Back from Newfoundland
I just got back from Newfoundland. What I learned in Newfoundland was this: Maybe the Beatles weren't more popular than Jesus but Premier Danny Williams certainly is. My friends would just start talking about the guy at random. Normally I have to ask questions about local politics. In this case they were gushing. A friend there who always votes NDP will vote Tory in the next election. I sense from reading the editorials in the Telegram that people actually feel a bit of moral pressure not to say things that are "against Danny".
I also learned that:
- Rumors exist that Danny Williams is sleeping with a woman who used to sleep with his son. No one cares.
- There is a huge "sponsorship scandal" type scandal in Newfoundland based on improper oversight of MP constituency budgets and the like. Heads are rolling, but Williams is teflon.
- That it is a very tough time to be a Federal Conservative MP from Newfoundland. Which makes me sad for my friend's dad who happens to be one of those MPs and is a genuinely decent thoughtful man.
- That Williams' strategy is spreading to Nova Scotia. Where Fiddler (take that anyway you like) Rodney has started howling at the Federal Budget.
- and that if I was Harper, I might feel compelled to get out in front on the equalization/atlantic accord issue and play some offence. Perhaps using the words "you can't have your cake and eat it too" a lot. Now I'm not saying that will win him any votes in the east. But it might get him some compensatory votes from irritated Ontario's paying taxes in the 905. (This note doesn't constitute me taking a stand on the whole atlantic accord issue by the way. Just the politics of it. I may comment on the substance of positions later but I'd have a lot more reading to do first. )
- And finally, that Newfoundlanders are awesome. Im a very lucky man to have so many Newfoundlander friends. That trip was *just* what the doctor ordered.
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Oh - and kudos to Colin Powell for his Guantanamo Bay comments this week. I'm a pretty hard nosed guy when it comes to security and the war on terrorism stuff. The opposite of the Bleeding Heart Liberal. But the way detainees are being held by the US is everything Powell said it was. Bring back Habeas Corpus.
Jesus. I can't believe I just had to write that last sentence. Bizarre times we do live in.
For the uninitiated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus
2 comments:
You can add me to the list of NDP voters who will probably vote Conservative (as much as it pains me) in the next provincial election because I like Danny and what he's doing for NL. He's not a bad hockey player either. ;)
The way that the ruling NL and NS Progressive Conservatives have been distancing themselves from the federal non-Progressive Conservatives isn't all that new. Provincial Liberal governments in Atlantic Canada, even sometimes Liberal MPs, often bash Ottawa. They are of course first at the trough when the time comes to waste ACOA money on a new golf course (one per riding in PEI) or other pesticide-spreading deforestation activity to suck up US dollars or ship out some other mineral or natural resource. It's not a sign of any "progressivity" or a "green strategy" in the sense that NS's decision to emulate some of California's environmental laws is. It's not a sign of anything but seeking leverage the next time the federal and provincial players sit down to deal. Atlantic Canada pays out all its investment, insurance, and tax money to Ontario (where Ottawa is - check the map) and then has to beg for it back, as the children follow the money that went West. The people who are left in charge in Atlantic Canada are the duller ones who simply seek to manage a decline and expect failure of any ambitious project. Williams is appealing precisely because he's not of that mold. MacDonald is, however, clearly and only that.
Had Alexa McDonough remained in the provincial NDP she'd have been Premier by now. But no, she went to Ottawa, like they all do, and further propagated the flow of all talent and ambition and brainpower west and south.
The dominant perception in Ontario, and Alberta, however, remains that the talent is actually worthless and that the net gain is to Atlantic Canada simply because money flows that way - only to flow back in investments and insurance and taxes and fees that Atlantic Canadians are forced to pay to Ontario. It has been said many times, correctly, that Nova Scotia had the most diverse and prosperous economy in the Northeast in the 1840s, and was also not coincidentally politically innovative at that time too. This was reversed by Confederation, which most Nova Scotians and Joseph Howe himself opposed. While NS has remained politically innovative (think Pugwash, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and recycling laws among the toughest in North America) its focus on craftsmanship and frugality and developing diverse skills in the same region disadvantaged it in the pre-sustainability economy. Even in a "green economy", though, the money supply problems would remain. It's bad for Atlantic Canada to be tied to Ontario, period. Ontario doesn't understand Atlantic Canada's opportunities and neither do those who are elected in the East to go to Ottawa. Peter MacKay's shameful threatening of withholding of funds from Regan's riding, for instance, just shows that no matter who's in Ottawa, the game will be the same.
At this point the only thing that is likely to reverse the situation is Quebec independence, which would force Atlantic Canada to ally more closely with New England and Ireland and the UK and EU, all of which are going to be doing far better economically than Ontario in ten years. Ontario, or "New Michigan" as some now call it, as "led" from Toronto, or "New Detroit", will go the way of all other automotive-focused economies led by suburban commuters who golf.
Just watch "Roger and Me", you'll get the picture. That's the quality of people running Ontario.
Time for a sequel, Michael Moore.
Even so, Ontario is only going down a road Atlantic Canada is two generations further down. Problem is, Atlantic Canada kept those who favoured quality of life and family and longevity over stress and status. While Ontario got all those people. When Ontario goes downhill, those people will brain drain to Vancouver and Seattle so fast, and those left will turn on each other even faster. There's a general trend of psychopaths moving West for the last hundred years - murder rates, suicides and drug addiction all go uniformly up as you move West across the map of North America.
And that's why, despite the idiots in charge, Atlantic Canada is still the best place to be.
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