JOHN ABBOTT: OUTLIER IN A PARTISAN TENT?

In contrast to his Liberal leadership rival, John Abbott may be a heavyweight in the public policy arena but policy-wonk, alone, will not count with the Liberal Party or in the high office of political leadership. Then, too, what constitutes timely, affordable, and sensible policy alternatives is moot.

Leaders need to be capable of “selling” their ideas to an electorate and of “winning” their support. Individuals afraid of change — because it may hurt — will look for leadership which offers glib solutions. Others, who see change as inevitable and necessary, will prefer someone who has the courage to follow through, provided any such plan is not dysfunctional.

ANDREW FUREY THINKS RHETORIC AND IDEAS ARE THE SAME

This is Andrew Furey at the kick-off to his Liberal Leadership bid: “I want to make a difference. I know the province is facing some tough times right now… I think I have something to offer.”

The Address, attended by all but one Member of the provincial Liberal Caucus, continued with this assertion: “I think everyone realizes the budget crunch that we’re under. My top priority is going to be to get in there, get fully up to speed on the fiscal situation… get a better understanding of the economic pressures, upward or downward, and the levers that have been pulled or not pulled.” What codswallop! “Upward or downward”… “pulled or not pulled”. This is a Premier-in-waiting who is not “up to speed” in more ways than one.

HOW TO REOPEN SAFELY: THE BALANCE BETWEEN PUBLIC HEALTH AND ECONOMICS

Guest Post by David Vardy

Are We Ready?

The pandemic has become the biggest public policy issue which we face. It poses a threat to our public health and to our economic and fiscal sustainability. Yet government has hesitated to engage in a systematic consultation process as had been recommended or to establish advisory councils to seek guidance from concerned citizens on governing in the age of coronavirus.

How far should we go in locking down our economy? Should we protect only the vulnerable and the elderly or lock down the full economy? GNL is being pressed to reopen the economy, particularly by the tourism industry and various business people who recently wrote to the Premier. Are we now ready to reopen fully and to invite tourists to the province? The letter to the Premier asked for “an immediate end to the State of Medical Emergency and a return of the governance of the province to our elected officials.

THE JOY OF THIS SUMMER MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK

After nearly three months of listening, on an almost daily basis, to Premier Ball’s continuous string of innocuous and unfinished sentences, presumably intended — who would know — to safeguard the province from a largely non-existent local pandemic, some happenings are worth noting.

People have started back to work, the sun has come out, the Liberal Leadership contest is back on, and a group of business people — Hall of Famers no less — have weighed in on Government’s determination to kill the economy. Then, too, a pulse — though still weak — has been discovered in the two Opposition Parties who now oppose a second Interim Supply.

This is not normally the stuff of great rejoicing; dancing in the streets still being de rigeur in the era of pandemic. But in a place such as this, starved for leadership, the equivalent of even watery gruel can seem a time of feast.

WHY THE TELEGRAM’S BRIAN JONES CAN’T RIVAL “GO-BAG”.

The decision by the management of The Telegram to disembowel the editorial pen of columnist Brian Jones signals more than just evidence of continued decline in the idea of freedom of the press. His dismissal from the role exposes the extent to which special interest groups — and their petit leadership — will stoop to assuage the fragile egos of those paid from the public purse.

“Real” independent journalism has a spotty history in Newfoundland and Labrador anyway. It is a fact of life not exclusive to here, but this should give us no comfort. 

Our story is simply that of a small homogeneous population far too ready to embrace political, business, social and institutional networks that are inward-looking, and who thrive on nepotism, partisanship, insecurity, and perpetual deference to authority. It is an environment more likely to perpetuate pettiness than self-confidence, or that is likely to magnify perceived insult, when all that is required to matters about which we disagree is the barely cerebral retort: “we beg to differ.”

WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT FROM OTTAWA? (Part 4)

Guest Post by David Vardy and Ron Penney

What should we expect from Ottawa?

Part Four

GNL has to commit itself to put its house in order, recognizing there are practical limits. GOC will not want to write us a blank cheque. Ottawa will seek a commitment to a three to five year fiscal recovery plan and they will demand a say in the plan. Will we have to surrender our sovereignty in order to secure the help we will need? Or will a commitment to balanced budget legislation at the end of a three to five year fiscal recovery plan be sufficient?

We have 1.38% of the population of Canada. We receive 0.947% of federal transfer payments. Nova Scotia has 2.58% of the population and receives 4.43% of the federal cash transfers. Nova Scotia gets $2.1 billion in equalization, while we get none. This is the case because the equalization program is based on fiscal capacity and operates with a lag. Our fiscal capacity has been above the national average so we have not been meeting the threshold but this does not mean there is not a strong case to be made for enhanced funding under both existing program such as Fiscal Stabilization Payments and under other funding mechanisms, designed to provide fiscal relief during the pandemic. 

FISCAL CHOICES AFTER REOPENING: A FRAMEWORK FOR DISCUSSION (Part 3)

Guest Post by David Vardy and Ron Penney

FISCAL CHOICES AFTER REOPENING:
A FRAMEWORK FOR DISCUSSION 

PART THREE

We had intended to send this to the Telegram to ask if it would publish the two parts as guest columns as it had for the first two. 

The Telegram has been very good to both of us and has published the many opinion pieces we wrote both together and individually on Muskrat Falls and other public policy issues over the past decade. In the same period the Telegram has done an excellent job though it’s columnists, such as Russell Wangersky, Pam Frampton and Brian Jones, on Muskrat Falls, and other important public policy issues, as has its reporters such as Ashley Fitzpatrick. 

The recent decision of the Telegram to suspend further columns from Brian Jones is not what we expect from the Telegram, the last bastion for freedom of the press in Newfoundland and Labrador.  

As Voltaire said “I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” 

NATURAL GAS: WHY SAVING THE PLANET WILL HELP SAVE NEWFOUNDLAND

Guest Post by Cabot Martin 

Uncle Gnarley’s recent invitation to pen a few words on Oil & Gas issues has emboldened me to return to a few of my favorite offshore issues. 

There will be two articles – the first on our most neglected sector, offshore natural gas development; the second on oil issues.  

The natural gas aspect seems to be largely absent from the recent “Town Hall” efforts in support of the oil & gas industry’s continued presence and vigor in our offshore area. 

These comments are meant to “complement those efforts” in the old days I would have said “demonstrate they are missing the boat” – but that was then and this is now. 

Indeed, the first draft of this piece included a long list of unfortunate aspects of the natural gas debate – but in the interest of the common cause it ended up on the cutting room floor. 

CROSBIE AND COFFIN CONTRIBUTING TO WEAK GOVERNMENT

One year after the General Election, Ches Crosbie’s pathetically weak Opposition should not go unnoticed. Neither should NDP Alison Coffin’s entirely un-influential role, despite holding the balance of power holding up a minority government. 

Another year of the same is layered onto a fifteen year legacy of disastrous public administration under Williams, Dunderdale, Marshall, and Davis and Ball. Each has built on the thesis of Lord Amulree, whose Royal Commission Report suggested that the British Constitution is not suited to the people of Newfoundland. That is to say, we are incapable of self-government. Crosbie and Coffin have done their part, too, to strengthen Amulree’s claim.

ECONOMY NEEDS MENDING AT A HIGH LEVEL

Premier Ball’s March 20, 2020 letter to PM Justin Trudeau seeking help following his Administration’s failure “to finalize our borrowing program, both short and long term”, might have reminded the PM of the Dickens character Oliver Twist, and his plea to Mr. Bumble: “Please, sir, I want some more.” Luckily for Ball, he wasn’t handy enough to Trudeau to be given a knock with the soup spoon, Oliver Twist’s reward for ingratitude; surely only distance could have spared him.

During his five years as Premier, Ball has never shown an inclination to “self-help”. That is not to suggest that the Province did not need the assistance of the Government of Canada to meet the public sector payroll. However, the economic fallout of the pandemic and an oil industry labouring under obliterated demand, has only compounded a pre-existing overspending problem; it did not originate there.