Let's all go back to 2002/2003 when Danny Williams was the coming of the savior. The Liberals were on their way out and the Tories were in a fit of hyperbole. The local media were chewing it up and spitting it out.
So let's find out if even the basic levels of investigation and balance exists in our current crop of journalists.
How about we get these basic questions answered.
What did the polls look like in March of 2003? Where did the Tories and Liberals sit?
What were the polls on leadership in that same time frame?
When you finish gathering that information - have a look at the House of Assembly Hansard and the statements coming out of the Tory Opposition - including Danny Williams.
From that information - please answer the following:
1. Did Danny Williams and his Opposition colleagues state that because of the polls the government had no mandate to carry on?
2. Did Danny Williams and his Opposition colleagues state that because Roger Grimes was not an "elected" Premier - he did not have the mandate to strike any resource deals?
3. Did Danny Williams and his Opposition colleagues suggest that Grimes and his government were afraid to take such deals to the public in an election?
4. Did Danny Williams and his Opposition colleagues hammer on the following points:
a) The findings of the Auditor General with respect to similar issues that AG Terry Paddon is
talking about now
b) The development of the Lower Churchill and Voisey's Bay and the mandate of former
Premier Brian Tobin with respect to any deal - any change of promise or term of a deal
c) The unfunded pension liabilities
d) The deficit and debt
e) the secrecy of the government
The information is all there. Will the media hold them accountable?
How about this - Dunderdale was elected based on a proposed agreement with Emera - the deal changed before sanction - and while their polling tanked. If this was 2003 and Danny Williams was addressing then Premier Roger Grimes - what would have been said?
Well that information is there. The Liberals did not have a mandate to change the terms outlined by former Premier Brian Tobin on Voisey's Bay.
Premier Marshall and his government need to take the changed agreement on Muskrat to the people in the form of a general election. They need to stop proceeding with this project unless they can renew their mandate. More particularly as Danny Williams would have said: Mr. Marshall you are not an elected Premier.
To make matters worse - soon we will have gone through 4 Premiers for one project - to sanction.
2 comments:
I voted for Danny Williams and there was not one iota of acceptance in my vote for the Muskrat Falls deal. At the time I didn't know but that it was fit to eat, all I knew that it was another source of electricity for us to probably build industry. (Anyway who would have voted for such an awful contract that would see us much more penalized than we already are for the rest of our lives in paying off the Muskrat Falls Contract. (Our electricity could escalate 100 per cent for 57 years duration) Most of us will have to slip into poverty, out of the middle class once our already dreadfully high hydro bills are adjusted .) If Mr. Williams thought the people could read his mind he was out to lunch. Also even if he thought that and wanted it, he should have been explicit and laid out all the details of what the Muskrat Falls Project would entail, including projected costs and what would have to be given away to Emera to have the contract signed off on and told us in no uncertain terms that in the upcoming election, be mindful you will be voting for Muskrat Falls Contract to go forward. He should have asked us to vote on the contract in the election of 2007 or whenever it was when Premier Dunderdale was entrusted by him with the power of government in his absence.
We have had the wool pulled over our eyes every election since the beginning of Confederation with Canada in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Matter of fact we were led to believe we had nothing in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador of any significance. We were wrongly told we had no natural resources, not a good location and the weather was horrible. All of it was lies and a complete ruse to keep us and others outside in the dark so that they could darn well do what they wanted to please Ottawa and thus grow the economies of Central Canada and their own personal economies from the give-aways. It was a complete sham as we had the best of everything of anyplace in Canada, we had the most natural resources, the best strategic and geographic location, situated on the eastern periphery of Canada and the Atlantic Ocean trade routes. The belief system that was foisted upon us on the give-away of our natural resources has become a crime against the electorate of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and the province itself.
Every detail needs to be laid out plain and simple and let the courts rule on why the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and its people were not successful in building the best economy in the whole of Canada and probably the world, taking into consideration the great geographic location situated on the Atlantic Ocean trades routes and the great abundance of natural resources endowed upon us by Nature.
After second thought, why would I think the courts of our land would rule in favor of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, we have never won a court case in Canada when it involved Hydroelectricity. And after thinking a little further we have never had a Supreme Court judge appointed over 65 years from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador to the Supreme Court of Canada.
We all need to sign out in unison for an inquiry so that those politicians responsible can be judged fairly and squarely, some, of course, posthumously and others while still alive.
And to you future Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, the one thing you have to be is HONEST and TRANSPARENT, otherwise please do not throw your hat in the ring. YOU WILL NOT BE WELCOMED, WE HAVE HAD IT TO OUR EYEBALLS WITH DECEPTION!
Premier Marshall made a statement shortly after he was appointed last week as Premier that pleased me very much. He said "if we are doing something good, tell us, on the other hand he said if we are doing something bad also tell us". So now I am going to tell Mr. Marshall that I want him to repeal Bill 29, the Bill that covers up the Evils of the Muskrat Falls Contract.
I am putting a lot of faith in Premier Marshall since Marjorie of VOCM fame has him placed highly in the ethics and capability department. According to Marjorie he is next to infallible, and I hope she is right, because if that is the case it will be a first for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador of having a Premier in control with such credentials.
I would hazard to say based on Marjorie's espousals on the gentleman we are in for the most honest and transparent period in Newfoundland and Labrador's history and for sure we will not want to vote him out when the next election is called. My thoughts on having such a Premier with such attributes is we should end up in a situation, given our great endowment of coveted natural resources, great strategic, geographic location and a climate as good as most places in Canada, we are well on our way to creating the greatest economy in the whole of Canada, if not the World.
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