Donald Trump says he won’t even take one dollar in salary as president. Sounds familiar. In Newfoundland and Labrador, Proto-Trump said the same thing. His fan club insist the Greatest One never took a penny of salary. That was, at best, a fib. (Read more…) Danny Williams collected every penny of
Continue readingTag: Danny Williams Effect
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Reverse Midas Touch Rides Again #nlpoli
The crowd running this place these days has an unrivalled ability to look at a problem and find the worst possible response imaginable. On Wednesday, natural resource minister Siobhan Coady and environment minister Perry Trimper announced that the government would tell Nalcor to keep flooding the Muskrat Falls reservoir but
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The truth about Danny Williams, Hydro-Quebec, and the Lower Churchill #nlpoli
Danny Williams promised he would never cut a deal on the Lower Churchill with Hydro-Quebec unless it included redress for the 1969 contract.But as Kathy Dunderdale revealed in 2009, Williams spent five years secretly trying to sell the Lower Chur…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Thank you, Danny Williams #nlpoli
Rob Strong has been a key player in the local oil and gas industry pretty much since the earliest days. He knows what he is talking about.Strong pointed out to VOCM on Wednesday that the Hebron field won’t be the cash cow for the provincial gov…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Selling energy assets a good thing: Danny Williams #nlpoli
“It was a previous Liberal government that wanted to actually privatize Hydro. This particular government wants to strengthen Hydro, wants to make it a very valuable corporation: a corporation that will ultimately pay significant dividends ba…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Real change #nlpoli
“A positive, optimistic, hopeful vision of public life isn’t a naive dream,” Justin Trudeau told Canadians after he won a truly historic victory in the October 19th federal general election. That victory, said Trudeau, “is what positive politic can do.” “We beat fear with hope, we beat cynicism with hard
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The ABCs of ABC #nlpoli
In 2004, Danny Williams fought for three months against a federal government decision that had been settled – at least for the federal government – earlier in the year as part of the usual budget cycle. Williams got the money the federal government had allocated but won the domestic
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Hyping the stock, yet again #nlpoli
Any oil company seriously interested in bidding on an exploration license offshore Newfoundland and Labrador isn’t likely to need the hyped presentation by the provincial government Thursday. Exploring offshore is expensive. Always has been. Always will be. Exploring beyond the 200 mile exclusive economic zone, in upwards of two kilometres
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Chainsaw Earle keeps austerity on the table #nlpoli
NDP leader Earle McCurdy called the province’s major open line show on Thursday and by the sounds of things he hasn’t backed off the position that the size of the government’s financial problems will mean more cuts. Sure he said he was opposed to austerity, but what Earle did say
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Moral victory: saying yes to less #nlpoli
A couple of years after his war with one prime minister, Danny Williams was locked in another war with another federal first minister. Williams was demanding compensation for yet another supposed injustice. “What I said before and I said going in, this is about principles,” Williams told reporters in November
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: John Crosbie and the Last Crusade #nlpoli #cdnpoli
Every story told thus far about Ches Crosbie and the riding in Avalon has the unmistakeable odour of bullshit about it. The latest twist, namely that Senator David Wells was scuttling a potential rival as The Biggest Conservative in Newfoundland and Labrador, is a bit more in the realm of
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: No equity? No surprise. #nlpoli
It didn’t take long for Paul Davis to get the comparison he was looking for last week. The Telegram – not surprisingly – offered it up in the editorial on June 17: “Premier Paul Davis pulled a Danny Williams Tuesday,” the editorialist wrote. Davis told the annual NOIA oil and
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Experience and government #nlpoli
In the 1980s, local entrepreneur Craig Dobbin bought a batch of helicopter service companies across Canada and merged them with his own company – Sealand – to form Canadian Helicopters. By the time Dobbin died in 2006, CHC was one of the largest providers of helicopter support services in the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Federal Boogeyman #nlpoli
The Liberals kept poking at Premier Paul Davis in the House of Assembly on Tuesday about the European free trade deal announced last year. Specifically, Liberal leader Dwight Ball asked Davis for the second day in a row about a joint federal-provincial fund under the deal that would see the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Myths, then and now #nlpoli
You really do have to wonder how anyone could be expected to keep things straight when the people they rely on to help them understand keep changing their statements. Take, for example, the fight between the provincial Conservative administration in Newfoundland and Labrador a decade ago over offshore oil royalties
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Ego-mentary #nlpoli
Danny Williams’ hockey team tried a little marketing ploy this week. They sent out a bulletin to news media disguised as a news release. They claimed the hockey team was locked in some kind of record breaking attempt with a crowd of mainlander for the most sold-out games. While everything
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: No-brainer #nlpoli
Perhaps it is just Danny Williams’ ingratitude that pisses people off. The multi-millionaire hockey team owner just got a massive subsidy from the taxpayers of St. John’s so that he won’t suffer any lost revenue. It should be a no-brainer for the guy to say thanks to the people who
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Everything has a price #nlpoli
Danny Williams famously once said that at some point, “principle converts to cash.” When his old friend Tom Marshall named a court house after Williams, the former Premier said this to reporters about his emotions: "I can’t put a price on it." He may not be able to convert his
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Nothing was further from the truth #nlpoli
A decade ago, the offshore regulatory board reduced its estimate of the recoverable reserves in the Terra Nova field from 405 million barrels to 354 million barrels. Danny Williams was trying to squeeze additional transfer payments out of the federal government in the guise of getting provincial oil royalties that
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Premier Mulligan #nlpoli
The news on Monday was not Frank Coleman’s announcement. The news was in the reaction of provincial Conservatives to word that Coleman wouldn’t be Premier after all. They skipped past the obligatory expressions of concern over Coleman’s unspecified family problem and quickly went on to talk up the chances the
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