The Premier, Privacy and the Public Interest

Roger Bill

On the morning of October 19 the online business news publication allnewfoundlandlabrador.com reported that Premier Andrew Furey had spent some of his 2021 Summer holiday at a luxury fishing resort in Labrador owned by John Risley, one of the promoters of a massive wind to hydrogen project in the province.

Several hours later the report became the focus of a raucous Question Period in the House of Assembly. Acting Opposition Leader Barry Petten set the tone. “The Premier spends days with a billionaire donor who’s leading a wind development project in a luxury cabin, and he expects people of the province to believe that wind energy did not come up once. Three months later, public servants start talk about removing the wind moratorium in our province. Is this where the deal was struck, or is this the biggest coincidence in Newfoundland and Labrador history?” Petten asked.

Following Question Period, Premier Andrew Furey met with reporters. The Premier knew allnewfoundlandlabrador.com was going to publish the report. It was not a surprise. The reporter, Alex Bill (full disclosure – my son) had contacted the Premier for confirmation and a comment several days before. John Risley had been contacted. The Premier’s father, Senator George Furey, who had accompanied the Premier on the Labrador fishing trip, had been contacted. Publication, in fact, had been delayed for a day as the report was passed through the hands of additional editors at allnewfoundlandlabrador’s partner publication, allnovascotia.com. Andrew Furey and his communications team had ample time to prepare a response

After taking a few questions from reporters in the scrum following Question Period the Premier’s composure seemed to slip. He said, “We need to have some respect for public figures in their own personal time. It’s my time. My dime. And what I do with it, frankly, is my business.”

The Premier had used the line “my time, my dime” in the interview he did for the original allnewfoundlandlabrador.com story. He used the same line in the House during Question Period, so he wasn’t going off script in the scrum. What might not have been part of the plan was the testy add-on, “And what I do with it, frankly, is my business.” 

Those words found their way into local radio and TV reports plus a report by Sarah Smellie, the Canadian Press reporter in the province. Ms. Smellie’s report was published by the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and CTV News. “It’s my time.  My dime.” Those well-prepared catchy words, an American expression that dates to when pay phones took dimes, may be ones the premier will come to regret.

Andrew Furey’s suggestion that the media were crossing a line and delving into his personal and private affairs is a tough sell. Other than reporting that the Premier lives in a subdivision in the 57 sq. km community of Portugal Cove-St. Phillips, no media reports his address. Nobody takes pictures of his home. Nobody writes about where his kids go to school. The public knows his partner is a physician, but nobody reports where she works. And, what happens behind the closed door of their home? Never.  

Provincial politicians including premiers have had marriages dissolve. Nobody reported it.  Some had affairs. Nobody reported it, at least not until they were dead (See Ed Roberts’ book The Last Days of Smallwood to learn more about why Frank Moores’ nickname was The Rowdyman). Some had substance abuse issues. Nobody touched it.

Nobody publishes stories about where Premier Furey has dinner when he dines out. Nobody publishes stories about where he shops. Nobody publishes stories about him showing up at a choir recital or soccer game. Nobody cares where he jogs or plays hockey. And, finally, nobody would know that his friend and John Risley’s partner in the west coast wind to hydrogen project, Brendan Paddick, comes to the premier’s house and watches TV with his kids except the premier published that personal detail in his memoir, Hope In The Balance.

Maybe it is just a matter of inexperience. Andrew Furey stepped into a big job with zero electoral experience. Does that, however, give a pass to the premier for thinking a discrete encounter at a luxury resort with someone who is a major financial donor to the provincial Liberal Party is, “frankly, my business?” Maybe. Even if a few months following his holiday visit the premier’s host emerges as the promoter of a massive wind to hydrogen project in the province? Maybe, but a MUN political scientist, Kelly Blidook, told VOCM listeners he thought it made the premier appear “entitled”.    

What may come next for the premier is a quiet conversation with some old political pros. “See the national news coverage?” they’ll ask. The headline, they’ll point out in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star is Newfoundland and Labrador Premier defends trip with billionaire leading wind pitch. “This is not the kind of national news you want to make,” the old pros will tell Andrew Furey.

To borrow a hockey metaphor, then the horn will blow for the start of the next period and the old pros will pat Andrew Furey on his back and he will pick up his stick and skate back out on the ice a little bit wiser.