Nfld. offshore fight taken to PM's office
Canadian Press, National Post, Saturday, January 08, 2005HALIFAX -- The e-mail inbox for Prime Minister Paul Martin's office is being bombarded with messages thanks to a website that calls on Ottawa to meet Newfoundland's offshore demands.
Visitors to the site - www.fairdealfornewfoundland.com - have been signing a letter that urges Martin to honour his election promise to give Newfoundland 100 per cent of its offshore royalties.
Nova Scotia and Newfoundland have both been negotiating with Ottawa for a better offshore deal in an attempt to end the so-called equalization clawback the provinces say robs them of their energy revenue.
"Newfoundland and Labrador was resource-rich when it joined Canada in 1949," the website letter reads.
"But since that time Canadians have watched the natural wealth of the land disappear while the province remained poor."
The letter goes on to say, "Enough is enough, Prime Minister Martin. Canadians expect better from you."
Each time a copy of the letter is signed, it is electronically sent to the Prime Minister's Office.
Almost 15,000 copies have been e-mailed to Martin since the site's launch, just 14 days ago.
"I hope it shows the rest of the country that a lot of people really care about this issue," said Kevin McCann, a former Newfoundlander now living in Washington, D.C., who designed the site.
"It's great to see so many people take a political action, which is what this is," he said.
The letters are also landing in Finance Minister Ralph Goodale's mailbox.
© The Canadian Press 2005
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