“What do I have to do to get you to listen?” health minister John Haggie asked rhetorically and with considerable exasperation at Monday’s daily COVID-19 briefing. Haggie was ranting once again about people across the province who he claims are flouting the restrictions on public comingling during the current health
Continue readingTag: political communication
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Simple words work best #nlpoli
esquire.com last October. Big headline: Donald Trump Woos Republicans By Speaking at a 4th Grade LevelSmaller head: His competitors from both parties aren’t much better.Aren’t much better.Speaking at such a low grade level is a bad thing.The spe…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: For want of a nail… #nlpoli
Dwight Ball demonstrated last week how very simple things can turn into problems very quickly. He handed his political opponents a stick they can use to beat him with. The fact they really don;t have much more than innuendo and speculation doesn’t matter. He’s given them a weapon. Ball confirmed
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Happy Talk #nlpoli
Cuts. Layoffs. A couple of tight years. Hard times. Premier Kathy Dunderdale, finance minister Tom Marshall, and natural resources minister Tom Marshall have been preaching that since before Christmas. Apparently, a couple of Conservative politicians didn’t get the memo.
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Darin King and the Tory Charm Offensive #nlpoli
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
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Language of Newfoundland Politics #nlpoli
Some of you may have noticed a couple of words turning up in any discussion of Muskrat Falls. One is “confused”. The other is “tired” as in tired of hearing about it. These are very interesting code words, once you realise what they mean. Let’s take the second one first.
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Same Old New Energy! #nlpoli
Thanks to the Telegram’s James McLeod and his Twitter feed from Gander, take a look at two of the resolutions from the Progressive Conservative. Here’s the one on fiscal responsibility. Read it, though, and you quickly realize that the resolution is about continuing on the same path that produced the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Tone, Standards and Political Suicide #nlpoli
The song from MASH was wrong. Suicide is not painless. And political suicide is more painful to watch than any other kind. Paul Lane is a Conservative member of the provincial legislature. He is especially active on Twitter and provincial talk radio. When he isn’t tweeting about Muskrat Falls or
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: That and a buck fifty… #nlpoli
Former natural resources minister Shawn Skinner thinks that the Progressive Conservatives can turn around their current abysmal polling numbers if once they get beyond Muskrat Falls and turn their attention to mother things. Skinner was part of the political panel this weekend for On Point with David Cochrane. Well, that
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Poster Child for Useless #nlpoli
One of the rationales the provincial government has used to justify Muskrat Falls is the idea that the island will have electricity shortages starting in 2015 and by 2020 there’ll be blackouts, brownouts or some sort of unspecified catastrophe. If you missed it, here is one official version, from The
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Political Effectiveness #nlpoli
As these things go, George Murphy’s two days of news about compliance with the province’s ban on pesticides was a tidy and effective bit of political theatre. The provincial government announced the ban in 2011. They set May 1, 2012 as the day for the ban to take effective. Like
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Do debates matter? Part Deux #nlvotes #nlpoli
Last week ended with a wonderful bit of insight into where televised political debates figure into an election campaign. Before you go any farther into this post just stop for a second and think of all the media chatter last week about the debate, wha…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: It’s unanimous: more of the same… #nlpoli #nlvotes
So now you’ve either seen the debate or read some of the media coverage about it. Here’s a question for you: what was the ballot question for you as posed by each of the leaders? While you’re thinking about that for a second, let’s just …
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Welcome to the Echo Chamber #nlpoli #nlvotes
Pretty simple idea, really. Opinions, beliefs and ideas move around among like minded people in what is an essentially closed space. The effect can be amazingly powerful just as it can be amazingly deceptive and distorting. President Barack O…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: There are no free lunches #nlpoli
Heard that before, right? And it’s true. Just because it is true – and most adults know it is true – doesn’t mean that all of them still aren’t willing to crave a free gnosh. And not just lunches. Free anything. One of the oldest marketing…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Like Momma always said…Part Deux und Trois
The only funnier thing than a guy up on assault charges claiming he is a wannabe Tory candidate are opposition party politicos who campaign for the incumbents. In the past couple of weeks, comments coming from both parties have highlighted positive ec…
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