Danny Williams of NL - Atlantic Premier Profiles

I wrote profiles of the four Atlantic Premiers for publication for the May issue of Atlantic Business Magazine (ABM). One has already left office (Pat Binns of Prince Edward Island) but the other three are still in power: Rodney MacDonald of Nova Scotia, Shawn Graham of New Brunswick and of course Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador. Over the next couple of days I'll post all the profiles.

A companion piece to these profiles is an overview of all four Atlantic premiers previously published in ABM.

Today, Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Danny Williams is one of the most complex and contradictory figures in Newfoundland and Labrador’s political history.

Lawyer, Rhodes scholar and communications magnate, this highly-successful son of a prominent St John’s family consistently defines himself as an outsider, battling oppressors of every kind. Long active in the political backrooms, he did not run for office until 2001, when almost 50.

A lifelong Conservative, since becoming premier in 2003 Williams has dramatically expanded the role of government in the province’s key industries, energy and communications. Fiercely proud and protective of Newfoundland and Labrador’s culture and history, he nonetheless feels that its people have not, until his administration took office, been able to control their own destiny.

Perhaps it is this sense of historic grievance that fuels his ambitious plans for Newfoundland and Labrador. Williams is dedicated to re-engineering his province’s rural regions on a sustainable hub-and-spoke model: “The goal,” says Williams, “is that each region will have its own cluster of industries, businesses, and health, education and government services. As a result, people living in outlying communities will have access to education, training, health care and employment within reasonable commuting times.”

His stepped economic initiatives - the near-term Regional Sectoral Diversification Program, medium-term Innovation Strategy and a Skills Task Force with a longer-term focus – are intended to create jobs and slow outmigration: “We know that we have a preferred lifestyle in Newfoundland and Labrador and given the opportunity, our young people will stay at home.”

Williams wants to create that opportunity by leveraging his province’s abundant natural resources – petroleum, hydropower, wind, minerals and fish – but is in no hurry, believing “it is better to wait for a good deal, than to take short terms gains to the detriment of long term benefits”.

Patience and planning are the hallmarks of Williams’ administration. He has even tried to bring order and accountability to Newfoundland and Labrador’s unruly political system. He imposed fixed term elections and returned the legislature to the oversight of the Auditor General – and while no-one expected the spending scandals that emerged, he says he has no regrets.

Despite his reputation as a scrapper, Premier Williams believes in regional and national cooperation. While hesitant to endorse the Atlantica concept, he acknowledges the common ground among the Atlantic premiers and communicates frequently with his counterparts. He values the Council of Atlantic Premiers and the Council of the Federation as forums to address common challenges, maintains issues unique to specific provinces “require an independent approach”.

Williams’ pugnacious independence is most evident in his relationship with Ottawa: while nodding toward cooperation, he vows “as leader of Newfoundland and Labrador I will always protect the interests of the people of the province.”

Reviewing his first term as premier of Canada’s most easterly province, Williams says the thing that surprised him most was “the immense satisfaction I feel when our government implements policies and programs that positively impact everyday life in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Shawn Graham of New Brunswick - Atlantic Premier Profiles

I wrote profiles of the four Atlantic Premiers for publication for the May issue of Atlantic Business Magazine (ABM). One has already left office (Pat Binns of Prince Edward Island) but the other three are still in power: Rodney MacDonald of Nova Scotia, Shawn Graham of New Brunswick and of course Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador. Over the next couple of days I'll post all the profiles.

A companion piece to these profiles is an overview of all four Atlantic premiers previously published in ABM.

Today, Shawn Graham of New Brunswick.

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The premier of New Brunswick has demographics on his mind. For the first time since the Great Depression, New Brunswick is experiencing a prolonged population decline. He’s concerned about the economy, since fewer people mean fewer options for employers seeking skilled workers for the jobs they create, challenges for attracting new industries and smaller revenues to his treasury. But most of all, Shawn Graham is worried about the impact this has on the very way of life New Brunswickers treasure.

So he has established a Population Growth Secretariat.

That’s the kind of person Shawn Graham is: he’s not afraid to strike at the root of a problem, to be both innovative and aggressive. He’s also building a coalition of government, business, labour, education and community-based organizations to help.

Graham’s creds for the job are unique. A teacher by profession, he served as the Executive Assistant to his father Alan Graham, Frank McKenna’s Natural Resources and Energy Minister, before succeeding him as MLA for Kent in 1998. He won the leadership of the New Brunswick Liberal Party in 2002 and led it to electoral victory in 2006. Perhaps that had something to do with his bold vision of making New Brunswick a “have” province by 2025.

He is sure of where his province’s strength lies – paradoxically, right where its current weakness is, in its people. He says New Brunswickers have a long history of resourcefulness and ingenuity, and he’s creating a climate that supports them in exercising those qualities to build momentum for population growth. A lynchpin of his strategy is finding ways to help relieve some of the pressure in Alberta’s maxed-out economy: “Rather than exporting our people,” he says, “we want to export our products.”

Graham has his eye on foreign markets as well: he is keen to leverage New Brunswick’s strategic location for export (especially of Atlantic Canada’s abundant energy products) to the United States. An advocate of regional cooperation, he works hard to build on his province’s “long and important relationship” relationship with New England.

He’s working with fellow Atlantic premiers, too, on economies of scale for infrastructure development, especially critical transportation corridors. Nonetheless, Graham emphasizes his province’s unique status as the only bilingual Atlantic province, acknowledging its need for “made-in-New-Brunswick solutions” in areas like education or health care delivery.

In the end, however, he is a strong believer in cooperation: “I’ve always believed you can’t shake hands with a clenched fist…. I will always vigorously defend the interests of New Brunswick but my approach, with the federal government and with others, is to find the common ground, the common goal to work towards.”

Graham also wants to draw on the common strength of New Brunswickers to revitalize public discourse. While committed to electoral reform through fixed election dates, he says there is a bigger issue at play: his government is currently looking at how to engage the people of the province “in an ongoing fashion, not just every four years.” This should be possible, since Graham says his province’s politics are personal and immediate. “I think people feel connected to their elected officials,” he muses. “There’s an accessibility here that I don’t think you necessarily get in larger centres.”

Born in 1968, this young premier still hears the ticking of the clock on what he wants to accomplish as premier: “For me the most surprising thing has been how quickly time passes by which is why I want to make the most of every opportunity and ensure that our government has done everything we could to put our province in the road to self-sufficiency.”

Rodney MacDonald of Nova Scotia - Atlantic Premier Profiles

I wrote profiles of the four Atlantic Premiers for publication for the May issue of Atlantic Business Magazine (ABM). One has already left office (Pat Binns of Prince Edward Island) but the other three are still in power: Rodney MacDonald of Nova Scotia, Shawn Graham of New Brunswick and of course Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador. Over the next couple of days I'll post all the profiles.

A companion piece to these profiles is an overview of all four Atlantic premiers previously published in ABM and posted here.

Today, Rodney MacDonald of Nova Scotia.

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If being Premier is a difficult job at the best of times, then being Premier of a minority government has to be the most precarious of times. It’s a position that leaves little room for mistakes, requiring the balance of a tightrope walker along with a keen ear for political discord.

In other words, the skills of an athlete combined with the talent of a musician.

So it’s fortunate that Nova Scotia Premier Rodney Joseph MacDonald was both before he entered politics. A former teacher of physical education, on the hustings MacDonald is just as likely to pull out a fiddle as deliver a speech. With two albums and two East Coast Music Award nominations to his credit, he’s got game.

Just 34, MacDonald was first elected as MHA for Inverness in 1999. He was the surprise choice as Progressive Conservative leader in February 2006, inheriting the Premier’s office and a minority government. In June he won his own mandate, also with a minority.

Still, he has an ambitious plan: facing the pan-Atlantic need to develop the economy and retain his province’s educated youth, MacDonald looks across the sea to Ireland for inspiration. Rather than focus on the region’s traditional industries and resource extraction, his goal is to attract information technology and financial services. With an extensive network of nationally ranked university and community colleges, he touts Nova Scotia’s workforce as highly skilled and ready to deliver.

“Over the next five years we’ll see roughly 4000 to 5000 jobs in information technology here in our province,” says MacDonald. “That means opportunity for people to come home, that means career choices for people coming out of school, and that means good paying jobs.”

In the last year, his government announced the expansion to Nova Scotia of Research in Motion (RIM) with a new 1200-person technical support operations centre. Shortly thereafter, Citco Fund Services, the world's leading hedge fund administrator, officially opened the doors of its new Halifax operation, bringing the province up to 350 new jobs.

On the regional level, his vision goes far beyond the Atlantica concept. MacDonald plans to leverage Nova Scotia's port, airport, road and rail links, and its strategic location for access to Asia and India through the Suez Canal, to make his province the Atlantic Gateway to the globe.

On the domestic front, he shows a thoughtfulness and political realism that belie his years. On the reputation of politicians, he admits, “Unfortunately, it’s not where I’d like to see it. We need to continue to work with the public on ensuring that, not only that we fully appreciate what their issues are but they fully appreciate the job we have to do and, at times, the decisions we have to make.”

“I think in year’s past there was greater respect for our elected representatives.”

As Premier, he is sobered by the dignity of his office. His biggest surprise since taking office has been “How strongly people feel about the position, not necessarily about the person in the position; and the level of respect they give the position of Premier….There’s a real strong connection between the position of premier and the people of the province.”

Atlantic Journalism Award

Regular readers will know that "Caught in the Middle" is my 6000 word piece telling the story and the effects of the collapse of the Hebron project negotiations between the province and the oil companies.

Atlantic Business Magazine commissioned me to research and write it for publication in their July/August 2006 issue.

It turns out that not only has ABM submitted it for a National Magazine Award, they have also submitted it to the 2006 Atlantic Journalism Awards closer to home.

Thanx kindly!

And stay tuned to see how it all works out.