Way to go Premier Danny Williams!

In a speech Wednesday to the St John's Board of Trade our Premier came out and stated: "the dispute with Charest will take a new, aggressive approach". I guess, when you consider that most people might think Mr. William's has already been fairly aggressive in his approach with Quebec, that the new approach will be a doozy. Certainly, if he hopes to be successful, it will need to be. Quebec's territorial strategy is long and deep, and they won't easily bend. Think I'm over stating it? How about this quote from then Quebec Premier Jean Lesage, 1965:

" The primary and absolute condition is that all energy that will enter Quebec becomes property of Hydro Quebec. That condition...has always been the same, and we will never negotiate from another basis. We will never permit, under any condition, others to build a transmission line on Quebec territory, or let others transport the energy produced at Churchill Falls whatever the destinationof that energy, whether it be the United States or the other provinces." quoted from Le Devoir, 1965.

Clearly, Quebec has taken a monopolistic, some might say anti-competetive, approach from day one in the development of their, and our, hydro electric power. I would suggest that Mr Lesage's quote from 1965, four years prior to the Power Contract being signed, clearly illustrates a lack of good faith from the outset.

In any case, when fighting any entity that hides behind the Law to fufill it's own inhumane agenda, the words of the great american Abraham Lincoln should be heeded:

" I did understand however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that government - that nation - of which that constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation, and yet preserve the constitution? By general law life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life, but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the constitution, through the preservation of the nation right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best of my ablility, I had even tried to preserve the constitution, if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country and Constitution all together." Miscellaneous writings of Abraham Lincoln.

In these old words of wisdom lies a real grain of truth for Newfoundland and Labrador. We must fight, utilizing all the tools we have, to undo the 1969 Power Contract. Yes it is a contract, as was the American constitution of Lincoln's time, but when necessary for the survival of the whole it can be abrogated. If Newfoundland chooses to allow the Upper Churchill agreement to continue the result will be catostrophic for the people. Economically, as layed out here in previous posts, Newfoundland's economic survival is at stake. It's way of life is threatened. It's people's pursuit of happiness is not only diminished, but likely permanently thwarted. In other words, to remain in this agreement is to sentence the people of Newfoundland to an ever diminishing way of life.

Thank-you Premier Williams for seeing the fight, and taking it to those who need it. As you can see by history, when approached with submission, a great people step forward together in a singular purpose. It is in the leader's hands to show them the way.