Former Hydro-Québec president running for Harper?

It turns out that the Harper Conservatives are going to be running a host of star candidates in Quebec. One of them could well become the next minister of Natural Resources or otherwise a powerhouse in the next federal government should he, and his party, win.

Former Hydro-Québec president André Caillé is being tapped to run in a south Montreal riding.

Here is an interesting interview with him where he outlines his point of view on a number of different issues related to energy.

I expect it won't take long for this issue to explode on the local talk radio shows to the detriment of Harper's NL candidates. Just when you thought that Premier Williams' ability to influence this federal government couldn't get any lower, it gets worse.

Calvert influential - Williams, not so much

The Globe and Mail has a story covering Premier Lorne Calvert's interview on CTV's Question Period broadcast yesterday.

Calvert took the opportunity to show that he was just as angry as Premier Danny Williams and reinforced his claim that Prime Minister Stephen Harper simply didn't keep his promise to fully exclude non-renewable natural resources from the formula used to calculate equalization payments to the provinces.

The story goes on to point out that while the federal Conservatives have 12 of the 14 seats in Saskatchewan (the Liberals have the other 2, in NL the numbers are just 3 Conservatives (Liberal have the other 4).

This puts Williams, although noisier, in the unusual position of having less influence with less to bargain with than his erstwhile ally.

This raises and intriguing possibility: would Prime Minister Harper cut a deal for Saskatchewan in a bid to keep the those 12 seats and cut out Premier Williams?

The advantage to Prime Minister Harper would be the opportunity to be a hero in Saskatchewan and save 10% of his caucus. There seems to be no serious disadvantage except potentially losing minister Loyola Hearn who may not want to run again anyway.

It's not like Harper has very much to lose by further annoying Premier Williams.

Equalization - Much ado about nothing?

In this article from the venerable StarPhoenix, Lorne Calvert indicates that he's hopeful that a solution to this matter of the Sask/NL Equalization war with Ottawa.

The story says:

After an interview on Wednesday in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper hinted he would live up to his election campaign guarantee to take non-renewable resources out of the federal equalization equation, Calvert was cautiously optimistic his own message on the matter was getting through.

It makes you wonder what kind of tempest in a teapot this whole thing was in the first place.

If you recall, this war started when Harper refused to give iron-clad assurances to Premier Williams at the PC Party convention in Gander. Little wonder Harper was disinclined to cooperate given the shabby treatment Williams accorded the Prime Minister and his political fellow traveler.

Here's the real question of the day: Did Premier Williams whip Harper's refusal to give an immediate answer into a storm because he thought the answer would be disadvantageous to this province or simply because he decided to push the matter to personal political advantage?

It's odd that this Calvert/Williams roadshow has but two stops - Saskatchewan and NL. One would have thought that it might have made better sense to stray from home territories to make forays into Ottawa, Halifax, Toronto or Vancouver in order to convince a wider audience.

But staying close to home makes perfect sense if the goal is merely to play to the home fans.

In the end, if Harper finally indicates that Equalization will be resolved to Williams' satisfaction then Williams can claim it that was his fight that made Harper cave notwithstanding the consistent assurances from Harper and his proxies (Manning, Hearn et al) that this province would not suffer under any new regime.

Maybe if Harper decides otherwise, it would be because he calculated he had nothing to lose from stirring the Premier's pique.