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The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Time for a change #nlpoli
We’ve moved. Starting Monday, you’ll find SRBP at edhollett.substack.com. It’s January, the start of a new year. And it’s also the 16th anniversary of The Sir Robert Bond Papers. There’s a lot happening or about to happen in politics in Newfoundland and Labrador. So there’s no better time to shake
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Top 15 of Year 15
This is the 15th year of Bond Papers. This Sunday marks the 16th anniversary and there’s a big announcement coming. Check back. In the meantime, enjoy the top 15 posts from this past year. The facts of the case Cleaning up the mess of Muskrat Falls Interesting news buried under
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Mind the Gap #nlpoli
There is no shortage of gaps in politics in Newfoundland and Labrador. Regular readers will be familiar with the Credibility Gap. That’s the space between what a politicians says and what the politician does. Marketers forget that when it comes to reputation and hence lasting, reliable political support, actions speak
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: An evidence-based Alert system #nlpoli
Communication remains the single biggest chronic failure of the province’s COVID-19 response. As regular readers of these e-scribbles know, that means it is really a management problem. Government officials have a hard time explaining things clearly because they do not have a clear idea of what they are doing.
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: All around in circles #nlpoli
December 17 is an auspicious day in Muskrat Falls history. That was the date in 2012 when Kathy Dunderdale stood in front of a group of cheering supporters of the ludicrous megaproject and proclaimed that the government had formally approved its construction. “It all begins here!” she shouted to the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Good Old Days #nlpoli
Danny Williams made the news last week. Williams was locked in a battle with St. John’s city hall over whether or not Williams could put a big Christmas tree in a round-about in his development at Galway. No one in the local news media noticed, though, that Thursday was the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Worry, fear, and the Zero Risk Bias #nlpoli
Accepting that life is all about risk is the first cognitive step. Mark Kingwell, On Risk (2020) The reporter just wanted to confirm how many active cases there were in the province. The question at last Monday’s news conferencewas simple enough. It’s a figure the Chief Medical Officer’s staff releases
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Did Breen bungle federal bus cash offer? #nlpoli
The federal government offered the provincial governments its share of about $19 billion in COVID aid delivered to provinces in July. There was another chunk earmarked for municipal transit systems. Buses. CBC reported at the time that “Newfoundland and Labrador did not apply for that [transit] money”. Apparently, “… the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: A pandemic of fear #nlpoli
In Newfoundland and Labrador, politicians and public health bureaucrats are dealing more with a pandemic of fear than of disease. It is one they helped create. It is one they sustain in the way they talk and act. Let us hope that Monday’s news conference is not another of their super-spreader events.
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Policy Pixelation #nlpoli
The members of the House of Assembly voted unanimously at the end of October to set up a committee to decide how to give everyone in the province a cheque each month from government. The motion started out with a few reasons why the members thought it was a good
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Sod off, Norm Doyle #nlpoli
Ex-Harper fart catcher Norm Doyle Veteran Connie hack Norm Doyle has finally aged off the public tit, on which he spent too much of his adult life. Attention spans are so short in local politics these days that most people don’t remember his stint as a fart catcher for Stephen
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Bank of Canada ends provincial short-term debt backstop #nlpoli
The Bank of Canada will stop picking up provincial government debt effective 16 November, 2020, the Bank announced Monday. The move reflects “the continued improvement in the functioning of short-term funding markets and financial markets more generally,” according to the announcement. The last operation for the Provincial Money Market Purchase program will
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Paging Dr. Freud #nlpoli
Moya Greene, head of the Premier’s Economic Recovery Team, told municipal leaders last week that the provincial government spends almost $2.0 billion less on health care than it actually does. Weird. She said the government spent 25% of its budget on health care. VOCMreported it: “Greene says healthcare is about
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Reality Control #nlpoli
The Memory Hole Nineteen eighty-four is popular these days. People think that the ideas in the book like the memory hole are modeled on communist or fascist dictatorships from the early part of the last century. What those people forget is that George Orwell worked at the BBC during the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The hard truth of reconciliation #nlpoli
Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images Reconciliation is a very popular word these days. It comes out of the commission appointed to investigate what happened to Indigenous people in Canada in residential schools run by the federal government. The commission produced a lengthy list of actions needed to “advance the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The importance of what we talk about #nlpoli
Nalcor will have to replace about 350 fibreglass beams used in the Labrador-Island Link because of a fault in their manufacture. Nalcor discovered the fault during two incidents at Soldier’s Pond in August that caused the link to shut down on both occasions. The public found out about the two
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Husky and Come by Chance Updates #nlpoli
There is no good reason for governments to intervene in the oil sector even as much as they have. It has nothing to do with the gibberish of “decarbonization” or whatever the greenies will yell down next to the peasants from the ivory tower. It’s just bad business. And bad
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Come by Chance and the Politics of Inertia #nlpoli
More than six months after they shut it down, the company that owns the Come by Chance oil refinery wants to sell it. And they want provincial taxpayers to pay. According to Saltwire, “Glen Nolan, president of the United Steel Workers Local 9316 union, said that in recent conference calls
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Opening the taps #nlpoli
Opening the Taps by Edward Hollett on Scribd -srbp-
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