Fisherman's Road

Ryan Cleary reflects on the hardest things  he had to do as a Member of Parliament The following  article, the second in a special series, was published in last week's Newfoundland Herald (Jan. 31st-Feb. 6th).  Ryan Cleary served as NDP Member of Parliament for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl between May 2011 and October 2015. Second in a special series. L eading up to the federal election of 2011, I made it a point to assure voters I wouldn’t be a sheep in Ottawa, and I generally wasn’t, although I did, on occasion, give my best impression of a trained seal.   Like when MPs were wallpapered behind the Leader of the day (there were three over my term) before he/she delivered a speech of national significance. After every other sentence you were dutifully expected to jump up and flap your flippers at the sea of cameras, whistle if you could, definitely hoot and holler, smile and bob your head to the other seals around you — even if the words on...

Former MP Ryan Cleary reflects on his time in Ottawa — sex, booze and The Rock’s role   The following article — the first in a special series — was published in last week’s Newfoundland Herald (Jan. 24-30th).  Ryan Cleary served as NDP Member of Parliament for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl between May 2011 and October 2015. S oon after I was first elected, rookies were summoned to the House of Commons for Parliament 101, a crash course on how to best serve as MPs.  Which was timely, considering I had to ask for directions to The Hill earlier that morning from my hotel in downtown Ottawa. The presentation was delivered by veteran parliamentarians, and I took away two key messages: first, Ottawa was the “moon” and home ridings were “planet earth”; and, second, the last thing an MP should ever allow to happen is for Ottawa to “feel like home.” In short, life in the nation’s capital was warped from the get-go.  At least we had been warned...

The following letter to the editor is published in today's (Jan. 12, 2016) Telegram. The King of Newfoundland and Labrador is dead, long live the codfish king. But it will take a monumental effort to elevate our iconic cod back to its historic throne of global powerhouse.  Challenge appears on every front — including reintroducing cod into a world fish market dominated by cheap, Chinese product, and a potential foreign takeover of local plants and quotas.  While snow crab and cold-water shrimp represent an important fraction of global production, not so with Newfoundland and Labrador cod stocks, which are showing signs of rebound from complete collapse in the early 1990s.  In April 2015, the provincial government was presented with a Cod Market Report by John Sackton, president of seafood.com who’s recognized as one of the top seafood market analysts and researchers in the world. That report revealed that 2014 cod landings in Newfoundland and Labrador amou...