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.”

5 Top Stories of 2006 in ABM - 1 of 4

The January-February edition of Atlantic Business Magazine has a special feature: the 5 top stories of 2006. The number one story, penned by Rob Antle, was a quality feature length piece outlining the issue and ramifications of out-migration.

The other 4 stories here, shorter and more concise bits which came from my keyboard, will be reprinted here over the next little bit*. Enjoy.
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Atlantic Premiers

Atlantic Canada has always had strong common historical, economic and political interests. From the Maritime (or Atlantic) Union movement of the mid-nineteenth century to the Council of Atlantic Premiers, established in 2000, the region’s political leaders have sought to put forward a common front. However, this seems to work better in theory than in practice.

With two new figures on the Atlantic Canadian political landscape, 2007 would seem like a time to launch a new era of cooperation.

In June, New Brunswick ousted Tory Premier Bernard Lord in favour of Liberal Shawn Graham, after a brief period of unstable minority governments and peculiar parliamentary shenanigans.

Meanwhile, Nova Scotia saw the end of the John Hamm era and the surprising ascendance of Rodney MacDonald as Conservative leader and premier in February. MacDonald received a mandate of his own in a nasty and close June election.

Less than a year in office, these two are finding their place among their more seasoned colleagues.

Tory Pat Binns is a known quantity, having served as premier of PEI since 1996. If he finishes his full term, he will be the second longest serving premier of that island province since Confederation.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Danny Williams is perhaps the best known regional premier, having won a national reputation through waging war with two Prime Ministers in just three years.

How will the two new first ministers change the regional political balance?

If the recent December meeting of the Council of Atlantic Premiers is any indication, it looks like while the Premiers can agree on the big issues; it’s the details that bedevil them.

A good example of an issue that binds all four is equalization.

At the December 7 press conference following the meeting, all the premiers agreed that they wanted more equalization money, that the program should be equitable to all provinces and that no province should lose income.

Oddly, nobody was surprised at this.

But beneath this seeming unanimity, there were stark differences in positions. While Williams insisted that resource revenues be wholly excluded from the formula, his compatriots were just as adamant about their inclusion.

Williams’ position would give Newfoundland and Labrador a huge fiscal advantage, since his province relies heavily on resource royalties, especially oil. For the others, resource revenues are marginal.

Since politics is the art of the possible, they reached a compromise - after a fashion. They concluded with the insistence that federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty can and should come up with a plan that benefits all provinces and territories.

And Premier Williams promised to campaign nationally against the Harper government if he didn’t get his way.

So in the end, it looks like our two new Atlantic Premiers fit neatly into the region’s tradition of cooperation and agreement - unless individual provincial and political interests get in the way.

Just political business as usual on Canada’s east coast.

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*I'm not resorting to reprints because there is nothing on the go in the wider environment. I've just been out of commission with a very bad cold and now I'm behind on other commitments.