Danny Williams Bashes Quebec

Here's an excerpt of a speech given by Danny Williams at the Canadian Club in June, bashing the province of Quebec pretty good. It's easy to see where he gets the reputation either as a spoiled child or a great defender of his province, depending on your political perspective.

Please note that the speech was much longer, you can see the entire version over at CPAC in English or with French over-commentary.

Since Danny Williams gets in some pretty good licks, let me play devil's advocate and offer some form of rebuttal on a number of points that he makes.

Let's tackle the big issue, the Churchill Falls hydro-electric deal of 1969 that left Newfoundland holding the very short end of the revenue stick. That one-sided deal works decidedly in Quebec's favour and Williams is absolutely foaming at the mouth in describing what he refers to as Quebec's absolute "greed' in it's refusal to re-negotiate in order to give Newfoundland a more equitable split of the profits.

Let me ask you this;

Would Quebec be a publicly traded corporation, instead of a province, do you think it would feel compelled to re-negotiate towards a lower proportion of profits?
Why on Earth?

Any CEO who would entertain such a proposal, would be laughed out of a job.  Giving away money for no good reason would invariably get him/her fired and probably sued to boot, by enraged shareholders.

Newfoundland made a bad deal. Period. It was their own fault.

The deal was rushed into by Joey Smallwood because he feared that the Newfoundland company involved,  Churchill Falls (Labrador) Company (CFLCO), would soon be bankrupt. Eric Kierans, the Anglophone cabinet minister in the Bourassa government who did the deal for Quebec, described  the absolute desperation on the side of Newfoundland to do a deal, any deal. What did they expect?
Five years after the deal was consummated, the Newfoundland government was so pleased with it, that it bought out Brinco's share for 160  million dollars. When the price of power skyrocketed in the mid-seventies, everything changed. It was then when the Newfoundland government realized their glaring error in capping the price of the electricity and making a deal that would bind them to the same price for 65 years, the height of stupidity!

Let me put this question to you. Regardless of whether you have business experience or not, would you make a deal to sell a product for 65 years at a fixed price?
Would a hot-dog vendor agree to such a deal?
Would the Girl Scout organization enter in to such a deal vis-a-vis the sale of their cookies?

The Churchill Falls hydro-electric deal is not an example of Quebec greed, but rather a story of the most incompetent provincial government in the annals of Canadian history!
The deal remains a painful reminder to Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans, how stupid their leaders were. Danny Williams talks about the deal as if Newfoundlanders weren't even in the same room where the deal was brokered.

"It is not difficult to feel aggrieved when one has the distinct impression that the politicians of the day, as well as the lawyers, had the wool pulled over their eyes good and proper. If they weren't hoodwinked, they had to have been incompetent or part of a deal to swindle the province. Isn't it better to think that they were naïve?" -Audrey Manning

Now defenders of Newfoundland will argue that Quebec's refusal to grant Newfoundland a right of way to transport its power across Quebec is the root of the problem, but to believe that Quebec should have acted any differently is a bit naive.

What idiot would allow a direct competitor the right to transport his product across his territory
without exacting the maximum amount of compensation available? It just makes sound business sense, as is borne out by history.
Now today, the rules have changed, the USA demands that this practice not be allowed, and access to a transportation grid be open to all producers. But Quebec continues to put up regulatory roadblocks to defend its monopoly. Good for them!
Again, if Quebec was a business instead of a province, wouldn't it do the same. Perhaps that's Newfoundland's problem, running a business as if it is a government. 

Why should Quebec compromise with Newfoundland when that province has tried every trick in the book to abrogate a deal that it agreed to freely?
Why should Quebec cooperate, for Newfoundland's benefit, while being subjected to the kind of virulent attacks as typified in the above video?

Now before we go on to to general issues, I'd like to point out that Mr. Williams, either misspoke or misled the audience in declaring that Quebec 'makes' $2.3 billion dollars on the Churchill Falls power as compared to the 50 million that Newfoundland 'makes.'
He is talking about gross sales as opposed to profit. When a company takes in $2.3, it doesn't 'make' that amount. There are expenses to be deducted. The real figure is debatable, but in January of this year Williams himself claimed the amount was somewhere around $1.7 billion dollars. LINK
That's a lot of money just the same, but the Premier knows his figures and shouldn't have put forward an inflated figure as fact.

Today,  Danny Williams is screaming that Quebec is a bloodsucker in relation to other provinces in the Canadian federation. It's probably true, but it's also a case of sour grapes.

 In this speech, he goes off about the equalization payments and the 60% portion that Quebec receives, only because his province, flush with oil royalties is being cut out. Newfoundland has always received a higher percentage of the equalization pie per capita, than Quebec.
When his province was sucking at the federal teat, Danny Williams didn't complain about Quebec. The real problem is that Newfoundland, as a 'Have' province, now wants to stiff paying into the fund, because it is no longer a beneficiary. Disgusting!

Now Williams goes on to make more ridiculous statements, including the one that the Bloc Quebecois is somehow affecting the national agenda, an idea stupider than wood. The Bloc has about as much influence on federal policies as the Tooth Fairy. Do you think Gilles Duceppe can call up Stephen Harper and ask him to screw Newfoundland as a favour, or in return of political considerations?

William's second assertion about Quebec cabinet ministers wielding too much power is cleverly worded in the past tense.  Why?
The truth is rather inconvenient.  Because of the Bloc presence in Ottawa, Quebec has less power and influence than ever.

Mr. Williams howls and barks but in the end is nothing more than a toothless pit-bull. Scary at first, but laughable once you know the truth.

He tries rather lamely to draw Ontario into the Newfoundland/Quebec fight, as if that province has some sort of real stake.
The truth is that Ontario couldn't give a shit about Newfoundland or Quebec and his attempt to widen the battle is so transparent that it is laughable. 

Mr. Williams holds himself and his province up as 'holier than thou,' but nothing could be further from the truth.

His hasn't come clean on a number of issues dealing with Hydro-Quebec.
Like his secret negotiations with his sworn enemy concerning the development of the Lower Churchill. You'll hear more about that in a future post.

Newfoundland and Labrador have nothing to teach Quebec (or any one else) about honesty. Sanctimonious lectures by Williams about morals and fairness are a joke, considering that his province has the worst reputation for honesty and that it is home to the greatest and largest organized scam on the Canadian taxpayer ever, all backed by the Newfoundland government itself. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
You'll hear more about that in a future post.

To all of you who believe that Williams is some sort of a savior, you are wrong. He has ridden the oil boom to prosperity and has taken credit for it all.

The reality is that he's a bad manager and poor decision maker, which unfortunately is something that's all too typical in Newfoundland leaders. His rants fall on deaf ears not only in Quebec but across Canada. When Danny Williams talks, people listen with amusement. His rants are colourful and entertaining, but so sanctimonious they leave people laughing. He has burned too many bridges and taking down the Canadian flag was something that remains unpardonable.

Sadly, he is the very essence of a Newfie joke.