Flag Will Return In Newfoundland

I just read that the Hon. Danny Williams has announced that his government will reraise the Canadian flag in the near future, whether or not he’s able to achieve the deal that he’s been seeking with the Government of Canada. Williams said that the flags would be put back up because they’d made their statement and people were now talking about the issue.

… [O]ur problem is not with the people of the country. It’s with the prime minister, it’s with the leader of the country.

The message is being heard loud and clear. People are talking about it. They are reacting and it’s the subject of debate in the country. That’s exactly what we want to accomplish.

I suspect that the Premier also making a local political calculation. Newfoundlanders have a strong independent streak, but despite the narrowness of the Confederation vote back in 1949 I don’t think many would choose to break the union now. It’s in the best interests of the Premier to pick a fight with the Feds, but not to appear as a seperatist. Letting the flag issue drag out too long risked weakening support his real issue (offshore royalties) among the more patriotic citizens of Newfoundland and Labrador, and among other Canadians.

I just hope that the Premier is right. It’s possible that not everyone sees it this way, but I’ve often thought that one goal of equalization was to be uneccessary. Allowing the provincial governments to control all their offshore royalties strikes me as the best available way to achieve that. I could be wrong about this (economics is not my strongest area) but that’s they way I see it right now.

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