My response to Garth's blog post 'la lune'

Once again, here is the comment I posted on Garth's blog titled 'la lune', posted August 28th, which can be viewed at http://www.garth.ca/weblog/ or http://www.garth.ca/weblog/2007/08/28/la-lune/ (the comment isn't up yet, but it will be soon!)

"'Being an East coast we understand the splendor of the country side. Your article was a litle self serving I think. I often wonder why you cannot write a sentence without involking the the character of the Prime Minister. The people from the east coast drift back and forth. The Liberals have purchased their votes over the years. They will vote for whoever offers them the most. For example just look at the abuse in the social assistance programs. This has been going on for years. As for Mr Dion, he may have a chance down East when he learns to express himself in english. It is pretty bad when Mr Williams will not be seen publicly with him. You guys went to NFLD because you hope to capitalize on the fued between the Federal and Provincial parties. Mr Williams was told by his party to cool it. I guess we also forget that he refused to fly the canadian flag when Martin was Prime Minister. So what else is new.

By David Halfkenny on 08.28.07 9:51 pm'

David, FYI, in our 58 years in Confederation, NL has been wronged from Federal Government after Federal Government (except when we had a strong Cabinet Minister, such as PC Cabinet Minister John Crosbie).

But ya, NL in my own opionion is just as much a 'nation' or 'distinct society' as is Quebec. After all, we were the last province to join Canada and had alternated between being a country and being a colony of Britain.

But ya Garth, if you Liberals want to do good in NL, do this: study the costs of removing RENEWABLE resource revenues from the equalization formula. If it's feasible and can be done, not only would it give an incentive for provincial governments (and the federal government) to develop alternative and renewable energy sources, but it'd also give provincial governments revenues to do so: pay down the debt (NL still has a debt of 11 billion dollars!!!), invest in sustainable infrastructure.

This way, you'd respect your 'PC' upbringing of wanting to strengthen the role of the provinces, more incentives for the private, non-profit and NGOs to play a greater role on the environment AND would help to REALLY reduce the 'fiscal imbalance' of which PMSH spoke of.

And hey, you'd be helping the environment, restoring fiscal balance AND leading the way towards a Green Economy! What do you think of that idea?! "

But once again, this is a matter i'd like the NLFP to look into. After all, we're all about putting NL First! And ya, what better way to put NL First than to put incentives in to invest in switching to a 'Green Economy' so that when the day comes that we run out of oil, we'll be ready for it (and it'll help us protect the environment and create jobs as well!)

My response to the VOCM question 'Do you think there should be stricter fines for pet owners who don't clean up after their animals?'

Hello everyone, here is my response to this VOCM question that was posted on the site Wednesday, August 29th 2007:

'Hey everyone, this discussion we are having now reminds me of the two 'theories of law' I learned about in my Law and Society 2000 class at MUN over the summer. According to my prof. (Ray Critch, a rather bright young prof. at MUN), there are two basic theories of why the law exists: emotive theory and rational theory (closely associated with rational choice theory: the basis of economics).

In the first theory (emotive theory), laws exists because people tend to act on their emotions and if the state didn't impose penalties on those who break the law, people might take the law into their own hands (this is something that often happened in tribal societies: does the term 'Family Feud' ring a bell, whereby one person does a wrong to another family member and it continues on generation after generation?)According to this theory, the solution to the problem of leaving dog poop where it doesn't belong is to increase enforcement of the visible fines, and if necessary, to increase the fines until the rate of these occurences decreases.Although, take a look at the following comment 'Date: 8/29/2007
Name: Rural Dweller
Comments:
Urban centres are quite capable of managing doggy doo without general input from everyone. Let's not have another frustrated bunch of city dwellers legislate that people in rural areas use plastic baggies to pick up environmentally friendly doggy doo using environmentally contaminating non-biodegradable plastic to do so.'

If i'm not mistaken, when the provincial government passes a law, it can make expections. For example, perhaps there could be a provision in the law stating that in order for the law NOT to take effect in a community, the Town or City Council would have to pass a resolution stating that they don't want this law to apply in their community and would rather use muncipal by-laws to curve the problem.

The second theory (rational theory/ rational choice theory) holds that since people are rational, before commiting an offence, people do a cost-benefit analysis of the benefits versus the costs: if the costs outweigh the benefits, people are more likely NOT to commit the crime. So in this case, the pain caused by the fines, the subsequent public humilation,etc.. would have to outweigh the benefits of not having to take a moment to scoop the poop up!

I really hope this comment helps inform the discussion!'

Oops, I guess I forgot to mention that reconcilation is also part of both theories: in emotive theory, reconcilation occurs when 'the punishment meets the crime'. In other words, when the punishment for a crime is equal to how offensive the public finds that crime. According to rational choice theory, reconcilation happens when the individual realizes that either they were acting irrationally, learned to think about the crime in a way that will prevent them from re-offending and realizing that the fines/punishment was in place to try to prevent them from offending in the first place.

Once again, it amazes me how doing a course at MUN such as Law and Society 2000 has allowed me to understand various legal and societal issues occuring in places like Canada!

My comment on Garth Turner's Blog entry "Mother Stabber" (August 27th,2007)

Hello everyone, seeing as it's been ages since i've updated my own personal blog in the maintenance of the NL First Party official blog, I thought i'd post the comment I made at the end of the article "Mother Stabber" (August 27th,2007), which can be viewed at http://www.garth.ca

So here it is: "William Macdonnel, if you think that's bad, how do you think the province of NL feels? We've been part of confederation (i.e. Canada) since 1949 and what has become of our province:

- Federal mismanagement and exploitation of our fisheries
- NL now has less control over matters of the fishery than it did pre-Confederation (up until the mid 1960's, NL controlled its own fishery within the 3-mile limit. These days, we can't even control that: it's all done by the federal government)

- The Federal Government ripped us off by ensuring Quebec got most (if not all) of the benefits of the Upper Churchill

- Our Forestry industry is nothing compared to what it used to be, once again due to overexploitation.

Essentially not only has the Liberal Party (both Provincial and Federal) ripped us off from time to time (although there are exceptions, like when John Crosbie got Former PM Brian Mulroney to sign and ratify the 1985 Atlantic Accord into law and when NL PC Premier Danny Willians and former Leader of the Opposition Stephen Harper pressured Former Liberal PM Paul Martin into signing the 2005 Atlantic Accord into law), almost every resource we have has been exploited for the benefit of Central (and even Western) Canada.

But once again, things are starting to change, as NL Premier Danny Williams is standing up to everybody: big oil companies, the Federal Government, unions and big labour, the Opposition,etc... Essentially, NL Premier Danny Williams has gone more good for the province of NL than the Provincial Liberals did in the 13-15 years they governed previous to 2003.

But of course, NL Premier Danny Williams still has his baggage: he still hasn't delivered on getting the Federal Government to implement joint management of the fisheries between the federal Government and the NL Provincial Government, nor has he been able to persuade the Gov't of Canada to implement Custodial Management 'to the end and tail of the Grand Bank and Flemish Cape'.

So ya, even though Danny Williams is an awesome Premier, the guy still has his flaws.

On the plus side, a new Federal (and Provincial) Party called "The NL First Party" was formed in late 2004, was provincially registered in early 2006 and will hopefully be Federally Registered soon.

So ya, you can check out the following links:

1. 'NL First Party Official Website'

Link: http://www.nlfirst.ca

2. 'NL First Party Official Blog (authored by me, seeing as i'm Director of Youth Organizations within the Party)

Link: http://www.nlfirstpartyblog.blogspot.com

But ya, life is full of ups and downs, goods and bads, joy and pain. But once again, "living life to the full" doesn't happen in the absence of problems, but in spite of them.

I conclude by quoting the Late Tommy Douglas, former Provincial CCF Saskatchewan Premier and the First-ever Federal Leader of the NDP: 'Courage friends, it's still not too late to build a better tomorrow'!"

An all so important Update: we're halfway to being a federally Registered Federal Political Party and more..meant for the O.NL First P.B.

Note: The following is a Draft copy of a post I plan on adding to 'The Official NL First Party' blog anywhere between tomorrow to August the 19th (Depending on how much spare time I have between studying for my Sociology 2270 (Families) Exam, between 'going on vacation' in Central NL with family and finishing up my MUCEP Job. The post you're about to read is NOT the final copy, which will be added to 'The Party Blog' and will still be subject to a certain degree of editing....)

Hey guys, sorry I hadn't updated the blog in almost 3 months: I was pretty busy with not only doing 2 courses at MUN over the summer, but I also had a MUCEP Job, a Facebook and Hi5 groups, both called 'The NL First Party Supporters Site' to maintain, in addition to executive meetings, a social life,etc...

Anyways, to view that Facebook group, you can view this link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2230406030 (That is, provided you have a Facebook account, through which you can view the group.... of course, the group had some technical difficulties as of 3:11p.m, but oh well).

Just as an update, we've had about 3-4 Executive meetings over the summer: covering everything from progress of Federal Registration, organizing a Walk-a-thon to take place to raise funds for the party (something that was supposed to be ready for August, but got lost in the midst of other items and such), getting committees in place within the party to study various issues and other items (I can't say much else, due to executive confidentiality. But hey, at the next meeting, i'll make an effort to ask what I can reveal on this blog).

And just for the sake of clarity, the Executive of the NL First Party has passed a motion, along the lines of 'The NL First Party will not be running candidates in the October 2007 Provincial Election. However, we will maintain administrative and policy functions of the provincial wing of the party.' Essentially, this is because going Federal was the 'raison d'etre' of this Party's existence. (For those who don't know french, raison d'etre means 'reason in being/ reason to be')

But other than that, we've now added another new member to the executive, with 2 more soon to be included. In addition, the NL First Party has got approximately 125-155 forms ratified from Elections Canada, out of the 400 we sent to get the party ratified: we'll be needing to ratify at least 250 in total to get register. Luckily, we don't have to start over from scratch: we can just keep sending them until we reach the 250 mark!!

On another note, the next meeting coming up on Thursday will be a key one: we'll be dealing with the issue of the Organization of the NL First Party. (Essentially, what committees, sub-committees,etc... does the Party need in order to function, make policy, do research,etc...) Given how close we are to becoming a Federally Registered Party, now's the time to take a moment to visit http://www.nlfirst.ca to print off a Registration form, follow the directions in filling it out and mail it to the NL First Party HQ. (preferably with a note attached saying that you decided to do so because you seen this post on the Party's blog).

Last, we're currently in the process of updating the party's official website (with a blurb on the main site to say just that), in addition to trying to find a way to change our logo as to include the uniqueness of Labradorians and Rural NL more within the Logo. So ya, myself, a new member of the executive and a few of his friends have been tasked with drafting some new logo designs, with us going to make a decision on which one to choose shortly.

In conclusion, I know that this was a long post, but given the fact that it's been almost 3 months since i've updated this, this is only the tip of the iceberg of what's going on in the party: the rest of the happenings are governed by executive confidentiality, and can therefore only be disclosed with their permission.

Indeed, as is written under the official party logo on most of our executive agenda sheets, 'it's time!'

P.S., I just realized that although this was meant to be posted on 'The Official NL First Party Blog', perhaps it's best that it remains up on my blog (until I can know for certain whether my colleagues agree with its contents: consider this post a draft version of the more polished one soon to be coming to the website).

Disclaimer: the Following Information reflects my own personal notes and are not necessarily those of the NL First Party......


On a more personal note, my work as Director of Youth Organizations is what lead me to start the 'Official NL First Party Supporters Site' group on both Facebook and Hi5, in addition to 'The Official NL First Party Blog'. But more importantly, i've been trying to get around and figure out at what age membership in the Youth wing of the NL First Party should start (right now, it's looking like somewhere around age 14, 15 or 16, given that's the standard for all the other political parties), i'm still trying to determine whether the Youth Wing should be based on Districts (like the NL First Party will be within the 7 Federal Electoral Districts...we hope), regions or whether all Youth Wing members should be included as part of one large groups, with local Headquarters Scattered through the province (and hopefully one at MUN if James Upshall, the Executive-Youth member, gets all the proper paperwork together.)