The flamboyant Premier of Newfoundland is going to step down next week, a move that is quite the surprise. I didn't see this one coming, unlike the slow demise of Gordon Campbell. Jean Charest is hanging by a thread, and Dalton McGuinty has passed his expiry date. Danny is on TV saying that he is sad because he is leaving what he calls "the best job in the world", which makes you wonder if there is more behind his decision than is currently being made public. He has stopped complaining about Stephen Harper, and I doubt that there will be another PC led ABC campaign in the next General Election.
It seems that a lot of people are leaving politics, Liberal and Conservative these days. While I enjoy being a Canadian political pundit, I have no desire to ever run for public office. Politics has become a bloodsport in our era of 24 hour news, and it blows my mind how some people can handle it for as many years as they do. I do know this much, I am not going to miss Danny Williams, but I do wish him a happy retirement.
He has left Newfoundland with the burden of his hare-brained scheme to build one undersea tunnel between Labrador and Newfoundland (hello icebergs) and another between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia (longer than the Chunnel) to export electricity to the U.S. All because Newfoundland doesn't want to pay to build a second transmission line through Quebec (because Hydro Quebec exports to the U.S. and must answer to FERC it cannot prevent Newfoundland from transmitting electricity through Quebec). Quebec's current capacity is pretty well full.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the legacy of his acting like Hugo Chavez and souring foreign investors on Newfoundland and Labour.
Can't wait to see what Rex Murphy has to say...
If nothing else, Danny always appeared to be standing up for Newfoundland Labrador. He took a have not province, and gave it back it's mojo. It doesn't matter that most able bodied workers are here in Alberta, the money they send back helps all Newfoundlander's.
ReplyDeleteNo difference between Danny and Duceppe,
ReplyDeleteit's all about their own province, "Canada? who cares, gi'me gi'me what I want or else"
Danny would be a good rep for Nfld in the Senate.
And there just happens to be a NFLD/Lab Senate vacancy in 6 months, May 2011.
p.s. Danny reigned in the times of high oil prices, and didn't blow it, I'll give him that.
"All because Newfoundland doesn't want to pay to build a second transmission line through Quebec"
ReplyDeleteThe province was willing to pay the price to upgrade Quebec's grid and they didn't want that because they didn't want competition. Now thanks to Charest Ontario will see their electricity rates skyrocket.
hunter, what, pray tell, is "Newfoundland Labrador"?
ReplyDelete