A U.S.-based website becomes a virtual march on Parliament Hill
By ROY MacGREGORTuesday, January 11, 2005, Globe and Mail
The flags were back flying together yesterday everywhere from St. John's to Corner Brook . . . to Washington.
Kevin McCann sat in his Washington, D.C., office and checked out the national flag of Canada -- attached, admittedly, to a teddy bear dressed as a Mountie -- and the small provincial flag of Newfoundland and Labrador and declared the two to be now "sharing equal footing." At least for the time being.
In St. John's, the noon report on radio station VOCM announced that the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Danny Williams, had just declared that the Maple Leaf again be raised over the provincial government buildings, from which it had been unceremoniously removed nearly three weeks earlier.
"The point has been made," the announcer said before moving on to more local news.
Kevin McCann could only sit in his Washington office and shake his head. It's not over yet.
On Dec. 27 -- only days after the Premier hauled down the flags to protest against what he says is Ottawa's reneging on a new deal for offshore resources -- McCann launched a website, http://www.fairdealfornewfoundland.com, which has become what the 31-year-old St. John's native calls "a virtual march" on Parliament Hill.
In 15 days since Grassroots Enterprises, the U.S.-based public affairs firm McCann works for, gave him permission to put up the website, about 20,000 people have used it to fire off nearly 40,000 letters of protest to Prime Minister Paul Martin or Finance Minister Ralph Goodale.
The letters demand that Martin honour his election promise to give Newfoundland 100 per cent of its offshore royalties on future production of oil and gas.
It has become the current great fight of Confederation -- that ridiculous bumblebee of political necessity that couldn't possibly fly but has somehow remained airborne for nearly 138 years.
As former prime minister Joe Clark once said, "There's nothing easier in Canada than to unite most of Canada against part of Canada." Martin has been widely condemned, particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador, for seeming to bail on a fairly straightforward election promise as federal officials try to reach some agreement with the province on how increased royalties might affect future equalization payments.
Williams has been widely condemned, particularly in the rest of Canada, for grandstanding, for using the national flag as one of convenience.
McCann, who says he grew up in a very political St. John's household, says today he holds no political affiliation apart from full-hearted support for Williams.
"I think he took the absolute right stand," says McCann.
So, too, does former federal minister John Crosbie, who wrote this weekend a long column entitled "Our beef with Canada," in which he detailed a number of ways in which his province has been "betrayed" over the years.
"If Newfoundland had not joined Canada," Crosbie wrote, "Newfoundland would have controlled the fish resources and the oil and gas and mineral resources in that huge area, as well as the iron ore and hydro power resources of Labrador."
In Newfoundland newspapers and on the popular talk shows, Williams has overwhelmingly won the day for the home side. Outside the province, and particularly in Toronto, the Premier of this "have-not" province has been ridiculed and censured for his flag grandstanding and for, as some see it, daring to bite the hand that feeds.
Two generations ago, the Premier who brought Newfoundland into Confederation back in 1949 used to refer affectionately to the federal government as "Uncle Ottawa." But that is now a long, long time ago.
Today, in the city of Mount Pearl just outside St. John's, a once-familiar face will visit from British Columbia -- former premier Brian Peckford, who one generation back was tagged "Confederation's Bad Boy" on the cover of Maclean's magazine.
Peckford is back to speak to a luncheon commemorating the 50th anniversary of Mount Pearl's incorporation, but it is far more likely he'll be talking about national rather than civic issues.
In 1980, Peckford was so wound up about oil royalties and other federal-provincial issues that he called the federal government "an agency of the provinces" in a heated moment and was widely blistered for his comments -- even though many today would say that is precisely what Ottawa is becoming.
Peckford could be more outrageous than Williams -- once, when he was a high-school teacher, he got so wound up his students hauled him out of the class and threw him in the showers -- but Williams, a Rhodes Scholar, has a superb mind and was, in his business days, renowned as a cold and hard negotiator.
"All I'm asking," Peckford would say back then, "is the right for Newfoundlanders to be treated as equals, not as second-class citizens." In so many ways, not much has changed. Same sentiment. Same issue.
But today, the players are decidedly different -- and so, too, is this confusing construct called Confederation. No one knows what will come of this latest battle -- just that it is far, far from over.
"Personally," says Kevin McCann from his Washington office, "I'd rather stick around and make it work."