Darin King ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: That’s Doctor King to you #nlpoli

Sep

24

2015

Not surprisingly, Darin King has decided to leave politics after only eight years. King is just the latest in a long line of pensionable Conservatives who have decided it would be better to quit politics now with a fat pension rather than risk sitting on the opposition benches for a few years. If he is ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Contending Political Strategies #nlpoli

Apr

28

2015

Starting last Friday, the ironically-named Conservatives currently running the place started holding a series of “pre-budget” announcements. They started with news that to deal with the massive financial crisis they would be dumping 77 and a half teaching positions in the provincial school system. About twice that many would retire, so the school boards in ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: You know things are going badly when… #nlpoli

Apr

24

2015

… you launch your election campaign at at huge fundraiser and your signature policy announce gets slaughtered on Twitter within seconds of the words leaving your lips. Yes, friends, Paul Davis told the world he will create some kind of savings fund from oil royalties. In 2021. If, and only if, they can manage to ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Judge Headroom #nlpoli

Nov

24

2014

The Crown Prosecution Service lost an application last week to overturn a decision by a Provincial Court judge. That’s not the newsworthy thing. The Crown wins applications and loses them all the time. What’s important about this is the back-story. The Telegram covered the decision itself, although you can read the whole decision for yourself. ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Holding Pattern #nlpoli

Feb

18

2014

Justice minister Darin King bailed out of the Conservative Party leadership contest on Monday. King did it unceremoniously, on Twitter, despite having had a bunch of reporters ask him about it earlier in the afternoon during a media availability. That way he didn’t have to answer any questions and try to come up with some ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Ministers confused about public money in stalled $100 million mine project #nlpoli

Nov

28

2013

In addition to the $17 million in public cash announced in 2011, the provincial government has given an additional undisclosed amount of public money from several departments to a company trying to re- open a fluorspar mine on the Burin Peninsula. Justice minister Darin King made that apparently unwitting disclosure in answer to questions in ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Much media ado about not very much #nlpoli

Oct

8

2013

On the face of it, anyone even passingly familiar with political events in Newfoundland and Labrador for the past decade would look with some justifiable scepticism on an announcement from justice minister Darin King on Monday that the provincial government was going to have another look at building a new provincial prison to replace one ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Get worried-er #nlpoli

Jun

7

2013

Here are a bunch of stories all of which would deserve a post of their own but that are presented here cut down to the barest of bare essentials. King of the Keystone Kops Strikes Again: Not content to demonstrate his incompetence with his earlier budget shag up, justice minister Darin King (Twitter: @King_Darin) announced ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Self-Inflicted Wound #nlpoli

Oct

29

2012

When did the companies involved in the Hebron project sanction it? Anyone? Don’t google it. When did ExxonMobil and all those companies give the project team the green-light to start building the gravity base and all the others bits that will lead to oil production on the fourth field offshore Newfoundland and Labrador? Sanction. The ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Darin King and the Tory Charm Offensive #nlpoli

Oct

29

2012

A couple of the exceedingly small changes in the recent cabinet shuffle came out of the Bill 29 fiasco. Felix Collins went from the relatively low profile job of justice minister to the complete obscurity of intergovernmental affairs. Everyone saw that. And over in another corner, there was a switcheroo people didn’t notice quite as ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: What the cod moratorium wrought #nlpoli

Jul

3

2012

The cod might be gone these 20 years but there are no shortage of people making a fine dollar telling us what it all means. Surely the one making the most cash is Ryan Cleary, pulling down a paycheque as a member of parliament partly on the pledge to have an inquiry into why there ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Our plastic history, utter contempt version #nlpoli

Mar

3

2012

On Friday, the Telegram’s Brian Jones takes issue with fisheries minister Darin King: Fisheries Minister Darin King’s tantrum this week against the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ (FFAW) union is the latest example of this government’s extremely bad behaviour. Jones warns of the dangers of contradicting the current administration: These days, suggesting differently will entail ...