On your Ballot - write the words - I want a public inquiry!

I listened to Paul Dicks this week - through a prepared statement doing a few things. They were very similar - in fact too similar to Walter Noel's reappearance a few days earlier. Both of them said I made errors in judgement - both were sorry - then both of them claimed they were within the rules.

Walter Noel and Paul Dicks were Cabinet Ministers - Dicks was Minister of Justice and Attorney General and the Minister of Finance. Noel was Minister of Government Services and Minister of Mines and Energy. Both have premium pensions for their public service. What a pathetic sight they were - either deliberately taking advantage of a flawed system - they were part of controlling - or not possessing the ability until now to determine what they were doing was wrong.

As Ministers what were they responsible for? The two geniuses voted to sell Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro - both were involved in energy planning and Lower Churchill discussions. The finances of the province were in Paul's hands and to make matters worse so was the Department of Justice.

This whole mess is more serious than these two people let on - and they know it. These individuals did make judgements of others and they made decisions on behalf of you and me. How reasoned were those decisions?

Dicks announced last week that he was going to pay back the money spent on art and wine. I am curious - where is the art? Where is the wine? If they were purchased as Dicks claims - as a result of errors in judgement - have these items appreciated? If we were to conclude that Dicks purchased these assets with our money - in a sense a loan - which he now is paying back - where is the interest?

How did "intelligent" men believe that buying art - wine - and Christmas presents out of a constituency allowance was okay? They were sitting MHA's and Ministers - did they not think to ask their fellow MHA's on the Internal Economy Commission about the appropriateness of such spending? Did they not - all on their own - think it might be reasonable to suggest a change in the rules?

Paul Dicks is a lawyer practicing with the firm Benson-Myles and is currently a Director of the Bank of Canada. Is this alright? If these two were in charge of setting rules for corporate spending and later it was determined that they made rules in the best interest of themselves versus the shareholders - what might happen? I don't know but Conrad Black might have part of the answer. Yet Walter insists that while he made an error in judgement - he was only making the same errors as if he was in the private sector. Okay Walter try it out - and we will watch your progress.

A public inquiry must occur so that we can ask these people what exactly they were doing. We can also bring up and sort out the whole sordid affair of booting the Auditor General out of their books - ironically brought about by the AG's concern over expenditures made by Dicks.

Instead these people ride off into the pensioned sunset - living with reputations that have been false - but helped them carry on into private life. Let's say the Dick's spending had become public when he was still in office - would he have received the same opportunities after he left?

Would Junior Achievement of Canada looked at him the same way? Would the Federal Minister of Finance have offered him a board appointment to the Bank of Canada? Would Benson - Myles have offered him a position with that law firm? We might never know the answers to these questions and fortunately for Dicks - enough time had passed before the discovery for him to establish himself financially and professionally. The question now is will he be asked to do the right thing or will he offer to do the right thing and resign from positions he now holds - and like so many others of us - have to start again - and again.

All of this is notwithstanding that Wally Anderson is on the campaign trail with Danny Dumaresque - Randy Collins has taken up a great job again with his union - Paul Dicks is living high on somebodies hog - Walter has shown his head during the federal Liberal leadership contest and in this provincial campaign. If no criminal convictions come out of the current charges - it does not change what the Auditor General found. It does not change the over-spending and inappropriate spending.

For all of this this Danny is still making excuses for these people - Gerry does not even want to talk about it - Tom Rideout says he will repay the bonus constituency payment when he loses or retires out of his severance. Not one of them give a damn that thousands of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians do not want to vote - as they are sickened by the whole works of them. Then they come out and ask people to vote - and tell them nothing is accomplished by not voting.

I say to people - go vote - mark the ballot up - send whatever message you want - write in names - scratch off names - or better yet mark in the words - "I want a Public Inquiry".

What are we here anyway? There are people named in the AG report with significant "errors in judgement" who are running again. What have we been reduced to?

Vote against "giveaway" mentality and

I am entitled to my entitlements...

This morning I found out a Liberal is running in my district. Joining Tom Osbourne - incumbent and Clyde Bridger for the NDP is Rex Gibbons.

Well St. John's South - you now have the opportunity to get rid of the remaining vestiges of the "giveaway" mentality.

It is time to tell Rex Gibbons again that attempting to privatize Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro was not only a bad idea (and still is) - but it would have dramatically increased our electric bills - denied the province of hundreds of millions of revenues - and eliminated a great asset owned by our children and one which has become the core of our new energy corporation.

It is time for Rex to retire - and the policies he espouses should retire with him. His take on energy is not only naive it is dangerous - as it would continue to turn over our resources to billion dollar multi-nationals with less than maximum return to us - the people.

It is time to send the Liberal Party a message - that if they want to attract new ideas and people - the front-line must move to the back. If the party is to be rebuilt for 2011 - then Rex Gibbons - Walter Noel - Scott Andrews - Danny Dumaresque - John Efford - Roger Grimes and Norm Whelan have to relinquish the stranglehold they have on its future. You see when the Party President and Campaign Chair have to run - the Libs are no longer membership driven - they are desperate to return to the "glory days" of Clyde Wells and Brian Tobin for their own satisfaction. When you think about it - would Danny Williams want it any other way? For as much as Danny has become a folk hero the Liberals have become a folk villain.

This is not a case of taking one for the party when it is down - this is "it's my party" and nobody else is allowed to come. They will cling to their pathetic grasp of power by the fingernails - until finally it is all gone. They will take the party down further rather than relinquish their self-appointed titles (including the leadership). For them watching new people take the helm is painful - they should take that out on Tobin - not the party or the people.

St. John's South is in a wonderful position to say - we reject your giveaway mentality and we reject a party that is a social club for a few wannabes and hangers-on.

Rex Gibbons will not get my vote.

I have never heard from Rex - that privatizing Hydro - would have been a bad idea - have you?

Gerry Reid will PRIVATIZE NLH

I can state this because Reid is opposing the people of this province investing in oil and gas projects offshore.

I am left to wonder if Reid's "war room" actually even considered that this thinking could be applied to all our resources.

Think about this for a minute - first Reid says Newfoundland and Labrador already owns the oil and gas. In fact we do not - Canada owns it - and we receive royalties based on Canada's recognition that we are the province adjacent to the resource. If we want to own it - we must separate from the federation.

Then Reid says - Danny should not risk the peoples money by taking an equity position - in fact he says if we elect the Tories and let Danny buy equity - he will bankrupt the province.

On that basis - the debt outstanding by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro would also be seen as a risk and have to be eliminated. Reid's thinking would have our Crown Corp sold off to outside investors (Ontario Pension Fund) or perhaps Fortis - and we will take royalties instead of the profits. Taking that further - he would develop the Lower Churchill by giving that development to outside investors and ask for a few royalties in something we actually own. Under Reid's New Liberalism we - of course - could not risk investing our money in such a project.

Williams has many weaknesses in policy - especially in areas such as the fishery - pulp and paper - agriculture - and rural development - and in these areas he does not enjoy broad-based support. Reid chooses to take on the equity position - which does have broad-based support of a people who are sick of giving away our wealth for a few coppers and jobs.

Reid has gone from left of center - to Harper's best economic policy bud. And all of this because the Libs have resurrected policy experts like Rex Gibbons. The Liberal leader has not yet learned that this direction is a political failure. If the party does not wake up and understand that people of this province want more from our valuable resources - Williams will have an unending term of office. This is not what we need and the fishery and rural Newfoundland and Labrador will suffer. But if we elect Reid - everything is gone.

The smell of "Old Liberalism" cannot be masked by expensive perfume...

What is it with the Liberals? They describe themselves as left of center on their web-page (at least it did until they updated it today)- while going right of Williams and the Tories on energy policy.

The answer is Rex Gibbons - if the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador continue to follow the strategy of this man on energy - the Liberals will fail - politically.

Yesterday Gerry Reid was telling university students that equity in oil projects would not happen under a Liberal government. In defense of this position - Reid said that Alberta does not do it - so if that energy powerhouse does not do it - why should we?

Two answers to that Mr. Reid - and you would see them if Gibbons would stop advising for a little while.

1. Alberta owns it oil and gas resources. We do not. When Alberta develops it can say - you may develop this parcel if we receive this amount in royalties and we get a refinery or other petro-chemical industry in Alberta to process the resource. We are not allowed to refine our own oil until the refineries in Eastern Canada are fully satisfied. Do you understand this? Have you read the Atlantic Accord recently? Rex has - and Rex knows. Rex was the Minister of Energy - he made the deals on oil and he attempted to privatize Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro. His policies failed and he has not been re-elected since.

2. Who cares if Alberta or other Canadian provinces do not take equity? I don't - I do not need Alberta to guide us on what we as our own jurisdiction should or should not do. We can have independent policy choices. Further - Reid should know that many other jurisdictions in the world do seek and achieve equity positions - such as Norsk Hydro.

Then there is the Liberal policy on wind development. Once again Rex (Clyde) rares his head and Gerry spews a suggestion regarding private wind generation.

Here is the situation Gerry - if Hydro guarantees to buy the output of such generation then you and me Gerry will pay for it via our electric bill. When that is paid - who do you prefer a portion be returned to - our provinces treasury or let's say the Government of Italy. This creeping in of private sector energy developments is back-door privatization of a resource we own outright. Further Gerry - you should ask Rex what happens when you have multiple players in the generation sector inputting into an electricity grid. You should ask him why Ontario had the big blackout when Quebec did not. You should ask him how we guarantee maintenance with a group of private generators and the cost of not having that control. You should ask him what happened with the joint use of utility poles - and what happens when one group maintains the poles a little more or less than another.

Until the Gerry Reid's "New Liberalism" stops depending on failed "Old Liberalism" policies - the party will continue to enjoy falling polls. It's time to let new thinking take over from Rex Gibbons - Clyde Wells - and past Minister Walter Noel. There is no perfume they can buy to make these policies smell good.



And as for Labrador energy policy - both the Liberals and the Conservatives fail - and they will get a sense of that as they crawl and slither around Labrador looking for a vote (the right to exploit Labrador to benefit the Avalon).

As I write this - back comes John Efford - dipping his toes in the political ocean - John - even if we can get past all the spending scandal and you were as pure as the driven snow in the administration of your constituency allowance - you are the one who told us to take or leave a lesser deal on equalization.

I close with this observation. If Williams does not win 3 of 4 seats in Labrador - he will not have a real mandate to develop the Lower Churchill under less than "best" terms for the Big Land. This is something I hope Labradorians will consider.

The Weakest Link

It's real easy to beat up on Gerry Reid today - the polls are miserable for the Liberals - to say the least.

As the Leader of the Official Opposition - Gerry's pay is a little more - but he's certainly not compensated for the load placed on his shoulders.

There is no doubt - now - to people who care about the existence of a Liberal Party and who genuinely want to rebuild it - from the bottom up - with complete top-down replacement - that the policies and the people delivering them are not resonating with the voters.

This is not just Gerry Reid - he just wears it. First of all almost half of people who will at least admit they will vote Liberal - will not back their leader - they choose Danny or are undecided. That's a tough one for the party and it's advisers - who chose to place Gerry Reid up-front despite the numbers showing he is lagging behind the party. That was and is a a strategical error in the Liberal campaign. Secondly the Liberal policies (such as they are)are not being supported by Liberals let alone the general population. Thirdly "New Liberalism" is an oxymoron if delivered by Gerry Reid - Danny Dumeresque - Rex Gibbons - John Efford - Norm Whelan - Walter Noel - and Roger Grimes. "New Liberalism" must fall to the party supporters - who clearly want a change in the old "party".

So while Gerry wears the shirt - the rest of them are responsible for manufacturing it.

There are real issues out there to challenge the Premier on - but if the communications director and other staffers and executive - don't see immediate media interest - it is placed on the back-burner. Currently there Liberal leadership seems to take direction from the media - which ultimately traps them into Danny's message. Generally speaking the local "journalists" are frightened to death - disinterested - and/or incapable of doing the necessary investigative pieces needed in a democracy - when the Opposition is weak. There are some exceptions - usually in the Telegram or on the Fisheries Broadcast. Outside of that - we get carnage - school opening - doggy-doo - red herrings - and an update of government News Releases.

The whole cable-gate fibre-optic fiasco would be hammered by Opposition and media alike in any other province. But since Kelvin Parsons made the slip in the House of Assembly of saying - the deal might be alright - while challenging the process - not a word. The Liberal caucus has buried it.

The energy plan that has been promised time and time again - has still not been released - despite the announcement of a wind project - the issuing of a draft on the gas royalty regime - to the major oil and gas players - but not to the public or media. The energy plan still in hiding despite the continuation of Lower Churchill discussions - and work in the field. Without that plan we cannot know what this government believes will be the energy needs for Newfoundland and Labrador for the next 50 years. Therefore the direction for the Lower Churchill is cart before the horse. But the Libs say nothing and worse have not released any suggestions of their own.

The sale of FPI - and the disregard of this government respecting the value of the marketing arm - and it's disposal to Nova Scotia. The joke of a fisheries conference and the continued out-migration of our people caused by the instability in this our most valuable natural renewable resource.

Instead of hammering and hammering on the Stephenville mill or the situation with the Metis - they continue to fall all over the Hebron MOU and the Premier's position with the oil magnates.

Inconsistency in policy by this Premier when it comes to equity positions and demands for processing facilities - goes unchallenged.

The non-response to the restructuring of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro - and what the real potential problems might be. The piece meal privatization of generation projects such as the wind project - which sees Newfoundlanders and Labradorians paying the Italian Government for energy.

To hold a News Conference to say - we will lower fees for your automobile - seems a little shallow when compared to the astronomical decisions which have to be made.

It still amazes me that cling-ons of the Liberal Party - demand to keep control - and do - despite the outright rejection of the voters. This is what happened to the federal Tories and if this continues here - there will be a wipe-out of this Liberal Party.

MHA Roland Butler was just on VOCM talking about matters in his district - when Randy Simms asked him about the poll. He answered "...we can't ignore what the polls are saying..." well yes Roland - unfortunately the Party is ignoring what the polls have been and are saying - that is the problem. Roland also mentioned the polling is done with 400 or so people - no - that's wrong - they alter the numbers every other poll - this time over 800 people were polled. This is something the staffers might have advised him on.

The Liberal Party has chosen to promote its weakest link heading into this fall election - I only hope there are Liberals who are seeking office - who reject this decision and keep their feet firmly on the ground in their chosen districts - and stick to what works for their particular constituency. Remember people - there are and could be some backbench members that will have less of a voice than a strong Opposition member.

Although the numbers for the PC Party are astronomical - Danny is still ahead of his party - that's something neither the Liberals nor the NDP can campaign on. The NDP may hang on to their traditional vote and may even take some from the Liberals - but Lorraine's leadership is limited to maintaining the one seat the Party has kept - primarily because Signal Hill - Quidi Vidi has become a seat of entitlement for the NDP - something which also must change.

I await with interest to see if the hold-up in the St. John's East Tory nomination - is not being held to "Marshall" the cable guy's agenda. Will we see Ken or Steve come forward in the next couple of days? Despite Jerome Kennedy's billing as the star winger - the center-man has yet to emerge for the Ballard - oops I mean William's team.

For Newfoundland and Labrador - the loss in not restricted to the Liberals imploding - it may also include the loss of the Lower Churchill as a key growth potential for Labrador - as the Premier gets drunker on "power".

Time to wipe the Slate clean...

The way I see it - Danny Williams will govern with 48 members the same as he would govern with 28 - 30 - 35 etc.

In fact the Liberals that are there provide no real opposition as they are uninspired - offering minimal solutions - and generally twisting already failed policy directions.

Danny will win the next election - and as people we will need a new government in waiting. We will need new ideas and challenge the status quo - with emphasis on youth and the future of our nation.

Wiping the slate clean of all Liberal incumbents is a great start leaving the party with no choice but to attract new people and finally pass the torch to others. You can only recycle Walter Noel - John Efford - Rex Gibbons - Gerry Reid and Danny Dumeresque so often.

I receive emails from Liberals every week who feel abandoned by the party and no longer welcome to provide input. Although they know come election time their "volunteer" time and services will be sought - they know they hold no real place in the tired party.

Hopefully the Labrador Party can elect 2 or members this time around - funny - but I think they would provide much more effective opposition than the Libs hanging on by their fingernails.

It is not pleasing at all to know that Danny has another 4 years - and there will be many challenges to keep him and the Cable Guys in check but it's nothing the Libs are doing. For the most part the government is being challenged by certain Telegram reporters - bloggers - and open-line contributors.

Consider - when Danny flies away - when he is finished - the remaining group are essentially bob n nods for Williams and not one of them is showing leadership potential. Worse another Cable Guy or Ross Reid could be hiding in the wings to keep Newfoundland and Labrador in the right hands. The NDP refuses to build! The Libs will need to provide new new new - else cable or railway guru 2 will be anointed.

There is no opposition - they take a holiday when Danny does - they ditch and run federally - when Danny says it might be opportune for them to do so and the remainder are the recyclables on the outside. The most press they can generate is when Efford says "he won't rule out" running again. Oh goody....

Hopefully in 4 years the picture will be brighter.