There's nothing like a good election hey? It's been so long since we had to go to the polls to give a personally abhorrent conservative another term of being drunk with power behind the machinery of the State that I was almost starting to go through withdrawal.
Also, I really just wanted and excuse to put up a placeholder post here to replace that poorly thought out John McCain sight gag from July.
Sabbaticals are rough, let me tell you.
But in the meantime, I'd just like to throw out an unsubstantiated rumour relayed to me by a confidante who made the questionable life decision of being involved with the New Democrats: namely, that Ryan Cleary's campaign manager (or similarly frivolous position) is none other than my good friend Ivan Morgan! I have no idea if this is true but I really hope that it is - if only so that Cleary's coffers will be filled with complimentary Purity pastries.
Feel free to spread that rumour around anyways - there's nothing like a good self-fulfilling prophecy.
Showing posts with label Selling Out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Selling Out. Show all posts
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Un-Happy Birthday
I don't understand how anyone could possibly say anything about today that is even remotely positive.
Fifty-nine years ago, Joey "Stalin" Smallwood cemented his victory over the people of this province and officially put the last nail in the coffin of Newfoundland and Labrador as we sold ourselves into the servitude of the self-serving politicians in Ottawa, the fiendishly arrogant French Canadians and the greedy plutocrats in Alberta, all of whom regard us as either a joke or a resource to be exploited.
It was our darkest day as a people; unlike the battle of Beaumont-Hamel, there were no free and independent Newfoundlanders left standing when the smoke cleared on April Fool's Day, 1949.
HOW COULD YOU HAVE MADE SUCH A TERRIBLE DECISION SIX DECADES AGO, NEWFOUNDLANDERS? YOU WOULD SELL OUT A VAGUE AND AMBIGUOUS NOTION OF "HISTORY" AND "CULTURE" FOR SOMETHING SO SILLY AS A HIGHER QUALITY OF LIFE AND INCREASING YOUR LIFE EXPECTANCY BEYOND THE AGE OF 32? I AM SO MAD ABOUT THIS EVENT WHICH OCCURRED BEFORE I WAS BORN THAT I AM TYPING IN ALL CAPS IN ORDER TO CONVEY THAT IF I WAS ACTUALLY TALKING I WOULD BE YELLING (BECAUSE I AM SO MAD).
So if you'll excuse me, I'm off to spend the rest of the day mourning the advent of social programs, economic development and increased standards of living, proper medical services to those dying of tuberculosis in the outports, and breaking the power of the self-serving, arrogant and greedy plutocratic merchants who ran the show out of St. John's.
Way to screw us over, Joey.
Fifty-nine years ago, Joey "Stalin" Smallwood cemented his victory over the people of this province and officially put the last nail in the coffin of Newfoundland and Labrador as we sold ourselves into the servitude of the self-serving politicians in Ottawa, the fiendishly arrogant French Canadians and the greedy plutocrats in Alberta, all of whom regard us as either a joke or a resource to be exploited.
It was our darkest day as a people; unlike the battle of Beaumont-Hamel, there were no free and independent Newfoundlanders left standing when the smoke cleared on April Fool's Day, 1949.
HOW COULD YOU HAVE MADE SUCH A TERRIBLE DECISION SIX DECADES AGO, NEWFOUNDLANDERS? YOU WOULD SELL OUT A VAGUE AND AMBIGUOUS NOTION OF "HISTORY" AND "CULTURE" FOR SOMETHING SO SILLY AS A HIGHER QUALITY OF LIFE AND INCREASING YOUR LIFE EXPECTANCY BEYOND THE AGE OF 32? I AM SO MAD ABOUT THIS EVENT WHICH OCCURRED BEFORE I WAS BORN THAT I AM TYPING IN ALL CAPS IN ORDER TO CONVEY THAT IF I WAS ACTUALLY TALKING I WOULD BE YELLING (BECAUSE I AM SO MAD).
So if you'll excuse me, I'm off to spend the rest of the day mourning the advent of social programs, economic development and increased standards of living, proper medical services to those dying of tuberculosis in the outports, and breaking the power of the self-serving, arrogant and greedy plutocratic merchants who ran the show out of St. John's.
Way to screw us over, Joey.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Selling out is hard to do
Or, if you're the provincial government, apparently it's quite easy.
Yes, it would appear that the new equalization formula which has been variously decried as scandalous, a betrayal, valueless, and an overall insult to Newfoundland and Labrador has been signed by the government. Even the Fighting Newfoundlander must throw in the towel on some matches, and certainly this was a battle where the odds weren't in the province's favour. Despite the Premier promising just a short while ago that he was ready for a "new round of fighting," it looks like we'll all be going home, disappointed and sober, after the first round.
To some, this might look like a capitulation of Six Day War proportions; to others it'll resemble more of a Chamberlain-like compromise. In actuality, it's more of the latter; despite very strong implications and overtones of "never give in, never surrender" in the Premier's rhetoric since March, he avoided making any sort of definite statement a la Stephenville Mill with regards to the adoption of the equalisation formula. In Williams' own words, this is a sell out.
Politics, of course, is all about conflict, compromise, and the occasional flip-flop. This is nothing new, and this sort of quietly changing the course is a staple of almost every time a government has ever loudly fought a battle it couldn't win.
However, it's the fact that this is nothing new that's precisely the problem. The Premier and his government have built themselves up as the Fighting Newfoundlanders, eschewing the old ways of doing politics that have gotten the province so far in the hole and let our resources be exploited to the brink of no return; this is a Premier that promised to "stay the course" on getting our fair share and doing not only what is best, but what is right for the people of this province; above all, this is a Premier and a government that have proclaimed, on a large number of occasions, that there will be no more giveaways. And, as they should rightly do for that sort of representation, the province gave this government a positively monolithic mandate.
What we've got now, today, with the signing of the new equalisation formula, is a de facto admission that the new politics and new hope for change promised by the Premier was in fact simply rhetoric. A Fighting Newfoundlander who gives up when the going gets rough; a captain who is only steady at the wheel in calm weather, and who will avoid the risks of uncharted waters in exchange for a smooth, if rather lackluster, ride; a sudden switch to pragmatism from principle because it's "what's best for the province."
The actual mechanics and costs vs. benefits of this deal are essentially irrelevant (although it bears repeating that both the government and the economists who've looked at it have dismissed its worth) at this point, because ultimately what this deal means to the people of this province is that we're just getting more of the "politics of mediocrity" that the Tories vowed to do away with.
And unfortunately, that means that the credibility of the Leviathan we elected is the only joke in this entire entry.
Yes, it would appear that the new equalization formula which has been variously decried as scandalous, a betrayal, valueless, and an overall insult to Newfoundland and Labrador has been signed by the government. Even the Fighting Newfoundlander must throw in the towel on some matches, and certainly this was a battle where the odds weren't in the province's favour. Despite the Premier promising just a short while ago that he was ready for a "new round of fighting," it looks like we'll all be going home, disappointed and sober, after the first round.
To some, this might look like a capitulation of Six Day War proportions; to others it'll resemble more of a Chamberlain-like compromise. In actuality, it's more of the latter; despite very strong implications and overtones of "never give in, never surrender" in the Premier's rhetoric since March, he avoided making any sort of definite statement a la Stephenville Mill with regards to the adoption of the equalisation formula. In Williams' own words, this is a sell out.
Politics, of course, is all about conflict, compromise, and the occasional flip-flop. This is nothing new, and this sort of quietly changing the course is a staple of almost every time a government has ever loudly fought a battle it couldn't win.
However, it's the fact that this is nothing new that's precisely the problem. The Premier and his government have built themselves up as the Fighting Newfoundlanders, eschewing the old ways of doing politics that have gotten the province so far in the hole and let our resources be exploited to the brink of no return; this is a Premier that promised to "stay the course" on getting our fair share and doing not only what is best, but what is right for the people of this province; above all, this is a Premier and a government that have proclaimed, on a large number of occasions, that there will be no more giveaways. And, as they should rightly do for that sort of representation, the province gave this government a positively monolithic mandate.
What we've got now, today, with the signing of the new equalisation formula, is a de facto admission that the new politics and new hope for change promised by the Premier was in fact simply rhetoric. A Fighting Newfoundlander who gives up when the going gets rough; a captain who is only steady at the wheel in calm weather, and who will avoid the risks of uncharted waters in exchange for a smooth, if rather lackluster, ride; a sudden switch to pragmatism from principle because it's "what's best for the province."
The actual mechanics and costs vs. benefits of this deal are essentially irrelevant (although it bears repeating that both the government and the economists who've looked at it have dismissed its worth) at this point, because ultimately what this deal means to the people of this province is that we're just getting more of the "politics of mediocrity" that the Tories vowed to do away with.
And unfortunately, that means that the credibility of the Leviathan we elected is the only joke in this entire entry.
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