Danny Williams – One Scary Poker Player

CANADA – With what I’m about to say, I’m sure someone will accuse me of being a true blue Tory and on top of that I hate praising a sitting politician, but I’ll be damned if I won’t say what needs to be said about Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams after his recent performance.

“Sir, I like the cut of your jib!”

…First Williams managed to renegotiate Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil revenues with Ottawa. Of course he had to back former PM Paul Martin into a corner in order to make him cough up billions of dollars in revenue, but it got done. That move provided the province with the funds needed to decrease its debt, stabilize public sector pensions, address some long standing pay equity issues, begin improving infrastructure and balance the books. Not bad for a rookie.

Just a couple of months ago, Williams made another bold move by taking a no nonsense stance with the oil industry’s biggest players. Simply put, he refused to allow Exxon Mobile and its partners to stroll in, extract the province’s offshore oil, sell it at world record prices and walk away with hundreds of millions in additional tax breaks as icing on their corporate cakes. According to Exxon and some writers at the Globe and Mail, the offer was a sweet one the province should have taken because it would have provided short term jobs helping the company ramp up for the big rape scene to take place offshore. Nice try Exxon, you too Globe but no thank-you.

Canada Free Press