Fisherman's Road

Newfoundland and Labrador has lost its vision. Technically, it’s Danny Williams’ vision that’s been lost — not ours. No difference — blind is blind when you’re wandering in the political marsh. Say what you will about DW’s dream: he left NL a better place than he found it, and not all 8 premiers before him could say that. As usual, however, we’re not quite there yet — poised for something just out of reach. God knows what that something might be. Greatness maybe. But we could just as easily revert back to our former status as the world’s “ most vast and scenic welfare ghetto .” Newfies every one. It’s a scary spot, economic limbo. If more oil isn’t found the revenue taps will start losing pressure in 7 years. Mind you, the Tory administration has been desperate for another discovery. The province took the risk and allowed ultra-deep water drilling to continue last year off Newfoundland — the only region in North America to continue the practice after the Dee...

Four days after reporting a tailings leak at its Voisey’s Bay nickel mine, mining giant Vale reached a tentative deal Wednesday to end the bitter, 18-month strike at the Labrador nickel mine. Coincidence? Or deflection? As sci-fi author Emma Bull once said: “Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys.”

There are various ways to gage the performance of a NL politician. Some constituents are impressed by the sheer number of pancake breakfasts, community barbeques, seniors’ visits, family-fun days, and Town Hall meetings held over a term in office — as evidenced by the steady stream of advertisements publicizing each and every event in the front section of the weekend paper. Other constituents are awed by the tabloid-size newsletter mailed to their homes every few months to extol the virtues of their representative. That’s even though the politician or their staffers wrote the newsletter. I look for a little more in a politician. To that end, I attended a Town Hall on the Economy last week hosted by Siobhan Coady, Liberal Member of Parliament for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl. That, and I’m a shit disturber. ••• I ran against Coady in the 2008 federal election, and, despite the fact I’ve since severed political ties with the New Democrats, I can still turn a few heads at a Liberal...

“He wasn’t my type — too smooth, too suave, too much the mover and shaker. He wasn’t someone I would naturally cotton to, and I was on guard whenever I met him. I didn’t trust him.” — John Crosbie, as quoted in his 1997 book, No Holds Barred , My Life in Politics, of his first impressions of Brian Mulroney in the late 1970s and early ’80s when Crosbie was a NL cabinet minister and Mulroney was president of the Iron Ore Company of Canada (1977-’83). Crosbie later served as a minister in the Mulroney government. ••• You don’t hear much from Crosbie or Mulroney these days: Crosbie’s tongue is comfortably shackled at Government House (only the chains of office could contain the epic muscle), and Mulroney has been sidelined by scandal and sickness. But every now and then the aging political warhorses are trotted out into the national headlines. Crosbie made cross-Canada news last week after granting the Canadian Press an interview mid-way through his 5-year term as lieutenant-gove...

“We have to stop asking, what can our fishery do for us, and what can we do for our fishery.” — Dr. Philip Earle, a well-known NL radio personality, fisheries activist, and Carbonear native in a Friday, Jan. 21 st on-air conversation with VOCM Open Line host Randy Simms. Earle put his own twist on the famous J.F. Kennedy quote from the late president’s inaugural speech. Which was good timing. The 50 th anniversary of that speech was this past Thursday. Speaking of the fishery and what we can do for it … Auditor General John Noseworthy released a report today on the province’s audited financial statements. Noseworthy pointed out that the province has done well — primarily from oil revenues. At the same time, government spending — particularly on health and education — has increased “dramatically.” That’s dangerous, warned Noseworthy, given oil royalties are volatile and out of the provincial government’s control. Not to mention that when the oil runs out it's a...

Forget Chavez, Danny Williams may have had more in common with Mussolini, at least in terms of speech. The mainland media often compared our last premier to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who rattled the global business community for nationalizing parts of the Venezuelan economy. But, as far as I know, Danny never shared a motto with Chavez. He does with Benito. Mussolini (1883-1945) rose to power in Italy by creating a vision of an Italy restored to the glories of the Roman Empire. Does the following quote ring a bell? “It is better to have lived one day as a lion than one hundred years as a sheep.” “That adage, adopted by Mussolini, became one of the most popular Fascist slogans in Italy, epitomizing the Fascist ideal,” according to the 2009 book, 501 Must-Know Speeches . I just happened to pick it off my bookshelf last night. Now read this quote : “I would rather live one more day as a lion than 10 years as a jellyfish.” Danny said those words during the annual premier...

At the same time that Ottawa trumpets a new deal to export seal meat to China as a breakthrough for sagging markets, a telephone poll is apparently being conducted asking Newfoundlanders how they would feel about a buyback of sealing licenses. So much for confidence in the hunt. A St. John’s man contacted me Wednesday to say he had been telephoned in recent days by a polling firm asking for his opinion on the seal fishery, including whether he would support the buy back of sealing licenses. The poll lasted six or seven minutes, and the man (whom I’ve known for years) had no idea who commissioned it. There's a chance seals could be responsible, but that's highly doubtful. With so little ice this year there’s nowhere for the animals to set up a phone bank. ••• The seal deal with China is generally seen as a non-story, a deflection from more serious fisheries issues. Why is it a non-story? Just because China has agreed to open its markets to seal meat products, does...

As a journalist, nothing pisses me off more than being denied information. So you can understand my frustration with the NL fishery. So much information about our primary industry — including the impact of foreign fleets on migratory fish stocks — is denied for public release. Why? Because the release of such information could damage “international relations.” Not Newfoundland and Labrador relations — but “international relations.” You would think NL relations would take precedence, but then you'd be wrong. Here’s an example of a standard request, one of dozens filed with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans in recent years: “A list showing the number of boardings of foreign fishing vessels for the last three years, including the following information: the number and the nature of infractions noted, the number of citations issued, and the punitive measures taken by the appropriate NAFO-flag state.” That particular request was denied under section 15 (1) of ...

A Twillingate fisherman wrote the following letter in 2005, although it’s just as timely today. With a provincial general election set for October and a federal election likely to be held this year (rumour has it an election may be forced within weeks), the future of the NL fisheries must be brought front and centre. A young friend of ours dropped by one day last summer, quite unexpectedly, just as we were having dinner. Having grown up next door in a Newfoundland outport, and being the same age as our son, he became an accepted part of our family, so it was no surprise that he just pulled back a chair and joined in, as if it were yesterday. Fact is, Jack has been working in Alberta for a decade. He started by earning his tractor-trailer license and has since started his own business in Grand Prairie, bought a mobile home, married, and started a family. It was good to see him and to know that he appeared to have his life on track, knowing the many pitfalls and temptations that ...

Great cover on this week’s Newfoundland Herald . Timely too, for an ascension into heaven, considering tomorrow (Jan. 12) is the 40-day anniversary of Danny Williams’ retirement/Resurrection. But the image does raise some questions: Forgetting his head is sharpened like a pencil (or horn), why is Prime Minister Stephen Harper pointing at Jerome Kennedy? It’s as if he’s saying, “You’re the Next One Jerome of Carbonear, not Kathy of the Burin. Could there have been a mistake? Why is Lorraine Michael’s finger directed at herself? Is there any chance she could be next to ascend into the 8 th floor? Why is Yvonne Jones wearing orange? (Could the picture have been doctored?) And this question: What do you think Roger Grimes is about to do to Danny Williams’ foot? Did DW get more than his hair made over when he was down South? Finally, which finger (my eyesight isn’t what it was) is Danny Williams pointing at his people?