PREMIER DAVIS: NOW IS NOT THE “RIGHT TIME”

Guest Post Written By "AGENT 13"

In June 2015, Premier Davis surprised most of the attendees at the NOIA Conference held in St. John’s. How? By stating that the provincial government and STATOIL may be only weeks away from finalizing the “term sheet” on the Bay du Nord field, a massive oil discovery located on the Flemish Pass.

At that time, the Premier indicated that the provincial government was on a path of negotiations to have the “term sheet” finalized, but that he would not commit to having it completed before the general election.

Then, last week Deputy Premier Steve Kent was asked about the status of the “term sheet” negotiations.  He stated his understanding it was very close and we would likely be hearing from the Minister of Natural Resources and the Premier in the coming weeks.

The question that must be asked is this: “Which party to the negotiations would benefit the most by finalizing the “term sheet” now, so close to a general election?”

OF WIMPS, GUTTERSNIPES, AND POLTROONS

When the Liberals should be pit bulls, they are wimps.

After Tory members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) refused to show up for a meeting, last week, to discuss the Humber Valley Paving (HVP) affair, Liberal MHA Jim Bennett told the Telegram “the whole thing seems fishy to him…”

Some condemnation!  

And Bennett wasn’t even in the legislature where the Speaker might have ruled any provocation out of order.

A good Opposition MHA would have whipped out his thesaurus of insults, insinuations, epithets and allegations. The public would know, in the colourful language of the best parliamentarians, that the guttersnipes heading the government are weak of character as well as at the knees.

GOVERNMENT REFUSES INVESTIGATION; SUPPORT NALCOR'S $ BILLION CONTRACT AWARD

Uncle Gnarley Blog received the Government's reply to my letter requesting that the Premier call an investigation into Nalcor’s award of the contract for the construction of the Labrador Island Link (LIL) transmission line.

While the letter was sent to Premier Paul Davis, it was his Natural Resources Minister, Derick Dalley, who replied.

Readers will recall that this Blogger was contacted by an anonymous person calling himself “Tender Man”. The concerned citizen had conducted extensive research into Nalcor’s handling of the contract award, having documented the process of Nalcor’s decision to first meld one tender into another, and then award the contract without competition. The documentation was gathered from Reports posted on Nalcor’s web site over several months.

A PLEA TO PREMIER DAVIS

Guest Post By Cabot Martin

A Plea to Premier Davis: call a Public Inquiry into the Dunphy shooting - NOW

On Friday past, the RNC officer (so far unnamed) who shot Donny Dunphy sent out a letter that sped through the provincial consciousness like a bitter March wind.

As a result, in the midst of tragedy, we are confronted with the unwelcome need to push on down a road of inquiry that seems to open into a place we have not been before.

It is a place far from those days, not very long ago, when it was our happy boast that our very own RNC was the only unarmed police force in North America.

We evidently have not paid enough attention to policing matters and to what the RNC has been up to with this PSU business.

For instance, how did this letter, this extraordinary intervention by Officer “X” , an officer subject to an ongoing police investigation, get written in the first place?

DEMOCRACY WHACKED WITH A NIGHTSTICK

The Premier’s decision to redraw electoral districts and reduce the House of Assembly from 48 to 38 seats has little to do with saving money. As his window of opportunity closes, the Premier is on the hunt for a fix to reverse his Party’s dismal standings. His latest move seems like pure mischief; except it has far ranging consequences.

The 10 seat reduction represents a savings of about $10 million over four years. That is far less than half the amount Nalcor’s Ed Martin wasted in a misguided oil exploration plan that drilled two dry holes in Parson’s Pond!

The strategy of altering the number of electoral ridings for political advantage is not original; though, I am not inclined to ascribe to Paul Davis any of the skills of Prince Machiavelli or even of former Premier Frank Moores, the latter having employed it to great effect.   

Frank Moores’ redistribution plan was not just skilful; it had a purpose noble enough to exceed its crassness.

THE POPE AND PAUL DAVIS

2014 could be rightly named the year of missed opportunity.  It didn’t begin with Paul Davis at the helm, but it ends that way. Already hindsight confirms that, in contrast to Pope Francis who will never have to face re-election, Davis’ failure was pre-ordained.

Almost at the start, Premier Dunderdale vacated her post amidst appalling insensitivity to widespread public endangerment and economic disruption.  Nalcor had visited upon the Island the vicissitudes of DARKNL. Her “not a crisis” comment was just the latest in a series of gaffes exhibiting an incapacity for empathy. A frustrated public had reached their breaking point.

Temporary first minister, Tom Marshall, took no opportunity to right what had become a ship-wrecked administration. While opinion polls awarded him barely higher marks than his predecessor, the local media did its best to award him an undeserved pedestal. The man of great girth warranted little stature.

CETA: RETURN OF THE KEYSTONE COPS

The Keystone Cops were fictional incompetent policemen, featured in silent film comedies. In Confederation Building these days, it seems a comedy of errors is being played out by our very own version of the Keystone troupe; though no one is laughing.

Loss of federal funding in relation to the Canada/European Trade Agreement (CETA) has stirred up a new war with Ottawa.  Premier Davis might like you to pick up placards and show your outrage. My advice: save your energy.  The ineptitude is right here.

Even though the CETA issue is not about high sounding principles or constitutional rights, the controversy involves a lot of money. Whether the Province ought to have levered funding from a trade deal in which it was also a beneficiary is moot. Now we are left to ask: how could a deal deemed by Dunderdale to be “done” completely fall off the rails?

This story involves more than just a dispute over phraseology or even intent; it is about naivety and over bearing confidence. It calls into question the judgment of the former Premier (one more time) and the professionalism of the bureaucrats who headed the negotiating team.  

WHAT IS PREMIER DAVIS TO DO?

Following the P.C. Party’s defeat in last Tuesday’s two by-elections, one might have had some sympathy for Premier Davis if he had not been part of the Dunderdale and Marshall Governments.  Davis had an opportunity to deal with those years of misrule. He didn’t. 

  

Upon winning the Tory Leadership, Davis should have dashed for the job, attempted to strike a different tone and set a new agenda. Instead, he dallied on getting sworn-in, chose a politically inexperienced Chief of Staff, made a balls of his new Cabinet, signalled the wrong public policy priorities and proceeded to confirm he was happy with the Government’s record. 

Not having caused the current Session of the House of Assembly to prorogue, he lost a strategic opportunity to assert additional ideas for a ‘fresh’ image.   He overlooked the fact that the chief function of a Throne Speech is to signal innovation and renewal to an expectant public.

THE TORIES: DEATH COMES SLOWLY

The Tories’ loss in the CBS by-election reflects what provincial polls have been telling us for a long time. The Party is unloved and that is being kind.  Premier Davis has done nothing to differentiate himself or his Administration’s approach to either communications or public policy from that of his recent predecessors.  

Does he not want to disassociate himself, at least, from the Dunderdale era?  Does he not understand voters are still distressed by that time?

For all the reasons that are well-known, this by-election was important to the Government and to the P.C. Party. Hoping that the bleeding was at an end and having called by-elections in Trinity-Bay de Verde and Humber East, the Premier might have wanted to proclaim: “Remember, Remember the 5^th of November”! Having lost, he has no rallying cry. The voters are not inspired.  Even the most ardent partisans make no claim that theirs is a Party of renewal. 

The problem is illuminated by CBC political “Point” man, David Cochrane, who chalked up the loss to the Tories being out-hustled by a resurgent Liberal Party organization; except Cochrane has merely identified a symptom, not the source. 

LEADERSHIP WOES OF THE CONSTABLE PREMIER

Premier Paul Davis knows the sting of political whiplash. Just four weeks ago he experienced the euphoria of victory.  Minutes after his investiture, he discovered no honeymoon awaited him with either the pundits or the public.

It is not Davis’ fault the Auditor-General chose to dump the HVP Report on him, rather than on Tom Marshall, who is as much deserving of blame as Nick McGrath. But Paul Davis is entirely responsible for not ordering a deeper investigation into its odious contents.

As to his other decisions, what does it say about him that he would elevate an uncouth backbencher, Keith Russell, and award him Ministerial status?

The public may not understand the importance of political convention vis a vis the unelected Ms. Manning, but the Premier should.  

Similarly, even a police constable should know that changing the Department of Justice to the Department of Public Safety is akin to replacing an ‘ideal’ with a ‘cop car’. 

THE LIBERALS: NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY

Last week, the public saw Premier Paul Davis appoint an unelected female Minister of Public Safety arguing, among others things, the Government suffers a gender deficiency.  

Meanwhile, an intelligent and successful woman, a fine communicator, the MHA for Fortune Bay-Cape La Hune, Tracey Perry is left out of the Davis Cabinet.  She failed to make the list of the Williams, Dunderdale and the Marshall Cabinets, too.  

But the Tories aren’t the only ‘lug heads’ in politics when it comes to promoting women and levelling the scales of gender equality.  The tricks played by the Liberals in the District of Humber East, to discourage Corner Brook businesswoman Donna Thistle from running, do little to give the Party a legitimate claim to enhancing female representation in the House of Assembly. 

It seems Thistle was a cause celeb when the Liberals thought her a sacrificial lamb.  But when Frank Coleman’s departure from the P.C Leadership also removed him from a planned by-election, the Liberals decided they didn't want a political neophyte to challenge the Tories in the District after all.