Russell Wangersky's opinion piece in the Telegram yesterday is well worth a read and some considerable thought.
"Drunk on power" speaks of the current political fiasco in the US starring Governor Christie and compares the actions of causing traffic disruption for political reasons to our government paving roads in Tory districts. There are some other comparisons and I encourage you to read it.
I'm going to go a step further. This government is no doubt engorged with partisan zealots who have one mission - keep themselves in power. There are others who mistakenly believe they work for multinational corporations - not the electorate. Then there are the ones like Ed Martin and Gilbert Bennett. Ed just thinks hey I'm the CEO "the buck stops with me" (your right and too many of them for my liking) so I'm the CEO yeah I am - got awards to show for it. The province might be dark - but I'm the bright light of energy planning. The man spends money like it belongs to really generous, not so cautious, frankly negligent shareholders and Board members.
Gilbert Bennett the crossover Cable Atlantic guy is very arrogant to ordinary citizens who want to question his decisions. I'd swear that when I appeared in front of the Environmental Assessment hearings on Muskrat - he acted like he was still working for Danny Williams in the private sector - not me - or us - collectively as people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
There is no doubt that Dunderdale's PR and Policy handlers spend more time studying human behavioral patterns that they do putting out real and complete information. The study of which rural community to obliterate - or which plant to let close - or service facility to eliminate - and in what order - is far more important than being creative, industrious, and forward thinking.
The bad news comes in dribs and drabs so that not too many people will be upset at a given time - while the "good" news of re-announcing spending initiatives are mass released based on polling periods or as an offset to bad news.
The fact that the money they are spending is ours and they are only choosing what to spend it on - appears to escape the partisan zealots who act like it's coming from their personal bank accounts. That more so as they attempt to train the electorate that support for their government or for that matter Harper's zealots is the only way to cash-in. We are faced with - vote for me to be on the Government side. Then we witnessed the separate and inappropriate behaviors of Peter Penashue and Kevin O'Brien.
In my opinion this
That brings me to the title of this post "Dunderdale's Tribalistic Box". First and foremost when this government looks to seek independent local expert review, ideas, or opinion - they determine what they think that person's political persuasion is. If that person does not pass the PC BOX test - they are dismissed outright - regardless of their background and professional credentials. They are called naysayers and conspiracy theorists. Demonstrably this government are what they call their critics. Paranoia appears to abound, secrecy is the order of the day, rigging unscientific polls is a matter of a duty for backbenchers, naysayers of alternate thoughts to their own and absolutely conspiracy theorists. In my opinion they would have us believe that the actions of a number of citizens who question the Muskrat Falls deal has caused the population as a whole to move their political support away from them and therefore what is necessary are bunches of News Conferences, mass and expensive advertising, incessant calls to talk-shows, and the production of any number of "independent" reviews.
The journalists in our province need to step to the plate and begin the process of discovery. They should never allow - unchallenged - the use of the words naysayers and conspiracy theorists - when used by politicians on productive, intelligent, and engaged citizens. It speaks volumes that when the province seeks experts to recheck the work of our employed "experts" that they seek people, corporations, and organizations outside the province. How refreshing it would be to have local experts with opposing views review the work of government - on matters such as the Muskrat Falls development deal or ferry building - or international trade agreements. The American media will chase their politicians down until they expose necessary information - and the ruling side of the House will adopt - from time to time - policies that were hatched on the other side.
This government has been without societal authority to make big decisions for a significant period of time - based on a continuing "crisis" in the polls. When they were in Opposition they had no problem asking then Premier Roger Grimes to make no significant resource deals as he did not - in their opinion - have the support of the people.
Stop confusing misplaced trust with a lack of intelligence. Stop doing things for "our own good" when we clearly do not want it. Stop manipulating the whole picture through ommission of information, propoganda, and cherry picking statistics. Stop politically threatening us or attempting to buy us with our own money.
Above all else remove overpaid executives in Crown Corporations - where it has been demonstrated that the person did not do their job. Further eliminate from Crown corporate Boards people who are not comparable in expertise to Crown corporate Boards in other provinces.
Next post will be on the PUB - What is government doing to it?
1 comment:
The PUB will formally inquire into outages; Nalcor is internally investigating and telling the PUB what it thinks it should know; the Premier will launch an independent external review into the province’s energy system (choosing the review team and terms of reference of course); and what genuine involvement the public will have into any of these reviews remains to be seen.
It is probable that the conclusions coming from these reviews/inquiries will be convoluted (as three reviews happening simultaneously and yet not independently must be) and spurious (being passed back and forth between multiple reviewers/investigators and of course Government, all whom will include and ignore any number of details as deemed convenient).
I can find no trust in this government. I return to Dunderdale’s little tantrum in the House of Assembly defending her appointments to the Board of Directors at Nalcor. Truthfully, it was really all she could do when asked to justify the new Board’s lack of education and expertise, even as it would be charged with responsibilities for much money, many employees, and our province’s energy. (Well, many of us on the west coast of the province know how the appointment of the Chair was made to that Board - and to the Board before it – and it had nothing to do with education or experience.) Interestingly, Dunderdale justified her chosen appointments with a declared self-example of competency.
And now, who really knows which and how many other, like decisions made by Kathy Dunderdale and her (oh…I mean our) government continue to raze (not to be mistaken for raise!) all sense of integrity, honesty, transparency, and responsibility to the people in our province. No, there is no more faith to be had in Premier Dunderdale or anything she “puts her hand to”. This saddens me on many accounts, but none so absolutely as her miscarriage as our province’s first female premier!
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain
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