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V25N5 2014.indd 75 Date:14-08-12 Page: 75.p1.pdf 2014-08-12 4:09 PM an emergency circus convened in the for the last year St. John’s Delta hotel. They weren’t Every month opposed in principle to developing and a half, most everyone in and the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project, but they were committed to has been telling themselves that surely exploring alternatives and, above all, this particular upheaval is the most unhinged the scuttling the Tories’ proposed deal. Flash forward three years (and province’s politics are going to get. Round and a proper leadership convention), and the Liberals are now effectively round and round it goes; where the drama stops, resigned to carrying through nobody knows. Dunderdale’s vision. Leader , who has no intention of cancelling the project, has Cathy Well, maybe we can hazard an continuity will be the order of the day Bennett (former chairwoman to educated guess. Barring anything no matter what happens in 2015. Nalcor’s board of directors and cataclysmic coming down the pipe – Consider the case of Muskrat Falls. Muskrat Falls enthusiast) sitting the Second Coming of Christ and his In the 2011 election – an almost alongside him in caucus. As it stands, thousand-year Kingdom, say, or John mythical time, when the N.L. NDP was there is little functional difference Crosbie drinking from the fountain of a credible political party and then between the Liberal approach to youth – the signs point to a coming Progressive Conservative premier the project and the Tory one; save, regime change in Newfoundland ’s name could be perhaps, that the Liberals aren’t and Labrador. For the first time in uttered without spitting – the Liberals carrying quite so much political over a decade, the Liberals look could be defined, broadly speaking, baggage. on track to win the next election. as ‘the party against Muskrat Falls’. A real place for the Liberals ‘Regime change’ is, of course, a rather They were also the biggest campaign to shine would be in the area dramatic way of putting it. Despite train wreck, whose own ad copy of transparency and democratic the partisan hyperbole pitched back proclaimed they could ‘do better’ and reform – although, again, the party and forth across local airwaves, broad whose leader was hastily chosen at isn’t promising anything so earth-

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V25N5 2014.indd 76 Date:14-08-12 Page: 76.p1.pdf 2014-08-12 4:09 PM shattering that we might not also hear it from the incoming Tory leader. The Liberals have promised to bring the House of Assembly up to speed with the rest of the country by instituting regular non- partisan legislative committees, which would have the power to call public witnesses and bring expert knowledge to bear on crafting legislation. They’re also committed to repealing Bill 29 (a 2012 amendment to the Access to Information Act) while the Tories have, so far, merely promised to re-examine it. This is a great move symbolically, but it’s not clear they Growing plan on going any further and taking apart the deeper byzantine bureaucracy that’s been thrown up by the government to limit public access to information. So, as far as anyone can tell, a private the old adage that there is very little substantive ideological disagreement in local politics remains as true as ever; there’s a reason the Liberals have been able to absorb defectors from every other business? party. But that doesn’t mean the two major parties, in their present forms, are identical. There are a few good indications that the powers that be are ready and willing to change the political bedsheets. For one thing, you can follow the money. In a little less than a year, Liberal and Tory fundraising fortunes have flipped. Corporate backers are starting to shift their political investments away from the Progressive Conservatives and towards the Opposition, Talk to our private business professionals—they one $500-a-plate dinner and have the knowledge and experience to help unlock $1,400-a-team golf tournament at a time. And as seems to be the case your potential for growth. Working closely with your in Newfoundland party organizing, team, they’ll help find greater operating efficiencies, if you come, they will build it (but new markets, and the optimal tax strategies for not a moment sooner). Internal party planning, neglected by the Liberals your business in Atlantic Canada and abroad. for over a decade, is finally stirring back to life. And with momentum We’ve helped thousands of clients meet the unique (and money) building behind them, challenges of growing a private business. we can also imagine the party recruiting the lion’s share of quality candidates for their next election Let us do it for you. slate. By contrast, outside of stalwart districts like Ferryland – where even Judas Iscariot would be swept into www.GrantThornton.ca office on a Tory ticket – turnout for PC delegate selection has dipped Audit Tax Advisory lower than dignity on George Street after last call. ©Grant Thornton LLP. A Canadian Member of Grant Thornton International Ltd

September/October 2014 atlanticbusinessmagazine.com 77 THIS AD PREPARED BY: RYAN EDWARDS CLIENT: GRANT THORNTON

V25N5 2014.indd 77 Date:14-08-12 Page: 77.p1.pdfFILE NAME: GT_TBOFT 2014-08-12 4:09 PM AD #: GT-14-135 TRIM SIZE: 4.625” X 9.875” COLOURS: CMYK Not that any of this should be taken his co-conspirators was just a further out across the island for several days to mean that the Liberals themselves twist of the knife. Then Dale Kirby back in January (thanks to higher have done the heavy lifting here. and Chris Mitchelmore burned the than normal usage induced by severe For the most part, they’re sitting body when they quit caucus to join cold combined with aging/failing pretty atop the polls because their the Liberals, and the party salted equipment), so too did they go out for opponents are determined to eat the earth for a generation when they Kathy Dunderdale’s political career. themselves alive. reaffirmed Michael’s leadership at While it had been a popular pastime As a political force, the N.L. NDP the 2014 spring convention. If they to openly speculate about when she’d were dead on arrival the moment manage to elect a single MHA in the resign in the months leading up to walked into CBC next election, they can consider it a #DarkNL, the moment she used her studios last October and decided triumph. first media appearance to quibble to air the party’s leadership putsch The PC collapse has been with the electorate over the definition on the evening news; MHA George significantly less sudden but no less of the word ‘crisis’, it was over – a Murphy publicly breaking ranks with spectacular. When the lights went moment symbolically captured in ’s sudden conversion to Liberalism on the road to Smitty’s restaurant.

Turnout for PC delegate selection has dipped lower than dignity on George Street after last call.

In the eight months since she resigned, the Tories have been through two leadership contests. The first was a surreal faceoff between three political amateurs racing to talk themselves out of the premiership, and it ended with Frank Coleman wisely abdicating three weeks before his own coronation. The second is a slap fight between three party B-listers over how many second- and third-cousins they can drag out to delegate selection meetings in one of the hottest summers on record. This is the logical endpoint of the Danny Williams era. Danny was a force of nature, second in stature only NEW LOCATION to in our collective 310 Mountain Road 167 Water Street political consciousness. He kept Moncton, NB Canada St. John’s, NL Canada the party, the government, and the (506) 858-7844 (709) 722-9432 popular will bound together by the sheer force of his personality. But [email protected] • alwaysinvogue.ca the very strength of the Williams Tories has now turned out to be their

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V25N5 2014.indd 78 Date:14-08-12 Page: 78.p1.pdf 2014-08-12 4:09 PM greatest weakness – the stronger the man at the centre, the weaker the institutions around him. Strong leaders are by definition surrounded by followers and, as time goes on, by sycophants. When a leader like this vanishes – as Williams did abruptly in late 2010 – a power vacuum is inevitable. It took a few years, but we have finally come to the endgame. This has been a recurring theme in Newfoundland’s politics since long before Confederation. Ultimately, the only way to break the cycle of ‘Strong Man’ politics is to actually do the work of institutional and democratic reform. Legislative committees are a modest step in the right direction. They would loosen the straightjacket of party discipline and ensure that the House becomes a site of reasoned investigation and debate, instead of a place for MHAs to shout over each other in Question Period before rubber-stamping anything the executive brings forward. Having the legislature sit for more than 50 days a year might not hurt either, but one utopian pipe dream at a time. All of this is easier said than done. Newfoundland doesn’t exactly have a proud democratic heritage. We’re the only polity in the Western world to ever voluntarily surrender self-rule, and we’re generally pretty comfortable with autocratic policymaking so long as the person in charge does it with proper gusto. We may technically be a ‘have province’, but we have yet to shake our ‘have-not’ mentality. All told, it’s unlikely that Dwight Ball or whoever eventually claims the PC leadership will be a ‘Great Man’ in the mold of Joey or Danny. But neither was in 1989, or in 1972; not every competent captain needs to be Magellan. But if we ever want to stop going around in circles, we’ll need a full crew with an explorer’s vision to sail us into stable, substantive democracy. Otherwise we’ll be forever in the lurch, waiting around for the next Strong Man (or Woman) to ride in on a horse and save us from ourselves. •

Feedback: [email protected]; @AtlanticBus; @ABM_Editor; @drewfoundland; #ElectionBrewing

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