Opposition leader says level of personal attacks by government is disturbing

Opposition leader Dwight Ball says an increased level of personal attacks by PC MHAs on opponents of the Muskrat Falls project is “very disturbing,” and indicates that there are no moral limits to where the Dunderdale government will go.

Ball said in a news release he finds it “deeply disturbing and repugnant to hear member of the House of Assembly Steve Kent argue during a media interview that imputing personal motives of persons on the other side of public policy debates is not only permissible but desirable.”

The Liberal leader said this attitude will have a “chilling and corrosive effect on the public's participation in the issues facing the province. When it has become official government policy to use the machinery of government to attack the motives of critics, why would anyone say anything?”

Ball said it's been a longstanding principle of public discussions that you attack the position, not the person.

“The hypocrisy of government's policy to attack the personal motives of critics is incredible,” said Ball. “They feel entitled to make personal attacks while they vigorously protest whenever their own motivations are called into question.”

As the public debate on Muskrat Falls continues throughout the fall, Ball said government must listen to the message instead of attacking the messenger.

jimmer: - August 21, 2012 at 19:36:55

why would anyone be surprised...in my short time on this planet I learned long ago that politicians are nothing but a bunch of bickering babies who get nothing done and only have their own interests in mind

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Hopeful: - August 21, 2012 at 18:43:16

@Maurice E. Adams/FINTIP Maurice you took the words out of my mouth. You have to be commended also, you have been informing the public all along about the cost of this project and the turmoil it would bring on the ratepayers. Thank You!!!

Ted: - August 21, 2012 at 18:19:48

Steve Kent is an embarrassment to Newfoundland and Labrador. What a disgrace! He will do ANYTHING to promote and advance himself.

Felix: - August 21, 2012 at 17:55:50

INTERIM Leader.

Cold Future: - August 21, 2012 at 16:08:35

The government have not been very clear and open about letting the people know what they are doing. It appears to be a fait acompli that the project will proceed regardless of the risks. The plan appears to be to set up the energy warehouse and wait for the free energy from Upper Churchill to make it economically viable. The back end loading of the mortgage payments is to give some relief in the beginning and have the children and grandchildren pick up the higher costs and hope that the Upper churchill asset can live on to save the day. If the carrying charges and debt are accumulated and payments don't start until 2020 when the project is completed, the steady increase of power rates will wait until then to start. It seems like a lot of excess cost and risk to the economic well being of the province if it is only to send a great big GFY to Quebec. Surely a deal can be made with Quebec for a lot less risk and cost. As for government tactics-they appear to a bit more gestapo style than is necessary but this whole scheme does not appear to have a whole lot going for it so the vague general statements appear to be all they've got. Its for the future, its for the grand children, it cannot be monetized, it will get us off the dirty dirty demon oil, it will stop the rolling blackouts, we won't freeze in the dark and have to ration the heat, and on and on ad nausiam.

Maurice E. Adams: - August 21, 2012 at 14:40:25

That is one very fine piece of work FINTIP. I can add nothing to that, only say "Thank you" for telling it like it is. Please keep informing the citizens of the great province the facts, the impacts, the relevance, the risks, the costs, the TRUTH, about this proposed Muskrat Falls project.

M.B.: - August 21, 2012 at 13:52:38

@FINTIP AMEN. This government don't belong using the words bullying and fear mongerling in defence of themselves, but, its ok for them to use these tactics on us. This government is disgusting, disgusting, disgusting!

Sweetland: - August 21, 2012 at 13:27:52

In order for muckraking to occur there must be muck available to be mucked. Ball is not up to the job of leader.

Eli

- August 21, 2012 at 15:05:13

"Ball is not up to the job of leader". And that has what to do with name calling?
Jim

- August 21, 2012 at 18:07:18

Ball is joke and is completely ineffective. A total nonentity. He is only a placeholder for Dean once Dean has his business affairs in place and is ready to carry forth the Danny agenda. They are all on board with it!
Eli

- August 23, 2012 at 11:29:46

Jim, beware of Dean MacDonald. He'll come on the scene as the new messiah, similar to Danny Williams, and you should know by now what that's still costing us,

FINTIP: - August 21, 2012 at 13:02:56

It's not that I disagree with Mr. Ball. In waging the Muskrat wars, Dunderdale has given free rein to ministers, staff and shills to say and do whatever is necessary to win. By viciously attacking the character and motives of anyone who even questions this boondoggle, they are sending a warning to others who might be inclined to take a public stand against it. But Ball is not a neophyte in politics. He shouldn't allow himself to be so easily intimidated. Like Cashin, I'm not at all impressed by the job done to date by the opposition parties in exposing the ineptitude and sleaze behind this mega madness. I'm inclined to think Ball has been paying far too much attention to the views of Dean MacDonald - just as Michaels is under the spell of Jack Harris. I don't think either opposition party is ready, or even eager, to debate this thing in the House of Assembly. If they were serious about holding government's feet to the fire, they would have long ago established a committee of learned persons to advise them on the financial, economic, legal, technical and strategic aspects of this thing. This is the single largest capital investment ever contemplated by the province. Until recently Newfoundland had the highest per capital debt in Canada. This project will effectively double that debt in exchange for an asset that has, at best, an uncertain long term value. A reversal in the province's oil fortunes or any one of a number of other technological or economic changes on the world front could easily spell fiscal disaster - potentially plunging the province into insolvency. At the end of the day, Muskrat Falls is only as viable as the willingness or ability of THIS province's homeowners to pay three times what we are paying now to amortize its enormous 57 year debt. If Ball was serious, he would have publicly demanded copies of all contracts issued by government or NALCOR for public relations services relating to Muskrat. I have no doubt that a huge amount of our own money is being spent to put lipstick on this pig. Efforts are being made every day to subvert public forums like this one, by using government stooges masquerading as ordinary citizens. Whatever limits of nastiness ministers are unwilling to cross for fear of public reprisal, pseudonymous sock puppets like John Smith have no such qualms. Whether it is to provide fat cat corporations with power well below cost at the expense of the consumer, or some hair-brained notion that this will strengthen our 2041 negotiating position with Quebec, the financial risks being imposed on the Newfoundland public without proper scrutiny amounts to gross negligence. The PUB and the Environmental Review Process - two mechanisms that were intended to protect the public from such mad-cap schemes - have both been sidelined by a government that, like their federal compatriots, sees a majority government as a license from God. No Mr. Ball, there are no boy scouts on the government benches. Time you and your colleagues recognized that and got on with the business of doing what it is you were elected to do - in this case, saving the Newfoundland public from the tyranny of their own government.

Jim

- August 21, 2012 at 18:09:25

Ball is on board the Dean Express! What a sorry "Leader" he is. Just pathetic.

deaf tories: - August 21, 2012 at 11:56:54

Everything they say now about MRF seems to conradict everything else they have been saying. And After hearing steve kent on the media, he has dug a hole that their party will never climb out of. They have turned our governmnet means into an embarrasment. who knows??? they may have a job in the mining bussiness already lined up. Because it seems to me that they stopped working for the people of the province along long ago.

Graham: - August 21, 2012 at 11:39:49

Its what this bunch does best...They were trained by the Master Danny ATTACK EVERYONE Williams. Rest assured that will all change in the next election. This bunch of arrogant self centred ego maniacs will be gone.

Graham: - August 21, 2012 at 11:37:00

Jim

- August 21, 2012 at 18:10:51

But Dean MacDonald, Danny's protege, is on his way in for the Liberals. More of the same?

Robb: - August 21, 2012 at 11:15:40

The only deeply disturbing thing here is the "deer in the headlights" look on Ball's face....you just can't take him seriously, so if the gov't wants to backlash against the doomsday people, so be it.......they use everything they can to dis-credit the gov't, so the gov't should fight fire wiht fire, and show these doomsday bully thugs for who they really are.......opportunists who want face time, and wish they were doing this project themselves........too bad, so sad....

West coast

- August 21, 2012 at 12:24:04

You are RIGHT ON Robb!

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Opposition leader says level of personal attacks by government is disturbing

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