Politics on the Rock(s)

So I'm going to do it.  I'm going to throw my hat into the blogosphere.  I'm going to be one of those people who blogs about the obvious.

Danny Williams has announced he's leaving his job as Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I'll throw out a link to the CBC story about his resignation - in the event you've been living under a rock since this afternoon, or don't check Twitter every 5 seconds.

OK, so obviously he isn't Jesus. He wasn't going to be Premier forever.  He no doubt has aspirations (political and otherwise) far beyond provincial politics.  But holy @#$%.  I didn't think he'd leave now.

And why would I care about the premier of another province deciding to leave? Especially someone with such strong views about the strengths and capabilities of his province (at the potential detriment of other provinces).  Why? Because of the politician he is.

I've always been interested in politics.  For those of you who've suffered through a wine-laden conversation with me about politics you know I like my opinions strong (like making-your-eyes-water-while-cutting-an-onion kind of strong).  But I've never really felt engaged by the political process.  The actual act of running to hold elected office.  I like policy.  It's a little cleaner - the mud slinging takes place on paper; it's nicer.

And then I moved to St. John's to take a Masters in Political Science, with a built-in term working in government.  And I got mud all over me.  I was inspired by a strong politician, from a province where the general consensus, of people who were not from there, was that with the end of cod nothing of value was coming out of good ole' NFLD.  But Danny made it his mission to change that from the inside out.  A highly educated individual who remembered where he was from, was fiercely proud of that, and believed that the reputation of his province was worth more than a failed fishery, transfer payments and suffering outports.

Policy? Stale bread.  Danny's style of politics? The meaty stew you could run that bread through.  And he was an Atlantic Canadian.  He wasn't concerned about the 7 seats his province held federally.  He confronted the PM, yelled ABC in Upper Canada and endeared himself to his people (and I would argue, the region).  He argued for a fair deal when it came to agreements on Hydro with "larger" national  players, and brought NL from have not to have.  Anyone else impressed??

Of course there are people who don't agree with Danny.  And yes, he's a bigger mud target than others.  But I would be a bet a beautiful bottle of Director's Cut Coppola Zinfandel that he's respected for his dedication and the promotion of his province.  

So yeah, I had a wonderful blog prepared about a recent announcement from my own province.  No DD  hasn't gone anywhere, but there was a fairly expensive economic, jobs-related release made this week.  And then I checked Twitter.  And thought I'd raise my glass and cheers to Danny (on the Rocks).