If I could talk to Trump
Work in Progress
By Ivan Morgan
An expert is defined as someone who has spent over 10,000 hours studying or doing something. Well, I have spent that much time over the years trying to understand the history of the Churchill Falls hydro issue, but I am no expert. I have spent the last little while reading others’ opinions on the new deal. I find the whole thing utterly fascinating.
Some preliminary thoughts.
We have all heard of fantasy football and fantasy hockey, where you get to pick your team. I am not big into sports but thought I would indulge some fantasy politics.
If I had a half hour with US President Donald Trump, I could fix our Churchill Falls problem.
Hear me out (and no, I haven’t lost my mind.) I would explain Canada to him. Churchill Falls perfectly explains how Canada works. Unlike the USA, where all 50 States get two seats in their Senate – little Wyoming, population 588,000 souls, and California, population 39.36 million, both have two seats. Our House of Commons works differently. Quebec has 78 seats. Newfoundland has seven. More votes, more power. That’s why the Churchill Falls hydro facility, which is our resource, in our province, makes billions for Quebec and very little for us. That’s why the federal government will not force Quebec to treat us fairly. Despite owning this incredible asset, our province is mired in poverty. These are facts.
I would explain to His Orangeness that while Quebec demands “fair” treatment from the rest of Canada and the USA, when it comes to dealing with us, the shoe is on the other foot.
I would offer Melania’s husband a very short history lesson (to match his rumoured short attention span). We were once our own nation. We were so hopeless we voted ourselves out of democracy in favour of being run by a committee. Then World War Two happened and the Americans arrived and gave us an incredible economic shot in the arm. After the war a political party was formed to push for a return to democracy, self-rule and economic union with the USA. Britain and Canada would not allow them to be on the Confederation referendum ballot.
That’s how Churchill Falls happened. There’s more but remember the attention span thing.
Now the federal government has shown up with $10 billion of Canadian money to try to convince us to sign another less than perfect long-term power contract with Quebec. More money than before but still not very much. It’s a complex deal but the bottom line is Quebec doesn’t want to pay much for our power and wants us to sign for another 50 years. I would ask the President’s help in getting more money and a shorter contract from Quebec.
How would he do it? Don’t know. Would he do it? Don’t know. If I approached Trump the federal Liberals would scream we are dealing with Satan the Devil and so forth, we are betraying Canada, holler about national unity and “elbows up.” Who cares about any of that if we get more money from our resource? Money we need. From a resource we own.
I would ask Trump to demand Canada show true national unity by forcing Quebec to cut a fairer deal for our power. They depend on profits from selling our cheap power to the US at a fabulous markup. They depend on our power to keep their own rates low. Much lower than ours. It’s our resource. We want low rates too. And we could sell it to the Americans for less than Quebec – why not if we got the profits?
For my entire life politicians have scored easy points making Quebec the bad guy. They are not. Their job is to get the best deal they can for their province – their people. That is also our job. Which is why I would try and sell Trump on this. When Quebec had the advantage, they used it. In my fantasy I convince Trump to level the playing field, get a good rate for his people, and piss off Ottawa too (obviously one of his favourite things to do)!
I am not a Trump lover. I am not unpatriotic (whatever that means). Canada is a federation. Quebecers are Quebecers first, Canadians second. I am a Newfoundlander first, and a Canadian second. That’s how federations work.
We have suffered because of this federation. Is it unCanadian to want to be the principal beneficiary of our own resource? Getting Trump’s help is unthinkable but allowing another province to profit from our resource isn’t?
Why seek Trump’s help? We need real help and Canada ain’t giving it.
Ivan Morgan ca be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com
Editor’s Note: I don’t often take issue with my friend Ivan, but there are two things in this column I have to rebut. First, that “our province is mired in poverty.” On a per capita basis, and in actuality, Newfoundland and Labrador is fabulously rich compared with many other jurisdictions. Since the oil royalties started rolling in, we’ve had a spending problem, not a too little revenue problem. Second, “We were so hopeless we voted ourselves out of democracy in favour of being run by a committee.” Again, I disagree. Newfoundland politics between the Great War and the late 1940s was no more corrupt, nor its politicians more incompetent than those of many other countries. Sadly, our leaders and business class bought into the notion that because of some scandals and pressing public debt we were incapable of governing ourselves, an idea that should have been dismissed on the face of it. When the Newfoundland government voted itself out of existence in 1934 in favour of Commission of Government, it was with the intention of “taking a break from politics,” not giving up independence altogether. Many a book and thesis have been written on what happened afterwards to divert us away from a return to self government.