I gave the following presentation today (May 24th) in St. John’s to the Ministerial Advisory Panel conducting an external review of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Last-in, First-out policy (LIFO) for the northern shrimp fishery. To begin, I’d like to thank the Ministerial Advisory Panel for the work you’re doing in carrying out this external review of the federal department’s Last-in, First-out policy for the northern shrimp fishery. Thank you. The panel is to provide advice on whether the LIFO policy specific to the northern shrimp fishery should be continued, modified or abolished.  My recommendation is that the policy be abolished.  But I’ll get there in a moment — I’d like to first put my presentation, my comments, in context.  My perspective is that of a former Newfoundland and Labrador Member of Parliament (2011-2015). Prior to that I was a journalist. I have followed the fisheries closely since the early 1990s, sin...

Quotes and notes from Premier’s time on Open Line today (April 28th): — “Probably is,” in response to whether his plan to increase the HST (after vowing he wouldn’t, and repealing the Tory plan to do so) was something he would have done differently. — "The CEDA fund is not off the table with us.” Meantime, a study has yet to be produced of the potential impacts of relinquishing Minimum Processing Requirements as part of the Canada/EU trade deal. — “We are getting our fair share out of Ottawa.”  That will be determined with decisions such as the future of the last-in, first-out management policy in the shrimp fishery. — On the new tax on books: “It goes to show how difficult it is to grapple with a $2.7 billion deficit.” — On full-day kindergarten: “It’s important for kids to socialize and spend time with children their own age.” — On the appointment of Stan Marshall as CEO of Nalcor: “One of the things on his CV is commitment to Newfoundland and Labrador.” — On the ...

I am grateful to the Dwight Ball Liberals for their most recent budget — not for the content, on that front the new government is a bitter disappointment, so oblivious to the financial pulse — but for the public reaction the document has provoked. There’s life in us yet.   I haven’t heard/seen Newfoundlanders and Labradorians this pissed off — ever.  The challenge now is to turn the anger into real change, because, in case it isn’t obvious, the status quo is slowing killing us.  Newfoundlanders — “true” ones anyway, as the song goes— have a reputation for ranting and roaring, but that’s a lie. We are a people easily pacified. We’ve lived most of our 500-plus years hand-to-mouth, barely eking out an existence from the land and sea, and, generally speaking, we take what little we’re given, and kiss the hand that offers it.  There have been exceptions, when our blood boiled over: the 1932 Colonial Building riot, the fuss over Conf...

Geoff Stirling implored NLers not to give up  on efforts to overturn infamous Upper Churchill contract  The following article was published in the March 3d edition of The Newfoundland Herald.  By Ryan Cleary The late Geoff Stirling has been described as the “true Captain Newfoundland,” and he was. He may not have worn a cape, but the blood that ran through his veins had shades of pink, white and green.  His exploits were as endless as his curiosity (Stonehenge, the pyramids); his patriotism (pre ’49 anti-Confederate) fierce. Stirling always stood on guard, with mystical flare.  I cannot think of the seal hunt without imagining sealers on the icy Front dodging Newfoundland Heralds falling from the sky, or batting them away with their gaffs. That particular story, a Geoff Stirling exclusive, began soon after the birth of the publication you’re reading.  To draw attention to The St. John’s Sunday Herald (as The Newfoundland Her...

The following is my opening statement from a debate today (Feb. 26th) on NL nationalism or nationhood, as organized by Memorial University’s Political Science Student Society, and Political Science Department.   I’m going to read you an excerpt from a letter to the editor that was published in the April 25th, 1928 edition of the Corner Brook Western Star . Once I’m done, I want you to guess who wrote the letter. “Why should Newfoundland enter the Confederation with Canada? What possible good would it do us? Politically it would submerge us underneath a weight of strongly organized, well-knit Provincial groupings that know what they want and how to get it.  In a parliament at Ottawa which is bossed, controlled and dominated by the Western block, the Ontario bloc, and the Quebec Bloc, what earthly chance would Newfoundland have of being heard or of being given any attention?  Under these conditions Newfoundland would be like the flea on Noah’s ark, “Said th...