Yesterday’s man delivered yesterday’s ideas and claimed it was the future. Liberal leader Kevin Aylward unveiled his party’s fisheries platform on Friday. As a historical document, it would be wonderful for an election from 1975. But in 20…
Continue readingTag: Election 2011
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Popcorn Calculation #nlpoli
From the Telegram’s editorial on Wednesday: The problem is that, when the proposed appointment first came to light, Premier Kathy Dunderdale and Natural Resources Minister Shawn Skinner fell all over each other claiming that they — not Williams…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Arrogance Factor #nlpoli
Can Len Simms be far behind your humble e-scribbler asked back in June when deputy minister Ross Reid quit his job to run the Tory campaign. Simms – a former Tory party leader – ditched his patronage appointment in 2007 to work the Tory campaign. …
Continue readingBlunt Objects: Debunking "What If Lizzy May Was In The Debates?"
A few people out there have stated something so simple, so ground in common sense, that it defies logic to argue against it: that had Elizabeth May been in the national televised leaders debate during the 2011 federal election, the Green Party wouldn’t…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: On missing the point
Mark Watton has been leading the charge against sections of the province’s election laws that allow people to vote when there is no election. On the face of it, the idea is bizarre. You’d think it is obviously bizarre. And yet a political scienc…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Rideout tags Tories for election pork-fest #nlpoli
Former premier Tom Rideout didn’t mince words about the orgy of pork-barrel spending his former caucus colleagues have been pushing in the run-up. On a political panel on Tuesday morning, Rideout told the audience for CBC Radio’s West Coast Mornin…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: What you can see at the horse race…
Horse race polls are the heights of political journalism in some circles despite the fact they tell very little about what is happening in voters’ heads. But since this is all there is, let’s look at the latest Corporate Research Associates poll a…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Election 2011 and the Resource Curse
During the current provincial election you are going to hear a lot about natural resources and the need to spend the money that comes from it on all sorts of things. The province’s New Democrats wasted no time in bitching that oil money isn’t bein…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Politics of Cynicism: even worse than thought edition #nlpoli
If they accidentally accumulate enough credits to a form a government after the next election, the provincial New Democrats will keep taxing small business income at 14%. What the provincial party announced last week was a very small reduction in the …
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Politics of Cynicism, NDP style #nlpoli
One could hardly imagine a better way to bitch-slap the carefully fabricated Legend of Jack Layton than Lorraine Michael’s news release announcing a 25% reduction in something the provincial NDP leader calls a “small business tax”. “Small b…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Compounding the abuse #nlpoli
It wasn’t bad enough that the province’s special ballot laws make a mockery of democracy. For the 2011 general election, the province’s elections office is opening 12 special offices across the province in addition to the existing 48 electoral d…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: A monstrous abuse continues #nlpoli
While there will be a general election in Newfoundland and Labrador this fall, there isn’t one at the moment. And yet, the province’s chief electoral office is proudly encouraging people to cast a special ballot if they need to do so. Peop…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The secret of life, comedy, and politics
Timing. The ever watchful labradore notes that after Danny Williams mucked around with the appointments for the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador, they have taken place in November. No one would be surprised to find out that this is a month when the…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: No man is an island: Mount Pearl edition
There are few things about provincial Conservative Steve Kent’s website that stand out. First, as of August 16, the blog hasn’t been updated since the 2007 general election. Second, it really is all about Steve. High speed flash animation o…
Continue readingWhat McFadyen’s cuts would mean to YOU!
We know that Hugh McFadyen’s personal ideology would compel him to balance the Budget on a year-over basis. Though Hugh has been trying to run away from this for the past couple of months, the fact remains that had Team Hughie been successful with their amendment to last years Budget, there would have been cuts […]
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Bloc NDP MP backs Tory Premier Dunderdale #nlpoli
Noob Bloc NDP member of parliament Ryan Cleary wants voters in Newfoundland and Labrador to return Conservative Premier Kathy Dunderdale to power in this fall’s general election. VOCM reports that Cleary does not have any faith in Dunderdale’s lea…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: If Rick Hillier really runs for Liberal leader… #nlpoli
For those who may have missed it, CBC’s David Cochrane @cochranecbcnl tweeted on Wednesday that retired chief of defence staff Rick Hillier is in newfoundland and Labrador, talking to “senior Liberals”, and looking at a run at the Liberal leader
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Debt, electricity rates and Muskrat Falls #nlvotes
The editorial board at the Telegram understands the point exactly. It’s a point your humble e-scribbler has been harping on for six years to one extent or another. And it’s one of many major problems with Muskrat Falls and the plan to double elec…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Compare and contrast: election policy edition
Compare the New Democrat “policy” announcements on the fishery and shipbuilding, slipped out there last week with the Liberal one on health care and seniors, announced on Monday morning at a news conference.
The Liberal one wasn’t available online as of 1330 hours local time on Monday. That’s not encouraging, given the announcement happened at 1000 hrs.
The Libs will need to sort this out to make sure their information is readily available. Online media coverage of this announcement sucked. Most didn’t have a story and the one that did appear covered only a small portion of a much larger announcement.
But this is not just a case of announcing a vague intention. The Liberals announcement includes:
- a ministry of aging and seniors,
- an aging and seniors strategy that will also feature health and wellness promotion, respecting and celebrating seniors, supportive communities, seniors’ financial security, employment and life transitioning, secure housing options, and, caregiver assistance and support.
- a seniors’ advocate, similar to the child and youth advocate,
- a funding shift to rehab and other support to enable seniors to stay in their own communities longer, and
- better funding for long-term care and home care.
How this announcement plays with the public remains to be seen. Just recall that health care is the single biggest issue for voters according to polls. And don’t forget that seniors and seniors’ care is already a sensitive political issue. it will only get bigger in the years ahead.
From the sliding a sheet of paper department, a lot of this will look familiar to people who have been paying attention to any sort of policy announcements over the past decade.
That’s because many Conservative policies after 2003 just continued work that was already done or already in train under the Liberals.
From the superficial reporting department, consider that any media coverage of how many candidates the parties have nominated at this point is pretty much a pile of irrelevant bullshite.
Update II: Here’s the policy document in a version you can read and enjoy.
– srbp –
Update: CBC has an online story that went live after this post first went up. It is pretty vague on details despite the fact the Liberal announcement had tons of specifics.
What’s more interesting to see in the CBC comments section are the number of NDP astroturf (fake identities, likely all done by one or a small number of people) comments that criticise the announcement or claim – falsely – that the ideas are NDP ones.
You can expect a lot more of that sort of foolishness, especially if the NDP can’t come up with solid policy announcements of their own.
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Sliding a sheet of paper, NDP version
The New Democrats announced a couple of policy planks last week for the general election campaign. Well, sort of announced. The party’s news release says that leader Lorraine Michael announced something but part of it sure doesn’t look…
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