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By Edward Hollett, on December 7, 2012, at 6:00 am If the Brothers Grimm were alive today in Newfoundland and Labrador, they’d be politicians.
That’s because so much of politics these days is about fairy tales.
To be fair this isn’t a new phenomenon, it’s just that since 2003, the chief purveyors of fairy tales – the nationalists – have predominated. Danny Williams, the former Premier, used to say lots of things that just weren’t true and some of his biggest fans believed stuff that just never happened.
. . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Why False Beliefs Persist #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on December 6, 2012, at 6:00 am Gabriella Sabau is an economics professor at Memorial University’s Grenfell campus out in Corner Brook.
Sabau thinks Muskrat Falls is wonderful idea for three reasons.
For one thing, it’s green. For another thing, the electricity rates for consumers are supposedly low.
And for a third thing, "there will eventually be affordable power that will help attract business and investment."
Sabau noted the overall cost, though:
“The initial cost of the infrastructure is really high and those initial costs need to be paid up front,” she said.
Hmmm.
Paid up front.
And "eventually" the power will be affordable for
. . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Paying Attention to Details #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on December 4, 2012, at 9:30 am Another part of the Premier’s Office assault on reality Monday was a puff piece by Paul McLeod in the Chronicle Herald on Kathy Dunderdale. In some respects, the timing is a coincidence but the thing has been in the works since last month, at l… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Prisoners of Their Own Delusions #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on December 4, 2012, at 6:00 am Last week, some people wondered if Premier Kathy Dunderdale was out of the loop on negotiations over a federal loan guarantee when she seemed to say she did not know anything about an announcement in Labrador. Some other people wondered if perhaps she… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Jerome’s Grim Fairy Tale #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on December 3, 2012, at 6:00 am While lots of people were busily cheering Friday’s announcement of a federal loan guarantee for Muskrat Falls, they probably noticed a small but very significant detail. The loan guarantee doesn’t exist until Emera decides to sanction the Maritime… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Risks Just Got Even Bigger #nlpoli #nspoli
By Edward Hollett, on December 2, 2012, at 9:30 pm From the Group’s new release issued December 2: Muskrat Falls Term Sheet Must Be Released For Public Scrutiny “The term sheet for the federal loan guarantee for Muskrat Falls must be released for public scrutiny," say lawyers for 2041 G… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: 2041 Group calls for release of loan guarantee term sheet #nlpoli #cdnpoli #nspoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 30, 2012, at 6:00 am “We are potentially paying 6.4 Billion for 170 MW of firm power, which will just be enough to meet the Emera commitment,” notes JM in discussing one scenario in his latest commentary The Water Management Agreement and Peak Load Delivery to th… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Adding the technical to the legal on the WMA #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 29, 2012, at 9:30 am For posterity, here are Simon Lono’s 10 reasons to oppose Muskrat Falls. He tweeted them on Wednesday, November 28. SRBP has taken out the hash tags and added and spelled-out words to make clearly legible sentences while retaining the original meani… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: 10 Reasons to Oppose Muskrat Falls #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 27, 2012, at 6:00 am A chance re-read of the Labrador Hydro Project Exemption Order last week led your humble e-scribbler to a surprising discovery. The powers granted under the Electrical Power Control Act, 1994 to the public utilities board to manage electricity product… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Controlling Our Own Resources #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 26, 2012, at 6:00 am Few people have the depth of experience in the province’s energy policy and history than does Cabot Martin. From the mind-1970s until the early 1990s Martin was a senior advisor to the provincial government. He was part of the team that negoti… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Cabot Martin’s paper on Natural Gas #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 23, 2012, at 9:30 am After a few weeks’ break, Telegram editor Peter Jackson had another go Thursday at the water management controversy involving Nalcor and the 2041 Group.Jackson wrote about it in his Hallowe’en column. After digging up some additional information, h… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Gil Bennett won’t re-tweet this post #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 23, 2012, at 6:00 am The House of Assembly on Thursday was sounding a wee bit like a cheesy remake of Austin Powers. Liberal leader Dwight Ball asked for an updated cost of Muskrat Falls electricity delivered at Soldier’s Pond. He asked twice in a row. Twice Ball… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Who Does Number Two Work For? #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 22, 2012, at 10:30 am Kathy Dunderdale told the House of Assembly on Wednesday something rather curious about the public utilities board review of Muskrat falls last spring: Mr. Speaker, we did refer the question to the Public Utilities Board. The questions we asked: Do… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: It’s a Comprehension Thing #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 22, 2012, at 8:30 am The public utilities board is good. The public utilities board is bad. She said.. He said. Confused aren’t you? Well, there’s no surprise when Premier Kathy Dunderdale and natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy say two completely different … . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: It’s a Confidence Thing #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 22, 2012, at 6:00 am Not content with just one round of fascinating public opinion information, NTV decided to unleash a second evening of news about how the public feels about Muskrat Falls. The responses are based on the same panel conducted for NTV by MQO and first rep… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Secret of Their Distress #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 21, 2012, at 6:00 am The more questions you ask, the more information you get. The more information you have, the more accurate a picture you can draw of anything. In this case, it’s public opinion. On Monday, the provincial government/Nalcor front group released the r… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Support but lacking sufficient information – the NTV/MQO Poll #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 20, 2012, at 9:30 am One of the hardest things to do is keep track of the numbers the provincial government uses to justify their plan to double the province’s debt and force taxpayers to pay it down through their electricity rates. Muskrat Math is unlike any other type… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Kennedy’s Krazy Kost Kalculations #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 17, 2012, at 6:00 am Some people want a referendum on Muskrat Falls. In an enthusiastic support of democracy, some other people don’t want to have a referendum on Muskrat Falls because the punters are not sufficiently enlightened as to the details of this major issue to… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The 2011 Muskrat Falls Referendum #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 15, 2012, at 6:00 am After all this time, some of you will find it interesting to go back and look at some slides from the original Nalcor “technical briefing” on Muskrat Falls delivered in November 2010. The ”last saved” date on the deck is 25 November 2010 Comp… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Original Nalcor Technical Briefing #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 13, 2012, at 6:00 am If you haven’t done so, take a few minutes and listen an interview CBC’s David Cochrane did with Mark Dobbin for this week’s edition of On Point with David Cochrane.As Cochrane notes at the start of the show, Dobbin is the other director who quit… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Politics and Misinformation #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 12, 2012, at 12:30 pm Voters in Newfoundland and Labrador have a new political definition: to crummell: to have one’s opinion completely reversed in a nanosecond by the whim of another. There may well be others that will turn up in the wake of Tory Dan Crummell’… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Your Future is in Their Hands: Political Definition #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 10, 2012, at 10:30 am The Telegram’s Pam Frampton has a neat column this weekend on Jerome Kennedy, Muskrat Falls, and the provincial government’s problems with explaining to people in simple terms why Muskrat falls is a good idea. Frampton nails the biggest problem s… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Self-massaging the message #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 8, 2012, at 9:30 am “No, I don’t think that we have done a great job of communicating this,” natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy told the Telegram editorial board last week.“I can give you a couple of examples myself that I’ve done. One is, ‘No debate! N… . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: We get the message just fine, Jerome #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 8, 2012, at 6:00 am From the latest issue of the Irish Loop Post, Craig Westcott’s editorial “You won’t strain your brain reading government’s last minute batch of Muskrat Falls propaganda.” There is more to read in a Victoria’s Secret catalogue than Nalcor . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Muskrat Falls propaganda a no-brainer #nlpoli
By Edward Hollett, on November 5, 2012, at 9:30 am The water management controversy flared briefly at the end of last week thanks to Geoff Meeker’s blog at the Telegram and a couple of interviews by the 2041 Group and Nalcor’s Gil Bennett.
This is one of those issues where a lot of people either tune out early on because it appears highly technical and complicated. Actually it isn’t. The topic only appears complicated.
It only appears complicated because of the very convoluted, long-winded, and very unhelpful way the cats at Nalcor talk about the water management agreement. They go all techie.
Once you get a handle
. . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Mystical Lords of Mu’skr’at Fa’alls #nlpoli
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