Fight with the Feds Won't End Soon

Just in case you didn't see it, the following is an article published in the Nova Scotia paper, "The Chronicle Herald" today. I guess Newfoundlanders and Labradorians aren't the only ones who feel betrayed by the Harper crime syndicate, as much as so called national papers like the Globe and Mail and National Post might try to make it look that way.

At least the people of Nova Scotia are rightfully outraged and saying so, even it their Conservative Premier is still more than willing to bow to the whims of his party's national body.

The people of Atlantic Canada should all stand together and let Ottawa know we are tired of being forced to sit in the back of the bus.

I'd encourage anyone in the St. John's area this Friday May 11th to go to the Confederation Building at 12:00 noon and show their support for the province by attending the "Stand Up For Newfoundland and Labrador" rally that day. See you there.

Cheers,
Myles

Fight with Feds Won’t End Soon
By MARILLA STEPHENSON

DON’T KID YOURSELF into believing federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty came to Halifax this week to score points with Nova Scotians in the wake of the Harper government’s betrayal of our offshore accord. There’s no rush to mend fences here or to save the political backsides of the province’s three measly Conservative MPs.

Nope, with the federal Conservatives dipping marginally below the Liberals in national polling this week for the first time in months, to say nothing of the ongoing debacle over the torture of Taliban detainees after they had been transferred from the custody of Canadian soldiers, there will be no more talk of a spring election any time soon. But what better time to try to firm up support in seat-rich Ontario, or even the West, by coming to town to deliver a neat spanking to those welfare Novies looking for "double equalization," as the outraged Flaherty puffed on Wednesday afternoon.

There is no panic to make a deal, and Flaherty has no intention of making any agreement with this province that he will have to match in Newfoundland and Labrador, where outraged Premier Danny Williams has declared political war against the Harper Conservatives since the federal budget came out in March.

After Flaherty’s meeting with acting Finance Minister Angus MacIsaac, it was announced that a further meeting would take place. Still, the federal minister was pretty clear in saying he wouldn’t budge on his decision to break the equalization promise in the 2005 accord — though he didn’t exactly describe it like that.

"It isn’t double equalization that’s on the table. It’s one or the other," Flaherty told reporters at a news conference after the meeting. He was referring to the no-win choice: Nova Scotia must either opt into the new and improved equalization formula or stick with the old one while not being penalized for receiving offshore accord revenues.

One day later, Premier Rodney MacDonald took a crack at Prime Minister Stephen Harper while levelling his strongest criticism yet against the federal Conservatives.

At a speech at a Nova Scotia Tory fundraising dinner in Halifax on Thursday night, MacDonald said that after months of "promising to fix the fiscal imbalance — ‘fix it for a generation’ was the promise — we were given two options: Either keep the accord or give it up in order to gain new equalization dollars.

"This was not what we expected. Not after months of supporting the agenda of Canada’s new government. Not after supporting their efforts at Senate reform, strengthening our military and removing internal trade barriers."

"It was not what we expected after the current prime minister championed our cause when he was in opposition — and we thank him for that support. What we expected was the government of Canada to live up to its agreement."

"What we got was something completely different."

MacDonald noted that Nova Scotia responsibly applied the full $830-million payment from the accord to our provincial debt, and described the accord as this province’s opportunity to move beyond the need for equalization through a federally supported economic development program not unlike Ontario’s auto pact or Alberta’s oil rights in the 1950s.

"I don’t believe they understand how keeping the carrot perpetually out of our reach will ensure that Nova Scotia remains forever on the fringes of this prosperous and great nation," he said of the federal Conservatives.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I will make them understand. I will make them understand that the accord was intended as our ticket out of equalization. And I will make them understand that a deal is a deal is a deal."

All of this is fine and good, but I suspect the solution for both Flaherty and MacDonald might lie in the issue to which the premier segued next: the Atlantic Gateway proposal that would see Nova Scotia developed as a central transportation link from North America to Europe and Western Asia.

Federal investment in this province for the gateway would enable Harper and Flaherty to throw us a few bones while allowing them to continue thumbing their noses at the rightly aggrieved Williams.

It’s not pretty and it’s not right. The gateway is a proposal Ottawa should be supporting in this province regardless of the dispute over the offshore accord. None of us is naive enough to think, however, that the federal government would refuse to use gateway funding as the next political carrot to dangle before this province.

MacDonald described the gateway concept as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to redirect existing trade routes to the benefit of this province. Once-in-a-generation opportunity, eh? Funny, I remember when premiers used to say that about our offshore resources.