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'!"