Dwight Ball is Untouchable
If Dwight Ball has learned anything amid all the turmoil and unrest of his first mandate, it’s that it can’t touch him. He just needs to ride it out.
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#NLRising, 3 Years On
The 2019 NL provincial election is just eight days away, and yesterday marks three years since the #NLRising rally on Confederation Hill, organized by the NL Federation of Labour. I was invited to sing a couple of songs, so I took the opportunity to write a new one, directly addressing the 2016 Liberal austerity budget. Out came ‘Go Away Dwight and Cathy’, which singled out cuts to education and library closures, cuts to healthcare, and the ‘deficit reduction levy’. The 2016 Liberal budget was an attack on the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, there is no doubt about that. But people spoke out. The rally worked, to some degree. The song? The downfall of writing political songs is that they are only usually relevant to a situation for a short period of time, however, they will always remain historically significant. ‘Go Away Dwight and Cathy’ never gets much airplay these…
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The Red and Blue Doors Open the Same Room
As promised in response to the budget/not-a-budget pre-election kick off, I thought it would be useful to take a deeper look at what the Liberals have accomplished in their four years in office. Halfway through the election campaign is as good a time as any. Everything old is new again. As both the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives have now released their “costed” platforms, it’s probably a good idea to think back to where we were when the parties went through this exercise in 2015. Memories of Elections Past In the spring of 2015, Progressive Conservative premier Paul Davis brought down an austerity budget in response to the collapse in oil prices and the sudden realization that the good times of the previous decade had gone bust. Budget ’15 projected staggering deficits and proposed a series of tax increases (including a controversial HST increase) and a public sector attrition plan…
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The Independent’s Top Stories of 2016
Indigenous rights and economic inequality dominated The Independent’s coverage of Muskrat Falls and Budget 2016.
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The cocktail circuit and democracy in N.L.
Independent MHA Paul Lane speaks out on the ways consensus is formed and decisions are made in N.L. politics, disrupting the illusion of representative democracy in the province.
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Why do we love hard times so much?
The “we’ll come through this” mantra is not helpful for those expecting organization, protest, and change.
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The big ones get away
Why aren’t we doing more to prevent rich people and corporations from hiding their money to avoid paying taxes while people in N.L. and elsewhere suffer in the name of ‘necessary’ austerity?
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Liberal backbenchers hold the power
“If 10 or more of you get together as a united group you have the power to demand change to this horrible budget. If cabinet is unwilling to act, cross the floor and form the Official Opposition.”
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“Pride is political”
St. John’s Pride Week festival and parade have grown “exponentially” in recent years and remain important not only as celebrations, but also as platforms for progress on gender equality, say organizers.
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Budget backlash continues with anti-violence protest
Women’s rights advocates hold rally outside closed-door discussions on domestic violence at Confederation Building, say Budget 2016 puts women at risk.
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The Government Game going strong in 2016
St. John’s songwriter rewrites classic Newfoundland song “The Government Game” in response to the Liberal government’s austerity budget.
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Plan B: Borrow to build, borrow to survive
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador should immediately tap the international bond markets and borrow $3 billion.
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The merchant days are over
“We need to stand together and show that we are more than the quaint people hanging clothes in tourist commercials.”
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Filibusters aren’t the problem for women in politics
Minister Gerry Byrne’s recent comment that the filibuster served as a deterrent for women entering politics told only part of the story.
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Liberals face mounting scorn as anti-austerity movement matures
As residents and groups ramp up direct action efforts while resistance to austerity grows, some observers are calling for movement to embrace mutual aid.
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Something very different is happening in Newfoundland and Labrador
For all the negative things it will do to our province, the Liberals’ austerity budget is bringing people together in a very meaningful way.
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We have the answers
It was published almost 40 years ago, but the People’s Commission on Unemployment report reads as if it were written today.
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“Keep on marching”
“[T]his government did not concede anything out of ‘caring’. They were drove to their knees by the pressure from the marchers…”
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If you can’t lead, then get out
The Nalcor scandal is just the tip of the iceberg.
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Peer loyalties in Budget 2016
It might sound too simple or gauche, but is it possible the personal wealth of Dwight Ball and Cathy Bennett might actually lie at the very heart of the budget about to go before the N.L. legislature?
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