Political conservatives like to talk about how government ought to be run like a business. They talk about it so much that it’s odd, then, that they never actually do it. Part of it has to do with language. They use words that appear to mean the same thing when,
Continue readingTag: Danny Williams Legacy
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: No-brainer #nlpoli
Perhaps it is just Danny Williams’ ingratitude that pisses people off. The multi-millionaire hockey team owner just got a massive subsidy from the taxpayers of St. John’s so that he won’t suffer any lost revenue. It should be a no-brainer for the guy to say thanks to the people who
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: No more give-aways #nlpoli
Danny Williams is one of the richest people in Newfoundland and Labrador. He is a multi-millionaire who owns a successful hockey franchise in St. John’s. Danny Williams makes a lot of money from the St. John’s IceCaps, If he didn’t, Danny wouldn’t be in the hockey game. Good for Danny
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Disconnection Trending #nlpoli
Tom Marshall got lots of coverage for his little ego-stroking farewell in the tradition of his ego-stroked predecessors. The media advisory billed it as a thank-you to public servants and by jingo the local media reported it extensively and called it exactly that. The one who organized the little show
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: A fitting reminder #nlpoli
Tom Marshall has a few days left as premier so he figured the best thing to do would be to name the courthouse in Corner Brook after Danny Williams, Marshall’s patron. One of the reasons Marshall gave for his decision was that the province has not done as well as
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Trash, Give-aways, and Conservative Policy #nlpoli
Friday is trash day in the world of political communications. It’s the day when you slip out stuff that is unpleasant in the hopes people will miss it. If you can slide in another story, like say the completely unnecessary appointment of a finance minister who will have the job
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Nothing was further from the truth #nlpoli
A decade ago, the offshore regulatory board reduced its estimate of the recoverable reserves in the Terra Nova field from 405 million barrels to 354 million barrels. Danny Williams was trying to squeeze additional transfer payments out of the federal government in the guise of getting provincial oil royalties that
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Premier Mulligan #nlpoli
The news on Monday was not Frank Coleman’s announcement. The news was in the reaction of provincial Conservatives to word that Coleman wouldn’t be Premier after all. They skipped past the obligatory expressions of concern over Coleman’s unspecified family problem and quickly went on to talk up the chances the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: And then things went horribly wronger… #nlpoli
John Crosbie, the elder statesmen of Conservatives in the province took a shot at Danny Williams for his continued interference in the internal affairs of the provincial Conservatives. Danny blew a gasket and willingly gave interviews to every media outlet in town, thereby guaranteeing that the story that can only
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: John, Danny, and voter apathy #nlpoli
Every now and again, someone will talk about voter apathy. Last week, Steve Kent was circulating the link to an article that claimed that youth engagement – getting young people more involved in the community and in politics – was a way of getting more people to vote at election
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Premier Peek-a-boo #nlpoli
Pretty well every Conservative who is anyone in the province turned up on Wednesday night at Danny Breen’s by-election headquarters. Every Conservative, that is, except the fellow who is the heir-apparent to the leadership. Frank Coleman wasn’t anywhere to be seen according to reporters at the headquarters after the polls
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Ripples #nlpoli
The provincial Conservatives lost a crucial by-election in Virginia Waters on Wednesday, but not for lack of effort. The could not possible have pulled out any more stops to try and win the seat in the last two weeks of the campaign. Even on polling day the Conservatives mounted a
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Kremlinology 44: Optics #nlpoli
Danny Williams appeared in Virginia Waters on Saturday to campaign for Danny Breen, the Conservative candidate in the by-election. Breen’s campaign wasted no time in pushing out pictures of The Appearance, like the one above, another one showing him with some young fellows out posting Breen campaign signs in the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Insiders #nlpoli
The story of the 2014 provincial Conservative Party leadership contest is a study in politics on its most basic level. It is a story of those with influence and of those who have less of it or none at all. It is a story of how politics actually works inside
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Old Fraudsters #nlpoli
There’s no greater fraud, former Premier Danny Williams once said, than a promise not kept. In the House of Assembly on Monday, his successor claimed that Conservatives “do as we say.” Premier Kathy Dunderdale was making a dig at opposition leader Dwight Ball over his leadership campaign expenses. That’s a
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Corporate Welfare Bum-wipe #nlpoli
People who supported the December 2008 expropriation bill had a very hard time on Monday justifying the mess they created in which taxpayers of the province are now responsible for hundreds of millions in environmental clean-up. One of the more common explanations is that the people of the province would
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Nottawa Repost: Legislative oversight in an era of "patriotic correctness" #nlpoli
The following originally appeared at nottawa on September 2, 2009 as a comment on the emergency session of the legislature to deal with changes to legislation about the Churchill River. It includes a mention of an earlier political controversy, the December 2008 expropriation bill. The two are linked and in
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Selling Nalcor #nlpoli
New Democratic party leader Lorraine Michael raised a touchy question in the House of Assembly on Thursday. It was about selling Nalcor. Only problem for Lorraine was that she got it buggered up.
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: When engineering becomes imagineering #nlpoli
Nalcor issued a news release on Monday to correct inaccurate statements about the water management agreement between Nalcor and Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation. Sounds good, except that Nalcor didn’t identify who made the statements. Nalcor didn’t indicate hat the statements were. Nor did the company indicate how the statements were
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: How much was that principle in the window? #nlpoli
Sending the third topsides module from Hebron outside the province was “absolutely unacceptable” to Premier Kathy Dunderdale back in June. She was “extremely unhappy” and vowed to “pursue all avenues available” to her in order “to ensure that this very important work stays in Newfoundland and Labrador.” A few months
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