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Is Democracy Dead or Just on Life Support?

What’s happened to democracy in Canada? Is it still alive and kicking, on life support, or as many now believe, truly dead?

On the federal level we have a Prime Minister in office that believes he can simply dismiss the elected representatives of the people with a phone call any time the heat is too much for him. The public continues to rail against his undemocratic actions while the PM simply circles his hand picked team power brokers and does as he pleases.

It’s an attitude that has become more and more prevalent throughout politics in Canada. Examples of the growing belief by elected officials that they have “absolute” power can be found right across Canada and at all levels of government.

Take the example of the government of New Brunswick and its determined effort to sell off the provinces publicly owned power utility.

The Graham government in New Brunswick was elected on a platform that promised not to privatize NB Power. It was a platform plank that helped propel them into office. Now, in their first term of office the Premier and his Liberal caucus are hell bent on doing the exact opposite of what they were elected to do.

Tens of thousands of citizens have joined an online group opposing the sale and even though the group, on a per capita basis, is 6 times larger than one fighting the prorogation of Parliament, the Graham government is refusing to listen.

Protests are held on a daily basis at the Legislature and in front of MLA offices yet they refuse to listen.

Letters, emails, phone calls and public confrontations with members of the Graham government, by the hundreds, are happening daily yet they refuse to listen.

The volume of letters to local papers and the public opinion polls show that a vast majority of the public is opposed to the sale. Court challenges have been brought forward and native groups are seeking an injunction to stop the sale yet they still move forward with the planned sale.

What does that say about democracy other than sounding the death knell?

The Graham government is claiming they are not privatizing the utility because they are selling it to another crown corporation, even though that corporation is owned by the Quebec government, not the New Brunswick government. Clearly this is a case of quoting the letter of their platform over its clear intent”.

They are also claiming that their recent decision not to sell the transmission capacity is a case of them “listening to the people” but is it really? When you consider that they are not selling the poles but giving up all the capacity on those lines to Hydro-Quebec for eternity the self serving hair splitting taking place in New Brunswick is flagrant.

As with the proroguing of parliament, the actions of Premier Graham are clearly self serving. They are certainly not intended to serve the public interest.

In recent days elected MLAs in New Brunswick have even resorted to attacking the voting public to whom they should be answerable.

According to several witnesses, MLA Wally Stiles, a Cabinet Minister in the Graham government, told protestors outside his constituency office in Petitcodiac on Monday, “If you f--king a--holes think you are going to win this you had better think again! And I am f--king well going to run for the Liberal Party again!"

Stiles later got into an altercation with a resident in a local restaurant. The situation had to be brought under control by a retired RCMP officer who happened to be dining in the establishment at the time.

These sorts of incidents are becoming more and more prevalent among elected MLAs each day.

When the Stiles situation was brought to the attention of Premier Graham and members of his cabinet the only response came from Energy Minister, Jack Keir who, in addition to showing no concern about the actions of someone representing his government appeared to indicate that because this writer is a Newfoundlander I must be unemployed. Either that or when he said, “…Come on over, we'll see if we can help you land a job?” I have to wonder if he was actually offering me something to gain my silence?

Indeed, the sort of undemocratic and unprofessional actions we’ve seen in Ottawa lately are spreading like wildfire across the entire Country and it’s a slippery slope when those elected to office respond to their constituents, as both Premier Graham and his Energy Minister recently did, by saying they intend to do what they want regardless of the feelings of the public because:

“I'm not concerned. Politics wasn't a career for me.” – Minister Jack Keir

By Myles Higgins

NB Premier Demands Profit from NL Hydro Resources

On March 31, 2009 – the 60th anniversary of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Confederation within Canada – New Brunswick Premier, Shawn Graham, fired a shot across Newfoundland and Labrador’s bow by saying that his Province might well do to Newfoundland and Labrador’s Lower Churchill hydro project what Quebec did to with its Upper Churchill project decades earlier.

In 1969 - twenty years after entering Confederation, and while development of the Upper Churchill project was well under way, the Province of Quebec refused to allow Newfoundland and Labrador the ability to wheel power across their jurisdiction.

This situation led to the Newfoundland and Labrador government of the day to sign a contract that continues until 2016 (44 years), a contract that has already seen Quebec Hydro reap Billions upon Billions in revenues by purchasing power from Newfoundland and Labrador at bargain basement prices while reselling it at market values.

At the end of the initial 44 year contract, in 2016, an automatic renewal phase kicks in. That contract phase, which extends until 2041 (a further 25 years), will see Quebec Hydro, purchase power at even lower prices than under the initial contract, prices that were considered an unheard of bargain even in the 1960’s.

During the life of the contract Newfoundland and Labrador, the owner of the resources involved and producer of the power generated, has and will continue to receive just enough revenue to keep the turbines turning, the power flowing and the revenues rolling into the Province of Quebec.

Based on his comments this week, New Brunswick Premier, Shawn Graham, appears to be hoping history will repeat itself.

Because of the terrible contract Newfoundland and Labrador signed onto in 1969 and has lived with ever since, NALCOR, Newfoundland and Labrador’s energy corporation, is currently in negotiations with several utilities throughout the Maritimes, with an eye to circumventing Quebec by wheeling power from the new Lower Churchill project through Atlantic Canada.

Now, on the 60th anniversary of Newfoundland and Labrador’s entry into Confederation the Premier of New Brunswick, which sits on the U.S. border, is saying Provinces should not expect to build energy projects and then ship the electrical power to the United States through his Province.

“Not so fast”, Graham said this week.

"The marker that we're putting in the ground is: we're not just going to (permit) the erection of lines for electricity transmission in New Brunswick that benefit other regions, but not (us)."

"We don't begrudge our sister provinces in the region for having taken full advantage of their resources and their geographic location," the Premier said in his speech to the Economic Club of Canada. "But in New Brunswick, we are going to leverage every advantage we have to the absolute fullest and since our geography is so advantageous to us we are not going to give it up for another jurisdiction to simply run wires through our province.”

It seems that, just like the Quebec situation 40 years ago, after 60 years of a continually rocky relationship with Canada, nothing has changed for Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Province was geographically and politically isolated from the rest of the Country in 1949 when it joined, in 1969 when Quebec walked over the people there and in 2009 New Brunswick is looking for its opportunity take full advantage of Newfoundland and Labrador’s resources.

Today however there are three key differences between the current situation and the one that took place in 1969.

In 1969 the citizens of Newfoundland and Labrador, by and large, were not as informed or educated as they are today.

In 1969 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was not even heard of.
Today the U.S., as a potential consumer of Lower Churchill power would likely have a great deal to say under NAFTA if such an attempt were made.

In 1969 Newfoundland and Labrador was led by the so called “Father of Confederation”, the proud federalist, Joey Smallwood.

In 2009 Newfoundland and Labrador is led by a Premier who has presented himself to be a proud and very outspoken Newfoundland and Labrador nationalist in Danny Williams.

Nobody in Newfoundland and Labrador expects any Province to provide electrical transmission infrastructure free of charge, but any attempt to force another one sided contract by placing the Province under duress is simply out of the question.

When Quebec threw its weight around and blocked Newfoundland and Labrador’s ability to reach energy markets 40 years ago Premier Joey Smallwood met with Prime Minister Lester Pearson to discuss the matter.

According to historians, Pearson looked Smallwood in the eye and said, “Please don’t ask me. If you ask me I’ll have to say yes.”

Pearson was of course referring to the fact that the Canadian Constitution clearly states that no Province can impede another from moving goods or services across their jurisdiction.

At the time Smallwood approached Pearson Newfoundland and Labrador had only been a part of Canada for 20 years. Quebec was in the throws of a separatist crisis, terrorism was on the rise there and Pearson did not want to go head to head with the Quebec leadership or people in an effort to protect the Constitutional rights of Newfoundland and Labrador. Smallwood let him walk away from his obligation to do so.

Smallwood never asked the question and Newfoundland and Labrador, for the “good of Canada”, has lived with the resulting blow to its troubled economy ever since.

Today not much has changed in Ottawa but times are certainly different in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The current Premier of the Province and the citizens that have lived with the ghost of the Upper Churchill might not only ask the Government of Canada to defend the Constitution of the Country but will likely demand it.

New Brunswick Premier, Shawn Graham, may simply be blowing steam for some unknown political reason. He may not truly intend to take a page from Quebec’s past by attempting to block energy exports from Newfoundland and Labrador but if he does he’ll find that his Eastern neighbour isn’t as easy to take advantage of as it once was.

If such an attempt is indeed made and if Ottawa refuses once again to perform its Constitutional duty, their lack of action will serve no purpose but to hasten the ultimate break up of the Canadian federation.

How can a Nation exist when neither it’s Provinces nor its Federal government respect, defend or live by the very Constitution that defines it?

As of publishing, the region’s senior Federal Cabinet Minister and Minister appointed by Stephen Harper to represent Newfoundland and Labrador interests, Peter MacKay, has not commented on Premier Graham’s position.

UPDATE April 3, 6:55 AM - Sorry Graham but it seems the odds are stacked against you on your "protectionist" approach.

Since this post was published Premier Williams has stated to the press: "There's no point in people getting territorial on us and saying we're going to close off our borders, we're going to generate our own power and then push it out through, because that's just not the way it works,"

"What (Graham) obviously needs to understand " (is that) we have a right to go through there if we're in the queue properly and we can get the access through, then we pay New Brunswick a fair tariff."

Meanwhile, New Brunswick Opposition leader David Alward said the situation is nothing more than a publicity stunt launched by Graham's handlers.

"They're tying to show the premier as a leader, when in reality he has been all over the map," said the Tory MLA for Woodstock. "It's propaganda gone wrong.

Peter Mackay has said: "...energy projects could simply "bypass" New Brunswick.

Premier Rodney MacDonald had some tough words for his New Brunswick counterpart over the route of an energy corridor from the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project.

Premier Rodney MacDonald of Nova Scotia: "If they don’t want to take part in what is happening for the region, they can always be bypassed," (Sounds like Rodney is parroting the Federal Minister again doesn’t it? Sorry, but when it’s that obvious…” Moving on.)

"We are more than willing to see that power flowing through Nova Scotia. If that would mean bypassing New Brunswick and going through a subsea cable… we are more than willing to do that…There are requirements in place with regards to open access to the U.S. market which are actually dealt with by the federal government in the United States"

This isn’t the first time New Brunswick has threatened to block a regional energy project. during regulatory hearings into the $2-billion Sable offshore gas project, New Brunswick demanded jobs and access to the natural gas off Nova Scotia in return for having a pipeline cut across the province.

It could be difficult for Mr. Graham to try and block the flow of electricity, said Mr. Lumley.

It looks like, when it comes to accessing NL resources the province has lots of support doesn't it. Hmmmmm...

Meanwhile, the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador has also been touting a "new deal" to wheel power through Quebec directly to outside markets. Web Talk will have more on this "deal" and what it really means, in the coming days. - Myles