YVONNE JONES WINS BUT NL BIGGEST LOSER

So, the voters have informed Peter Penashue his services are no longer required. Whom it will shock is uncertain; possibly, only the P.C. Party of Canada.

The entire spectacle is tough to comprehend.  Peter was feckless, as an MP and as a Cabinet Minister.  In the briefest of tenures, he has etched a place among the ‘weakest of the weak’ sent to the hallowed halls of Parliament.

That the National P.C. Party did not consider a Nomination Meeting in an effort to suss out other, possibly more electable or more suitable candidates, is inexplicable. It’s as if they didn’t really want Peter’s Labrador Seat all that badly. 

The current Majority Government forgets its near death experience when it was a ‘Minority’ player in the House of Commons.  A busy PM and non-stop Cabinet Ministers, seemingly, don’t have time to weigh the importance or the long term implications of one loss.  A Justin Trudeau may be a featherweight now, but, politics is a fickle sport and such wins exact a price. Remember Danny’s ABC Campaign?  Now, the Province is completely shut out of the Federal Government.

The Harper Paradox

It was not abnormal for my old friend Uncle Gnarley to pay a visit.  But it was certainly abnormal for him to call in advance.   It was at sunrise, this morning, when the phone rang, the old gruff voice was more effective than any alarm clock in getting my blood moving, “Have you read it Nav….?”

“Read what”?

“The Loan Guarantee!  Have you read it”?

But, before I could answer, he continued with his usual charm, “I am coming over this evening, I want to discuss some if it’s finer points.  Be sure that you drop by the Controller’s today”.  With that the phone went dead. 

I was’t sure if I should read the Term Sheet, but I knew I had better pick up a bottle of Oban.  Gnarley may be forgiving with the former, but I would certainly feel his wrath, if I had forgotten the latter. 

THE ELUSIVE LOAN GUARANTEE

Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged a federal loan guarantee, for the Muskrat Falls project or equivalent, during a 2011 campaign stop in St. John’s.

The guarantee still eludes.

The Premier is on tender hooks.  She can’t schedule the debate in the House of Assembly and MHI can’t complete its final report unless the guarantee arrives. Is this why the Premier was recently heard in the media voicing the possibility that the debate could take place without the guarantee?

To those who say that the Feds made a commitment, I’d say what about the “conditions” attached to the offer.

On Sept. 12, 2012 the CBC recorded federal Finance Minister, following a speech in St. John's, saying:  “We have a commitment…to provide the loan guarantee, and we have to work on the details, of course…we will honour the commitment”.

Two weeks later, on September 27, 2012, concerned that the guarantee (and hence, the project) was falling off the rails, Dunderdale raced off to Ottawa to meet with PM Harper but came up empty handed.

Now the end of October is upon us. Still, there is no loan guarantee, notwithstanding the new impetus ostensibly given federal bureaucrats by the Prime Minister.