Martin rejects Globe column

Piece lambasted Newfoundland over offshore

By The Canadian Press, January 9, 2005

ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. - Prime Minister Paul Martin has voiced his disapproval of a Globe and Mail column that called rural Newfoundland "the most vast and scenic welfare ghetto in the world."

Martin issued a statement Friday to the St. John's Telegram, condemning a piece written by Globe columnist Margaret Wente that criticized Newfoundland's fight with Ottawa for a better offshore deal.

In the column, published last week, Wente wrote Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams was reminiscent of "a deadbeat brother-in-law who's hit you up for money a few times too often.

"He's been sleeping on your couch for years, and now he's got the nerve to complain that it's too lumpy."

Williams responded with an letter in Friday's Globe and Mail, writing that the column was "more than insulting" and "very, very sad."

The prime minister echoed those sentiment.

"I want to join with Premier (Danny) Williams, John Efford, the Newfoundland and Labrador MPs, and others in expressing my total disagreement with what I read yesterday in the words of a single column in a national newspaper," Martin said in his statement.

"The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is most definitely not a 'welfare ghetto."'

The prime minister also pledged to continue working towards an offshore revenues deal with the province.

"This country was built with a commitment to one another, to share prosperity and to spread opportunity," Martin said.

"Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are a proud people who contribute richly to Canada - to suggest otherwise is unfair and untrue.

"I have worked and will continue to work hard to ensure that Newfoundland and Labrador receives 100 per cent of its oil and gas revenues under the Atlantic Accord with no clawbacks because I want to see - and my government wants to see - the people of this province succeed and prosper."

Read Margaret Wente's Column in the Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail, January 6, 2005, Registration Required

Read Premier Williams' Response to Wente's column
Globe and Mail, January 7, 2005

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