Da Legal Stuff...
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Now, with that out of the way...Let's Web Talk.
With the Christmas season upon us I plan to spend some quality time with my family, bask in the warm glow of a crackling fire and imbibe the odd rum and eggnog.
I will be back in front of the old keyboard in the New Year but before I sign off I would like to offer a few Christmas wishes to one and all.
First and foremost I offer my sincere wishes for a joyous Christmas and wonderful New Year to those of you who have visited my site over the years and who never cease to amaze me with your insightful comments.
I spend what time I can offering up the truth about Newfoundland and Labrador and it is you who make that often frustrating task so much more bearable.
Thank-you so much.
On what you might call a less sincere note, I would also like to offer some Christmas wishes to a few other individuals of note.
To the newly appointed senator from Newfoundland and Labrador, Fabian Manning, I wish you all the best in your position at the federal trough.
You completely deserve the appointment that has been given to you.
No matter the party stripe, senate appointments have always been given to individuals who have placed party loyalty above all else, even any sense of morality. In this light you have every right to wallow in the mud with the rest of the senate pork barrel crowd.
No better example of this sort of party loyalty can be found than in Fabian Manning, a man who helped his party leader ridicule and mock an entire province. A man who actively condoned his party leader lying to the people of his home province and who went so far as to publicly attempt to sell that lie to the people who elected him.
Have a wonderful Christmas Mr. Manning and enjoy your blood money.
To Mr. Harper himself, may the spirit of Christmas, actually the 3 spirits of Christmas, be visited upon you during this holiday period.
Just as Scrooge was visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, who caused him to change his ways, may you also experience an epiphany of sorts before the New Year rolls around.
May you come to discover that there are far more important things in this world than personal ambition, ideology or political power.
May you come to understand that there are individuals who are suffering, families who are in desperate need and entire communities on the brink of collapse. These realities exist across the entire Country (which by the way does not end at the Quebec border even if that border has been redrawn to steal a large swath of Labrador).
A screw it, I can’t go on with this charade any longer.
In truth I wish Mr. Harper exactly what he deserves this Christmas, a big lump of coal or even a glob of tar sands sludge.
Have a great one folks and I’ll be back in the New Year.
Myles
Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause and if you are a blue blooded ultra Conservative stalwart his name is Stephen.
Conversely, believe it or not, Steve Clause also visited his gifts on Newfoundland and Labrador this Christmas even after failing to win a single seat in the Province during the last election.
Yes indeed, it also seems Newfoundland and Labrador is the recipient of more than a little of the PM’s Christmas spirit this year (unintended of course).
When it comes to cronyism no better proof of the PM’s spirit of giving can be found than the senate appointment of disgraced Newfoundland and Labrador MP Fabian Manning. A man who had the audacity to sit, laugh and even egg on the Prime Minister in the House of Commons a couple of years ago as the latter publicly ridiculed Manning’s home Province.
Indeed, no better example can be found unless you also look at the Prime Minister’s appointment of CTV’s Mike Duffy, a national political correspondent with more than a little bias toward his ultra conservative friends. A bias that has exposed itself more and more in recent years, especially when interviewing federal Tory friends or when snidely deriding Newfoundland and Labrador Premier, Danny Williams.
Oh well, I guess that’s just the way things work in Ottawa, nothing new under the sun there.
What more would anyone expect from Santa Harper than a long list of patronage appointments after promising to never appoint senators. I guess the spirit of Christmas was just too much for the PM to resist. With plenty of personal time on his hands, having suspended Parliament so he couldn’t be forced to answer to a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons, the pork barrel spirit must have moved him to act.
Never having been a fan of blind partisanship there may be those who will be amazed at what I’m about to say next, but I would like to offer my heart felt congratulations to both Mr. Duffy and Mr. Manning.
At least with both of these men squirreled away inside the dusty old red senate chamber Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, along with Canadians in general, will no longer have to suffer through their partisan, one sided and self serving drivel.
There’s an old saying to the effect that the best way to relegate someone into silent obscurity is to appoint them to the Canadian senate. Looking at these appointments from that perspective perhaps the greatest Christmas gift of all this season has been given by the PM to Newfoundland and Labrador with the appointment of these two individuals.
Always look on the bright side folks. Always look on the bright side.
Merry Chrismas everyone.
Today I’d like to offer the entire Newfoundland and Labrador legislature, both government and opposition members, my heart felt congratulations for their combined efforts this week.
By working together to quickly enact legislation intended to secure the people’s water and timber rights from Abitibi-Bowater, each of the Province’s elected members have shown that they can indeed work together in a non-partisan way for the betterment of the Province, when the situation calls for it.
Perhaps their federal counterparts in Ottawa would do well to learn from this fine example.
On Tuesday the Williams government presented the Abitibi expropriation bill to the opposition members, met with them to discuss its contents and all parties worked together to move the bill through 3 readings, the committee stage and royal ascent. All of this was accomplished in under 5 hours.
That process spoke volumes about the ability of all the parties to put aside their partisan differences and work together for the greater good of the people they represent and for that they deserve a pat on the back.
The bill, which will see the Province expropriate all water & timber rights as well as any power generating facilities held by Abitibi once that company closes its last remaining mill, is something that had to be introduced to ensure that the company could not simply walk away from the Province and continue to retain control of valuable provincial resources.
Unfortunately the logic and importance of the effort put out by the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature is something that appears to have been lost on some Central Canadian quasi-news agencies and corporate mouthpieces.
Apparently some of these highly paid shills think the Province should have simply allowed Abitibi-Bowater to close its mill operations, throw a thousand people out of work yet sell or even retain the valuable natural resources of the Province so nobody else could have access to them.
Globe and Mail journalist (and I use the term journalist very loosely) Konrad Yakabuski even decided that the time was right to break out the “Danny Chavez” rhetoric once again and to slam the province for ensuring that its resources are not sold off to the highest bidder so Abitibi could continue to profit from the Province even after it has closed its doors.
In his commentary Mr. Yakabuski, who comes across as being very upset that Abitibi will not be able to sell those assets to pay down debt, attacked the Williams government for “Bludgeoning” the company.
He went on to say that this legislation will, “sour any sensible business person with an eye to investing in the province…”.
The position taken by Mr. Yakabuski leads this writer to wonder where his pay cheque comes from or if he is truly that obtuse.
In a feeble attempt to justify his attack Mr. Yakabuski wrote in the Globe that while, “It is true Abitibi has been so stingy with new capital that the mill might have been doomed by its obsolescence. But the hydro assets are still valuable. Abitibi had been counting on them to ease its own financial difficulties.”
Go figure.
Personally I can only say that it’s about time the Globe took another shot at Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Ontario based paper hasn’t taken a good shot at Williams or the Province for weeks now and this fact alone had almost convinced me that the Premier had slipped into the same sort of complacent “giveaway” mentality that has plagued the Province’s leaders since entering Confederation.
I guess my worries were unfounded.
Now that Canada’s national rag is on the attack again (as long as “national” means Central Canada) I’m more convinced than ever that the provincial government (all parties) must be doing the right thing on this file.
Mr. Jakabusi’s editorial attack makes me wonder what the Globe’s reaction will be should the Ontario government decide to take similar steps with Abitibi. Already the legislature in that province is expressing deep concern about the company’s plans to sell off similar assets there and are meeting with mill workers to gather their input.
It would be interesting to see the Globe’s spin on something like that.
“Sour any sensible business person with an eye to investing…” indeed.
As one letter I received from a reader just this morning so eloquently pointed out:
“Someone should remind the Globe that when it comes to attracting business the Ontario elite have no room to talk."
"What was it Jim Flaherty said about Ontario, "It is the last place anyone would want to invest."
"Meanwhile Newfoundland and Labrador is now a "Have" province while Ontario is a "Have Not."
"Newfoundland and Labrador has a (1.3 billion dollar) surplus, Ontario is running a deficit."
"Newfoundland and Labrador has record car and home sales, Ontario's sales are in the toilet."
"Oil, gas and other companies are investing in new activity in Newfoundland and Labrador all the time including during this economic downturn."
"It seems to me that the folks at this Ontario based rag have very little right to tell Newfoundland and Labrador how to deal with corporate interests."
Well said, well said indeed.
