At last! #nlpoli
Without a doubt, this is the most interesting, entertaining and revealing thing to come out of the Conservative leadership campaign. This could probably use a bit of writing and editing…
Conservative leadership 2014
They’ve got a little list #nlpoli
Justice minister Terry French announced on Thursday that he’d be resigning in a couple of weeks time to take up a job in the private sector. French’s announcement looked like…
Truth and Consequences #nlpoli
Wednesday morning started with an intriguing but hardly surprising story. CBC’s David Cochrane tweeted that sources in the John Ottenheimer camp believed that Conservative leadership candidates Steve Kent and Paul…
Slates #nlpoli
In any delegated political convention, you need to elect delegates in each of the districts who will vote for your candidate at the leadership convention. CBC’s On Point featured three…
The Conservative race picks up speed #nlpoli
One of the great things about political campaigns is that the players have a chance to surprise observers. We saw that in the Liberal leadership as Cathy Bennett went from…
Convergence #nlpoli
A couple of years ago, Liberal leader Dwight Ball said the Liberals would use earnings from Muskrat Falls to lower electricity prices for consumers in this province. The Conservatives dismissed…
The World According to Kent #nlpoli
If you are one of the political savants who thinks that dominating Twitter makes for a modern, inspired, and successful political leadership campaign, then say hello to Premier Steve Kent,…
Avoiding a cabinet shuffle #nlpoli
By the end of the week, Premier Tom Marshall will be short at least two cabinet ministers. Paul Davis quit as health minister on Wednesday and Steve Kent is expected…
The Mulligan Race begins #nlpoli
By the end of the week, the provincial Conservatives will have the leadership race they deliberately avoided the last time out. That’s the one that ended with the Coleman fiasco.…
Grassroots #nlpoli
You’ll likely hear a lot of talk from Conservatives over the next few weeks about their “grassroots.” Trevor Taylor, for one mentioned them twice last week when talking about the…
White Knight #nlpoli
The Alberta Conservatives are looking for a new leader. The old one quit last month amid a caucus revolt and a loss of popularity in polls. Former federal cabinet minister…
The Fix Was In #nlpoli
Bill Barry, in the Western Star, on the Conservative leadership show he quit on Thursday: “I just chose to recognize that the leader has been selected by the party insiders.”…
The Outsider #nlpoli
Frank Coleman told an audience of reporters and supporters in Corner Brook on Wednesday that he was in the Conservative Party leadership race to win it. That’s novel, given that…
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…
The Throne Game, updated #nlpoli
“On the outside, Shawn Skinner and John Ottenheimer are still mulling it over, “wrote Des Sullivan last Thursday. “The price tag of running a credible campaign still daunts them; if…
Conservatives struggling for candidates #nlpoli
If David Cochrane’s sources are right, Danny Breen won’t be running for the Conservatives in Virginia Waters after all. That means that unless the Conservatives come up with an amazing…
Shawn: Prince of Denmark #nlpoli
The provincial New Democrats have dropped to single digits among respondents to the latest Corporate Research Associates quarterly omnibus poll. Other than that everything in the party choice results is…
Unconscious Press Humour #nlpoli
Digging through a set of files in the provincial archives once upon a time, your humble e-scribbler came across a particular file in a set bequeathed to the archives decades…
The Game of Throne #nlpoli
In 1979 and 1989, using pretty much the same party constitution as they have now, the provincial Conservatives in Newfoundland and Labrador managed to find a new party leader before…