North Spur sideshow #nlpoli
Jim Gordon, an engineer previously critical about the design of the Muskrat Falls dam has revised his opinion. Gordon had earlier believed that the landmass known as the North Spur…
Ed Hollett
Feds offer more help with Muskrat #nlpoli
The federal government delivered a $2.9 billion additional loan guarantee Thursday in time for the Liberal Party convention this weekend in Gander. The added guarantee is less than the provincial…
Muskrat Math #nlpoli
Stan Marshall told the province Tuesday that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador can never get their money back on this pig of a project called Muskrat Falls. On Wednesday,…
The polls remain discouraging for Liberals #nlpoli
Heading into their convention this weekend, the provincial Liberals have another poll that confirms what all the other polls have said for the past six months or so. For those…
How much do we owe? #nlpoli
CBC Radio Noon had board of trade president Des Whalen in the studio on Monday. Board of Trade thinks the debt is about $13 billion today. Don’t talk about Muskrat…
The Muskrat Circus rolls back into town #nlpoli
Stan Marshall appeared out of the shadows on Tuesday to do a round of interviews with every media outlet in town. He told NTV what he told everyone else: the…
Building higher walls #nlpoli
A new government security policy does everything short of banning people from Confederation Building altogether. Visitors to the main government building in St. John’s now have to enter through a…
Ball, Bennett, Williams, and Marshall #nlpoli
One of the things finance minister Cathy Bennett told NTV’s Issues and Answers this weekend was that the Premier Dwight Ball scrapped the fall mini-budget in September in favour of…
Sunshine, lollipops, and fluffy kittens #nlpoli
Finance minister Cathy Bennett read words that tried to make the provincial government’s financial situation sound better than it was forecast to be last spring. For all the wonderful words…
Three for Thursday #nlpoli
Quebec opposes more federal cash for Muskrat Falls The Government of Quebec has always opposed federal loan guarantees for Muskrat Falls on the grounds that it skews the hydro playing…
The Mustafa Principle #nlpoli
Go back to Friday’s post about false choices. That’s where you will find the explanation for the 11 hour marathon meeting. The final agreement is more about the Premier’s need…
Truth and Reconciliation #nlpoli
Long ago, so long ago no one remembers when, they did away with Virtue in Newfoundland politics. To be on the safe side, they slit the throats of her twins,…
Small town politics in the big city newspapers #nlpoli
The federal Liberals created a new process to pick judges for federal court appointments. The process – as the Globe pointed out on Thursday – was to ensure they could…
The political dynamics of Muskrat Falls #nlpoli #dip-o-crites #cdnpoli
The people of Labrador who have now occupied the work camp at the construction site are exercising the only political influence they have in the only way they have been…
False choices #nlpoli
It’s not often you can see a “half-way” compromise as plainly as the one the provincial government announced on Wednesday about Muskrat Falls. Government’s starting point was to flood the…
The Reverse Midas Touch Rides Again #nlpoli
The crowd running this place these days has an unrivalled ability to look at a problem and find the worst possible response imaginable. On Wednesday, natural resource minister Siobhan Coady…
Rumpole and Reversible Error #nlpoli
Brian Tobin’s favourite judge may be on his way to the Supreme Court of Canada but along the way he will probably have to answer a few questions about his…
The War of the Flea Circus #nlpoli
Muskrat Falls has become a three-ring flea circus. In the first ring, we have the political ambulance chasers, a.k.a. Maudie Barlow and the Council of Xenophobes. The Safari Saviours rolled…
Caribous, Choice, and Craziness #nlpoli
For a while, it looked like one of the island’s major communities wouldn’t be able to put a senior hockey team on the ice for the new season. Low ticket…
Refitting the USS Nimitz (CVN-68)
Ordered in 1967, laid down in 1968, launched in 1972 and commissioned in 1975, USS Nimitz is the lead ship of a class of 10 aircraft carriers in the United…