Daily Archives: January 19, 2021

Donald Trump has been defeated, but not Trumpism and the anti-globalist politics it has unleashed

Few Presidents have tried to alter the fundamentals of American foreign policy since the end of the Second World War like Donald Trump has done in the past four years. Mr. Trump broke with the Washington consensus on what western policymakers and strategists call the liberal internationalist order. He put his America First doctrine in the driving seat of his foreign policy wagon. He decried the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the bedrock of the trans-Atlantic military cooperation, pulled the United States out of international organisations and multilateral treaties, and launched tariff wars with both friends and foes alike.

Barring a series of normalisation agreements between Israel and some Arab countries, Mr. Trump does not have any major foreign policy achievement to his credit. But he is more of a disruptor than an achiever. And he has caused disruptions in Americas foreign policy which could outlive his presidency. When Joe Biden assumes the White House very soon, the biggest foreign policy challenge he faces is whether he could unmake the Trump legacy and take Washington back to its liberal international consensus.

Also read | Trump leaves mark on immigration policy, some of it lasting

Americas isolationism did not start with Mr. Trump. He was rather harping on an old foreign policy doctrine that shaped and drove American policy before the Second World War when he pulled the U.S. back from the stage of global leadership. Before the war, the U.S., an emerging economic and military power, was largely an isolated country that was focused on its own rise and expansion. The economic catastrophe caused by the Great Depression and the losses it suffered in the First World War prompted the American isolationists, including progressives and conservatives, to push for a policy of non-involvement in European and Asian conflicts a policy Washington had largely followed throughout the 19th century.

The roots of the liberal internationalist order can be traced to the ideals of the 28th American President, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson, who led the U.S. to the First World War, called for a rules-based global order governed by international institutions in which countries could cooperate and achieve peace (what he called an organised common peace) rather than going to war to meet their goals. The Wilsonian principles on self-determination, rule of law within and between countries, liberal capitalist economic model and freer trade and emphasis on human rights would lay the foundations of the liberal global order which the West would wholeheartedly embrace after the Second World War, but they did not have many takers in the U.S. during the inter-war period. The U.S. was not even a member of the League of Nations.

Washington unearthed the values of Wilsonian globalism only after it suited Americas strategic interests during the Cold War. When the world was divided between the capitalist and communist blocs and when the communist and socialist parties (under the patronage of the Soviet Union) started making advances into Asian and European countries, the U.S. turned to liberal globalism and took up the leadership of the western world. It called itself and its allies the free world, claiming moral superiority over the communist and socialist dictatorships. While this remained the larger narrative, it did not stop them from embracing the dictators who were opposed to the red bloc. Basically, liberal internationalism embodied the transborder cooperation of western democracies and their allies in their fight against the socialist internationalism of the rival bloc. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many pundits and policymakers saw it as a triumphant moment for liberal internationalism. Some even predicted the end of history. The U.S. stepped up its leadership role: It started wars to protect human rights, export democracy and defeat jihadists. But history did not proceed as the end-of-history theorists had prophesied.

Also read | More ups than downs, and many surprise turns in Trumps foreign policy for India

From a normative point of view, the geostrategic charm of the liberal moral argument about freedom has diminished in the post-Cold War world. On the other side, with the rise of religious terrorism, even liberal democratic governments started arming themselves with more powers that often clashed with civil liberties. The liberal promise of minimum government stayed confined to the economic realm, while the security state kept expanding its powers. On the global stage, the U.S.s repeated military adventures have tested its own hard power superiority. The U.S. effected a regime change in Yugoslavia in 1999, but the campaign eventually led to the disintegration of the country. In Iraq, the U.S. never won a conclusive victory. In Afghanistan, after 19 years of war, the U.S. has struck a deal with the Taliban and is badly looking for an exit. In Libya, the country liberated by NATO, there are two governments and two armies and many militias backed by rival regional powers. When it comes to Iran and North Korea, the U.S. is not as confident as it was with Iraq and Afghanistan on using force. This inability to win wars and prolonged military campaigns turned foreign interventions unpopular again.

Analysis | Indo-Pacific document highlights Trumps mixed China legacy

The biggest blow to the western liberal order, however, came from within. The crisis in capitalism that broke out in 2008, has weakened the U.S. and western Europe (the guarantors of the post-war order) economically, and unleashed political changes. The focus shifted away from human rights and civil liberties to fighting terrorism and stopping immigration in many of these countries. Illiberal, far-right and anti-immigrant Islamophobic parties started rising. They challenged post-war internationalism, mobilised the public based on cultural nationalism and vilified immigration and the flow of refugees (which was in part triggered by the wars the globalists fought in poorer countries).

The rise of Mr. Trump to power in the U.S., the leader of the western liberal order (and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom) was the sharpest manifestation of this tectonic shift that has been under way. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Trump, a product of the crisis in globalised capitalism, took the U.S. back to pre-war isolationism. It may not be a coincidence that Mr. Trump is the first American President since Jimmy Carter who has not launched a new war.

Mr. Bidens foreign policy would be different from Mr. Trumps. He would seek to strengthen alliances and build a more consistent foreign policy approach to the myriad problems America is facing. He could undo some of the policy decisions of Mr. Trumps such as the U.S.s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord or its exit from the World Health Organization. But could Mr. Biden, a liberal internationalist himself, revive the western liberal international order? Could he revert to liberal trade, embrace globalisation like, say, Bill Clinton did, or launch wars in the name of protecting human rights or exporting democracy? Could he establish the U.S. hegemony over a fast-diversifying international system? The forces of history are against him.

Comment | Under Biden, unfurling Indias foreign policy concerns

After the Second World War, there was a trans-Atlantic consensus among the ruling elites of North America and western Europe on how to tackle the challenges from the Soviet Union. Now, there is no such consensus on how to tackle the challenges they face. There could be broad agreements on issues such as climate change or the fight against COVID-19, but on critical strategic issues such as the rise of China and the challenges from Russia, there is a huge gap between the old globalists and the new populists.

Mr. Trump has been defeated, but not Trumpism and the anti-globalist politics it has unleashed. Even if Mr. Biden overcomes the currents of isolationism at home, he could face similar challenges across the Atlantic where a bunch illiberal populist leaders and cultural nationalists such as Marine Le Pen of France, Matteo Salvini of Italy, Norbert Hofer of Austria and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands are on the ascent. Like Mr. Trump, none of them represents the old order.

stanly.johny@thehindu.co.in

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Any predictions about how the establishment media will go soft now that the Democrats are back in the White House might sound like an advertisement featuring the character Captain Obvious. Anyone who remembers the Obama years and the Clinton years can guess the changes in the media that are coming.

Lets make a list:

1. No rewards for Jim Acosta screaming at the White House pressbriefing.

When a Republican president briefs reporters, he knows that about 99 percent of the room voted for his Democrat opponent. A Democratic president also knows it.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, the tone of reporters asking questions of candidate Joe Biden had all the ferocity of a rerun of "Barney & Friends." To call some of these questions "softballs" is an insult to softballs. Even if we are treated to a firm question from say, ABCs Jonathan Karl, it will be polite. (And most likely, given our experience under Obama, ABC will skip the exchange on their newscasts.)

KATIE COURIC'S 'CONDESCENDING, ELITIST' REMARKS CALLING TO 'DEPROGRAM' GOP RETIRES JOURNO LABEL, CRITICS SAY

2. No serious interest in the financial finagling of the presidents siblings and children.

Everyone knows how much the media detested a focus on Hunter Bidens lucrative lobbying in China and Ukraine. It had to be "misinformation" before anyone looked at it.

Given the medias toothless approach during the campaign, many people dont know about the financial manipulations of Bidens brothers James and Frank, or Bidens son-in-law Howard Krein, who married his daughter Ashley. Consult the medias lack of interest in the cash-grabs of Hillarys brothers Tony Rodham and Hugh Rodham for past evidence.

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3. No appetite for president-trashing anonymous quotes from "senior administration officials."

The major papers couldnt get enough of anonymous sources gossiping about the craziness behind the scenes from 2016 on, especially their own favorite cockeyed conspiracy theories, like Trump sharing national secrets with the Russians.

The New York Times even published an op-ed by "Anonymous," whom they claimed was a "senior administration official." It turned out it was the unknown Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor, who was so celebrated he even got a big-money book deal as "Anonymous."

4. No appetite for president-trashing "Tell All" books from former officials or former friends or family members.

The book publishing industry is like a slow-motion version of the liberal media. They have all the same ideological reflexes and the same desires on whothey should tout and whothey should ruin. From Omarosa to Anthony Scaramucci to Mary Trump, publishers could count on bitter Democrats to leap on every gossipy morsel.

The same goes for newspaper bigfoots like Bob Woodward, who will probably hesitate on a Biden book in favor of a book on some business titan....like Jeff Bezos. (As if.)

5. No fictionalized Hollywood miniseries on any scandalous Biden happenings.

It began early in 2017 with the unintentionally hilarious "American Horror Story" series on FX, with liberals scream-crying when Hillary lost: "What happens to Merrick Garland?"

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It ended with Showtimes "The Comey Rule" in September. Comeys tell-all book "A Higher Loyalty" was optioned by Hollywood and fictionalized on Showtime, with jut-jawed Jeff Daniels playing the "nonpartisan" FBI hero. When it aired last September, even the British socialist paper The Guardian called it "the longest and most star-studded attack ad in history."

In other words, after four years of CNN boss Jeff Zucker and others disparaging any conservative media outlet as "state-run TV," everyone will be reminded just what state-run TV really looks and sounds like.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM TIM GRAHAM

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Tim Graham: With Biden as president these 5 trends will vanish from the liberal media - Fox News

A Belfast church is closing its doors through Wednesday amid fears that liberal churches could be targets before Joe Bidens inauguration.

That message from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Belfast comes at a time of heightened tension in the United States as Donald Trump is set to leave the presidency this week.

There is a collective anxiety in our country following the events at the capital on January 6th and I know our giant UU hearts feel every bit of it. Lets be sure we take the time we need to remain connected to one another and to take care of ourselves, the church said in a Saturday message to its congregation.

The church made the decision to close after the Maine Council of Churches warned about potential threats to churches perceived as liberal. The council stressed no threats had been made against specific churches, but only relayed a message from the United Church of Christ, which had received credible warnings from police.

The nation has been wracked by tension in the wake of the violence that shook the nations capital on Jan. 6, when a mob that included Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists and QAnon adherents stormed the Capitol as Congress began certifying Bidens Electoral College win.

Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died as a result of the riot.

Since the Capitol riot, the FBI has warned every state that armed protests could pop up in state capitals from coast to coast from Jan. 16 to at least Jan. 20 in response to Bidens inauguration. Gov. Janet Mills has activated the Maine National Guard to reinforce security around the State House in Augusta if needed.

In response, the Bangor School Department said Friday it wont show the Democrats inauguration in the classroom because of fears of violence. Students, though, will have a chance to view and discuss the inauguration later when appropriate in the curriculum.

Belfast has seen minor confrontations in recent days between anti-mask and anti-shutdown protesters and others. Regular protests have been held at a street corner in the coastal city, and a Jan. 3 confrontation ended with a pedestrian being pushed into an intersection. The man wasnt hurt, and no charges have been filed in that case.

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Belfast church closes amid fears 'liberal' churches could be targeted before inauguration - Bangor Daily News

Liberal Arts alumnus Brian Davis continues to be a shining example to Penn State students and alumni for his social justice efforts.

Brian Davis ('18, African American studies) is currently associate director for diversity and inclusion at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, California.

IMAGE: Provided by Brian Davis

Davis, who received his bachelors degree in African American studies in 2018, was known on campus for his involvement and activism in social justice and continuous work for the betterment of others. He was president of the Social Justice Coalition, a coalition of State College and Penn State social justice organizations dedicated to ending racism and marginalization at Penn State; he also served as the community/faculty outreach director and evening celebration director for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration.

Several study and volunteer abroad experiences in places like Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Willemstad, Curacao, enabled him to serve as a peer adviser for Penn States Education Abroad Office. He also coordinated an initiative to collect water for Flint, Michigan in 2016, organizing trips from State College to Flint to deliver water and distributing over 5,000 bottles of water to Flint residents.

Davis was recognized several times for his extraordinary efforts while a Penn State student. He received the Rock Ethics Institutes Stand Up Award, Penn States Jackson Lethbridge Tolerance Award, and the Universitys Eric A. Walker Award, which is given annually to the student who has contributed most to enhancing the reputation of the University through extracurricular activities. He also gave a TEDTalk at TEDxPsu in 2017, Dismantling Contemporary Police Brutality Through the Lens of Basketball, which explored issues surrounding inequality, racism, and the criminal justice system.

Davis says his liberal arts education greatly influenced his social justice work; he credits the Department of African American Studies for equipping him with skills that allowed him to grow and succeed as an educator, human rights activist, and scholar. The department curriculum and professors gave me a space to find my voice and how I related to the world, and the critical lens to examine the issues affecting society, he explained. The program was so holistic, professors often invited students over to their homes to discuss books, life, and build a strong student community. The classroom conversations were so transformative, I used to hate when class was over.

It was also through the program that Davis met one of his closest mentors: Nan Woodruff, Penn State professor of African American studies and modern U.S. history. Dr. Woodruff taught me to read critically, how to engage with the text, how to write like a scholar, and how to ask critical and theoretical questions, he said. She helped me with my own racial identity formation with texts that helped me find myself within historical and contemporary contexts. And after taking me under her wing, she gave me more than 200 books to start my own personal library at the start of my junior year.

Davis is currently the associate director of equity and inclusion at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, California. In this role, he helps shape diversity and inclusion policies and initiatives, including the Magis High School Program a program that ensures underrepresented students in higher education, first-generation college-bound students, and students of color at St. Ignatius have access to all resources, cultural support and education during their four years of high school. Davis is also currently pursuing a masters degree in human rights education at the University of San Francisco, providing him with the opportunity to build off his work while a student at Penn State and continue to fight for social justice.

My liberal arts education and skills prepared me for life after graduation by giving me the tools and leadership experience needed to create systematic change in every role I've held, Davis said. Having a liberal arts degree from Penn State sets you apart from other college graduates because the degree program is designed strategically to help you critically think about the ways in which you want to show up for the world, for others, and for yourself. It allowed me to travel to different countries to study governments, education systems, and ways of life and examine the ways I can bring those things back into my career; it also helped me become a better thinker and writer, and helped me shape and mold myself for the inclusive and equitable world I imagine.

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Liberal arts degree gave alumnus 'space to find my voice,' help others - Penn State News

David Melding. Picture by the National Assembly (CC BY 2.0)

The Tory Senedd candidate selection process has not kind to liberal Conservatives according to one of the partys MSs.

David Melding, a Member of the Senedd for South Wales Central, has spoken out following the news that pro-devolution MS Suzy Davies lost her place on top of the regional list for the winnable South West Wales seat.

Mr Melding, who is stepping down at the next election, and is also pro-devolution, said that he was particularly grieved to see her outstanding and insightful service so meagerly rewarded.

Ms Davies has insisted that it wasnt down to a devo-related cull and said that it was just good old fashioned local party dynamics.

Mr Melding said: With respect and congratulations to those selected the WCPs selection process has not been kind to liberal Conservatives. Particularly grieved to see Suzy Davies outstanding and insightful service so meagerly rewarded.

Party dynamics

Suzy Davies said: Thanks all for such kind messages re SWW list changes. Ive really appreciated it. I know some choose to see this as some sort of devo-related cull, but it really was just good old fashioned local party dynamics. I know my successor will be as keen on a Tory Welsh Gov as l am.

Labour Senedd member Huw Irranca-Davies said: The Conservative Party in Wales in its candidate selections are erasing women, liberal Tories, & supporters of devolution.

The Party of Nick Bourne (& David Melding & Suzy Davies etc) is dying right in front of us. For Wales, read English Tory Party: Wales branch office.

Nation.Cymru revealed before Christmas that candidates on the South Wales Central regional list, including key Conservative campaign strategist Chris Thorne, and Calum Davies (Suzy Davies son), promised to Abolish the Senedd in their pitch to members.

Suzy Davies ousting from the top of the list is the second surprise result of the selection process after Jonathan Morgan, who has previously represented the party in Cardiff Bay and is currently an advisor to party leader Paul Davies, was not shortlisted for South Wales Central.

See more here:

Tory Senedd candidate selection 'not kind to liberal Conservatives' - Nation.Cymru

Eric TrumpEric TrumpTrump considers pardons for former New York Assembly Speaker, Lil Wayne: NYT Manhattan DA expands probe into Trump company to include family estate: report Third bank cuts ties with Trump after Capitol riot MORE criticized businesses that have cut ties with the Trump Organization after the mob attack on the Capitol last week, blaming it on "cancel culture" in an interview.

We live in the age of cancel culture, but this isnt something that started this week. It is something that they have been doing to us and others for years, Trump told The Associated Press in aninterviewon Tuesday. If you disagree with them, if they dont like you, they try and cancel you.

A number of businesses have cut ties with the Trump Organization since last week's ugly events. President TrumpDonald TrumpGiuliani used provisional ballot to vote in 2020 election, same method he disparaged in fighting to overturn results Trump gets lowest job approval rating in final days as president Fox News' DC managing editor Bill Sammon to retire MORE has been widely blamed for inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol, but he has shown no regret for his actions and insisted he did nothing wrong.

Shopify decided to take Trumps official store off their platform, PGA of America took away its namesake championship from Trumps Bedminster, the British Open said they wont play at a Trump golf course and New York City is canceling contracts with the Trump organization.

One of Trumps biggest lenders, Deutsche Bank, said it would no longer be lending to him.

The House is voting on Wednesday to impeach Trump over the riot, and some Republicans are likely to back Democrats in the vote.

Eric Trump spoke at the protest before the attack happened to tell the crowd to have some backbone. Show some fight. Learn from Donald Trump.

Trump told the AP:You have a man who would get followed to the ends of the Earth by a hundred million Americans. He created the greatest political movement in American history and his opportunities are endless.

When the AP asked Trump if he thought his father was responsible for inciting the crowd during the riot, he hung up.

Original post:

Eric Trump: Business cancellations part of liberal 'cancel culture' | TheHill - The Hill

OTTAWAIt was a notable pledge in the Liberal partys 2019 election platform, a signal that climate change must be confronted, the era of oil is ending, and that the federal government would take seriously what that meant for Canadas fossil-fuel workers.

But 15 months later, as the Western-based sector faces the new U.S. presidents expected decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, there is no sign the Liberals promised Just Transition Act is coming any time soon.

And thats a problem for tens of thousands of workers in Alberta and Saskatchewan who could be adrift as the world shifts from emissions-heavy oil to cleaner energy, says Jim Stanford, an economist who is director of the Centre for Future Work.

I know the government has been talking about a Just Transition Act and they should bring it in immediately and they should give it money in this next budget, Stanford told the Star by phone last week.

Government has to indicate clearly that this is a change thats going to happen over the next couple of decades, and were going to be there to support people all the way, he said. If they do that, then this can be done without personal or community sacrifice.

Seamus ORegan, the federal natural resources minister, was not available for an interview in recent days, according to his office. Asked why the bill hasnt been tabled and when it will be introduced, ORegans press secretary Ian Cameron would only say by email that the minister is committed to fully implementing the mandate he received from the prime minister.

ORegans mandate letter from December 2019 called on him to help advance legislation to support the future and livelihood of workers and their communities in the transition to a low-carbon global economy.

Asked again Monday about the transition bill in relation to the impending U.S. decision over Keystone XL, ORegans office provided a statement from the minister that said Ottawa is still making the case for the pipeline with the American government. It did not mention the promised transition legislation.

Canadian oil is produced under strong environmental and climate policy frameworks, and this project will not only strengthen the vital Canada-U.S. energy relationship, but create thousands of good jobs for workers on both sides of the border, ORegan said

Since returning to power with a minority government in October 2019, there has been scant reference to the legislation on Parliament Hill. The phrase Just Transition Act has been uttered just five times during debates and committee, according to the site Open Parliament. The governments revamped, $15-billion climate plan unveiled in December also did not mention the bill, though it did say the government would at every turn, focus on workers and their careers in a fair and just transition to a stronger and cleaner economy.

Kathryn Harrison, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, said that promise is politically challenging on two levels. The first involves political opponents like the federal Conservatives and premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan, all ardent supporters of Canadas oil industry and critics of Ottawas climate policies, which they argue are unduly harmful to the sector. Talking about just transition acknowledges that there will be a decline in Canadas oil industry, and that is very politically contentious, she said.

The second challenge relates to a contradiction within the Liberal governments own policies, she said. The government champions the Paris Agreement and vows Canada will achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, but it spending billions of dollars in public money to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline, for instance.

Meanwhile, the industry itself sees no need for a transition. Tim McMillan, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, spoke to the Star last week about the first positive forecast for his industry since annual spending in the sector started plummeting from $80 billion in 2014. This year, the association predicts investment in Canadas oil and gas sector will be around $27 billion more than $3 billion higher than what it was in 2020.

McMillan said its a welcome prognosis after a rough ride through the pandemic, which struck last March just as a dispute between Russia and Saudi Arabia sent the price for oil on the world market to the bottom of the barrel. He also pointed to the International Energy Agency, which predicts growing global demand for oil could peak within a decade but stay flat through the 2030s.

We think Canada can and should play a leadership role in that supply and that Canada should be setting its sight on a fairly strong growth target for investment into the energy sector, McMillan said.

Stanford, the economist from the Centre for Future Work, sees a different trend. In a report published Monday with the organization Environmental Defence, Stanford charts how Canadas fossil fuel industries lost 50,000 jobs since 2014 and still employed about 170,000 workers in 2019. He predicts that, as renewable energy gains steam and countries around the world try to reduce emissions, Canadas oil sector could virtually disappear in another 20 years.

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Thats why he argues the country needs to support workers in the industry. He calls on Ottawa to spend $1 billion per year, starting in 2021, and said the transition could be designed so that the vast majority of current employees can work out their careers and retire without being replaced, while younger ones can receive sizable government support around $250,000 each to relocate and train to work in new industries.

But the key is co-ordination, which is why a framework in the form of national legislation would help, he said. The hard reality is theyre going to face that uprooting, said Stanford. Its the delaying and denying that makes this challenge so much worse than it needs to be.

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The Liberals promised help for oil workers as their jobs disappear. So where is it? - Toronto Star

Campaign signs began to appear on St. Johns streets last Friday morning on the eve of the first anniversary of a ferocious winter storm that paralyzed eastern Newfoundland and became known as Snowmageddon. The record-breaking snowfall led to a declaration of a state of emergency and the intervention of the Canadian Forces to restore a semblance of everyday life.

Later on Friday, as the supper-hour TV-news programs went to air and a storm packing 100 km/h winds bore down on St. Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey announced there would be a winter election.

The election comes in the midst of a pandemic in a financially beleaguered province that faces insolvency without Ottawas assistance, except, this year, it wont be the Canadian Forces coming to the rescue, it will be the Bank of Canada. At dissolution, Fureys Liberal party held 19 of the 40 seats in the provincial House of Assembly. The Progressive Conservative opposition led by lawyer Ches Crosbie, son of the late John Crosbie, (a longtime provincial and federal cabinet minister), held 15 seats. The remaining six seats are divided between three New Democrats and three Independents.

Fureys tenure in elected office can be measured in months three, to be exact. Furey, a surgeon and son of Canadian Sen. George Furey, inherited a provincial debt he has described as crushing in a province whose economic outlook he calls dire. In announcing the election last Friday, Furey called this moment the provinces darkest economic hour. As he looked into the cameras and read from a teleprompter, Furey told voters this election is about leadership, that all we need is courage, and I am ready.

READ MORE: Incoming premier Dr. Andrew Furey says everything is on the table to cure N.L.s disastrous debt

After Fureys announcement, Crosbie stood in front of the TV cameras and told voters that Newfoundland and Labrador is teetering on the edge of financial ruin, hanging on by (its) fingernails, and facing a once-in-a-lifetime economic emergency. The election, said Crosbie, is about jobs and growth, and who has a plan to bring back jobs.

When Furey was running for the Liberal party leadership in August, he talked about re-imagining and right-sizing government. What that would look like has become the task of an economic-recovery team he assembled under the direction of Moya Greene. Greene, a St. Johns native, headed Canada Post, later the United Kingdoms Royal Mail, and comes with a reputation for privatization. Whether that reputation is deserved or not, the recovery team has already lost one member, a representative of the provincial Federation of Labour, who described Greenes team as window dressing.

Shortly after accepting the position with the recovery team, Greene acknowledged there would be trade-offs, which is understood by most voters as a euphemism for service cuts. Whether that means cuts to health care, ferry services, or property taxes in rural communities where there are currently few voters, we wont know until the recovery team submits an interim report expected by Feb. 28, two weeks after election day on Feb. 13.

Crosbie is telling voters that Furey has a secret plan. The opposition leader calls it a slash-and-burn agenda. In an August interview with iPolitics, Furey, borrowing from his experience as a surgeon, observed that, sometimes, it is necessary to cut off a leg to save a patient.

On Friday, Crosbie replied by saying hed like his doctor to tell me if he plans on cutting off my limbs before I have an amputation.

If Fureys choice of an election date means he goes to the polls before trade-offs are announced meaning limbs are designated for amputation and the government brings in an austerity budget then he wouldnt be the first political leader to go to the polls before bearing bad news. Furey, however, has three other reasons to call an election sooner rather than later.

First, according to a public opinion poll published in the fall, Furey enjoyed a 32-point lead over Crosbie.

Second, Furey and the provinces team of health-care professionals have led a pandemic response that is the envy of other provinces. Since Jan. 1, there have been only five new cases of COVID-19 identified in the province, all of them travel-related. There is no community spread of the coronavirus in Newfoundland and Labrador. There is no stay-at-home order, no curfews, and schools and daycares are open.

Last, New Brunswick, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan have all held elections during the pandemic that resulted in wins for the governing party, and, in the case of New Brunswick and B.C., minority governments won majorities. Barroom betting in Newfoundland and Labrador suggests a similar outcome is likely on Feb. 13.

This story was copy-edited after publication, on Jan. 18 at 4:07 p.m.

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Andrew Furey's Liberals roll the dice with a winter election in NL - iPolitics.ca

THE Oldham Liberal Democrats have condemned the Conservative government which they claim has "derailed plans" for significant investment in northern rail services.

The government has decided that Transport for the North will lose 40 per cent of its core funding, down to 6million from 10m, and a fifth of its total annual support, in the next financial year.

The Department of Transport has also cancelled plans to introduce contactless ticketing, like Londons Oyster card system, across the North of England.

Cllr Howard Sykes, leader of Oldham Councils Liberal Democrat group, who also serves as one of Oldhams representatives on the board of Transport for Greater Manchester, the latest news is a significant blow.

He said: While the London Crossrail project receives ever more government funding, Northern rail services are being starved of cash. This government once talked about creating a Northern Powerhouse, but there is little chance of that when we have an antiquated and inadequate railway system that cannot meet the needs of our business community and commuters.

It took decades to divest ourselves of the appalling Pacer trains which where only removed from service a couple of months ago. It looks like it might take decades more before passengers travelling between our Northern towns and cities may experience a twenty first century rail service. If the Conservatives are to have any credibility when they talk of levelling up the North, then they need to give us more cash not less.

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On the wrong track: Oldham Liberal Democrats condemn cuts to Northern rail investment - theoldhamtimes.co.uk