here's what President Obama didn't do:

• announce any new government programs


• announce new funding for existing programs


• announce any new cabinet positions or roles for existing members of his administration


• refer to "his" government


• make any campaign-style promises of future investment to the children


• showcase other recent policy announcements of his government

In contrast, and with particular attention to those six points, here's Comrade Premier Williams' speech unveiling his Youth Indoctrination Retention Strategy.

Winston, for the love of God, come back!

Junkie alert

Voting results in four federal by-elections...

Cumberland--Colchester--Musquodoboit Valley
Hochelaga
Montmagny--L'Islet--Kamouraska--Rivière-du-Loup
New Westminster--Coquitlam

...will be online with live updates, via Elections Canada, here in just under two hours. (Makes for a pretty late night in Truro, wha'?)

In the meantime, Raptors vs. Spurs, here in about 15 minutes.

By-elections and bubblegum

There are four federal by-elections being held tomorrow to fill vacancies due to resignations in Nova Scotia, Quebec (2) and British Columbia.

At both levels of government, this makes for a busy autumn of mid-term replacements. The past several weeks have witnessed provincial by-elections in Ontario*, Alberta, Nova Scotia (2) and in Newfoundland & Labrador, where one recently concluded, and another was just called.

Here's something interesting - in most instances, Parliament and the provincial legislatures were sitting while the by-elections were ongoing. That's not unusual. Most legislatures and governments in this country are capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.

Not all, however.

The first exception was Alberta. But in fairness to Ed Stelmach, the September 14 polling date was more than likely ahead of the scheduled date of the return of the legislature anyway.

This might also have been the case in Newfoundland & Labrador, where the first by-election in the Straits & White Bay North was held on October 27. That's if you consider the end of October to be a normal time of the month to resume sitting after the Spring session of your legislature rises. But there's nothing particularly normal about this:

The Government House Leader, the Honourable Joan Burke, announced today that the House of Assembly will open for its fall session on Monday, November 30, at 1:30 p.m.

"Opening the legislature on this date will ensure that all parties will have equal opportunity to actively participate in the by-election campaign taking place in the District of Terra Nova," continued Minister Burke.

There'll be no walking and chewing bubblegum in Dannystan. Electioneering and legislating can't be done all at once. Not simultaneously. Just like there wouldn't be simultaneous by-elections to fill simultaneous vacancies.

As for the "equal opportunity", surely in a House that sits currently at 42-4 (They didn't even have the decency to swear the new guy in yet) ensuring the 42 government members get to spend as much time in the contested district of Terra Nova as the 4 on the other side seems a cornerstone of any democratic exercise. Afterall, it's a local election to elect a local member, and darn it how could those poor folks in Terra Nova make up their minds if the 46 other MHAs didn't take three weeks off to show them the light. Half of Williams' cabinet couldn't convince those poor old souls on the Northern Peninsula of all that was right and good, so this one requires as much "equal opportunity" as possible.

But before the royal Winnebago of pride strangth and determination rolls down the TransCanada toward Gambo, those "equal opportunists" might want to consider another pattern that has emerged from the aforementioned provincial by-elections.

Wherever by-elections were held while the legislature was sitting, the government added to its seat count, a trend that will likely continue tomorrow, where only a miracle could stop the Harper Conservatives from winning at least one of the four Parliamentary vacancies.

On the other hand, in Alberta and in Newfoundland, where governments have been a little less enthused to have their agenda on display in the legislature while voters are going to the polls, by-elections haven't gone so swimmingly.

*where it looks like we may have yet another.