Politicians, Diapers and Why We Need To Change Both

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live. - Socrates

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word. - Charles de Gaulle

As the dust settles from Premier Redford’s resignation this week, I wish people would stop acting surprised, stop blaming it on misguided misogyny (Danielle Smith and Donna Kennedy-Glans are still women the last time I checked) and not cry as Mayor Nenshi almost did when he talked about how allegedly good people were allegedly being cut down by the system.

Premier Redford, despite her sharp mental acuity and her articulate eloquence, enjoyed living a Life of luxury on the back of her taxpayers and saw nothing wrong with it.  Former Premier Dunderdale’s quick demise in Newfoundland should also have served as a warning about the dangers of indifference but sometimes ego gets in the way of learning opportunities and we miss them. When a Premier acts more like Marie Antoinette than a humble servant leader, there’s bound to be trouble.

Unless …….. your communications team knows how to paint you to the contrary!

Unfortunately, as the leader goes, so go their minions and the Premier’s communications team in their questionable competence chose to spend a fair chunk of their time taunting, insulting and arguing with people on platforms such as Twitter rather than focusing on demonstrating why the Premier was the right choice for Alberta. The Premier’s actions seemingly demonstrated qualities of indifference, apathy or elitism (whether accurate or not) and her communications team reinforced this message.

Watching interim Premier Hancock taunt the opposition on Thursday about how the PCs always win every election or Sandra Jansen (Associate Minister of Family & Community Safety) not know how to apologize for an insult she made against trades people tells me that the PC Party of Alberta still has much to learn about managing public optics.

And while bravado and machismo can be perceived as confidence, too much of it smells more like the contents of a diaper and if not changed quickly, will make people feel sick and need to leave the room.

A Different Type of Politician is Needed

I was listening to Bill Barry this week as he explained why he was running for the leadership of the PC Party of Newfoundland and Labrador and it struck me that this is the type of leader we need in the 21st century, specifically one who:

• is smart
• is passionate
• is humble (but not a doormat)
• is capable of making tough decisions when they need to be made
• calls it the way he sees it
• is not afraid of tackling the “political hot potatoes”
• is capable of working with others, including those who are not an official part of “his team”
• can speak to the people using a message that they can identify with.

People like former Premier Danny Williams have announced that they cannot support such a candidate and I can see why. It’s because people like Bill Barry represent the type of people we need to lead our world through challenging times and towards the potential that we are capable of producing.

In other words, someone who is atypical to what we are used to seeing in a politician and in fact, someone who represents a threat to the traditional political system.

The Bottom Line

Politics is a difficult and often thankless vocation and I am grateful for the many who make personal and professional sacrifices in order to serve others.  There are some great servant leaders out there in the political sphere and we must be careful not to dismiss all politicians as selfish, incompetent or in politics for their own gain.

However, like the Canadian Spa For the Elite (I mean the Canadian Senate), it seems that the higher some people get in the system, the more distance is placed between them and the voter and eventually the voter is lost somewhere beneath the clouds.

Service at the top is meant to be the ultimate servant leader role, guiding us through the challenges and opportunities before us.  It should not be perceived as a reward for someone who knew how to play “king of the mountain” the best (or a reward for the few who helped them up to the summit) while simultaneously forgetting that they exist to serve the masses.

As the PC Parties of Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador choose their next leaders respectively, they need to remember one thing.

While it may serve their short-term needs to put someone in power who creates benefits for themselves, putting someone in power who benefits the people and who resonates with the people will serve everyone’s long-term needs.

Otherwise, they might think they’ve pulled the wool over the eyes of the voter but in fact, it smells more like a diaper and no matter how awesome the brand of the diaper, it still smells the same.

And when that happens, a change is inevitable.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS If the voter is not smart enough to see through what the typical politician sells them, then maybe we’re filling our own diaper.  If that happens, it’s a lot harder to complain about the politician and be taken seriously.

Meanwhile, some PC supporters have asked me to take some of my recent posts down.  Maybe they are getting free consulting advice and they just don’t realize it.  Ahhhh ….. the disabling effect of the ego.

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Addendum – Insight from Marc Doll

I was amused by and in full agreement with this astute observation from Marc.

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Addendum – Clarification of My Intention

It has been suggested by some that my post was meant as a call to punish those who are successful or those who have made it to the top.  As a long time Fortune 25 and Wall St. strategy guy, far be it from me to even suggest that we should punish those who, through intelligence, hard work, determination and a little luck, have become successful.

People who are successful have every right to enjoy the harvest of their efforts.

However, if one strives to make their way to the top of the public service mountain, it is critical that they remember that they are at the top to serve and not merely to harvest for personal gain or through their actions, imply that they are there merely to harvest for themselves. 

It is, after all, called public service for a reason.

And therein lies a significant difference.

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Related Posts:

• Alberta PC Party – Indecisiveness, Mixed Messaging and Paralysis – March 16, 2014
• Newfoundland – A Leadership Crisis, Not An Energy One – January 6, 2014
• Newfoundland – Leadership (Or Lack Of It) In Crisis – January 4, 2014

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Why Your Business Really Failed

That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. - Steve Jobs

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo da Vinci

After watching another business go down the drain with some really smart MBAs at the helm, I have to admit that I’m starting to become slightly discouraged (ok … really discouraged) about the number of unnecessary business failures that are occurring.

I’m not talking about business failures where market conditions, bad luck, aggressive competition, faulty legislation, poor data or some other factors contributed to the failure.

I’m referring to a lot of well-educated MBAs, PhDs and the like setting out for success while breaking every rule of intelligent business execution, including failing to establish measurable goals and outcomes, not having realistic tactical roadmaps, ignoring the competition, refusing to take corrective action when required, not seizing opportunities laid before them, not learning from the mistakes of others, etc.

What is the reason for such sloppy business execution?

Such failures are certainly not for lack of education, access to information or because of a shortage of best practices, methodologies, frameworks and brilliant minds.  One could make a lifetime out of study and never scratch the surface of the knowledge available.

In fact, maybe we suffer from the reverse.  Maybe we have too many techniques in the business world such as SWOT, Porter 5 Forces Analysis, PEST, GE / McKinsey Matrix, backcasting and the like and people’s brains are melting under the pressure of trying to memorize all of them.

Or maybe there’s another reason.

And so with that in mind, I offer my “predicting business success model for 10-year-olds” model.  Study it carefully – there will be a test afterward.  Click on the image for a readable version.

Bottom Line

Yeah, I know … a little sarcasm can certainly be discerned from my over-simplified diagram. :-)

But the bottom line is this.

The knowledge generated by our education institutions (including MOOCs – massive open online courses), public and private entities and in Life itself is staggering in width, breadth, depth and quality.

We all have fairly unlimited access to all of this knowledge (with the exception of the awesome database that the NSA has put together).

And most importantly …….. there are many people who create success despite staggering odds. 

So there must be another reason why too many businesses fail when success should have been almost assured and why some businesses succeed when failure was confidently predicted by everyone around them.

Do you know what that reason is?

I have a suggestion but I’m not sure your ego can handle it.

Oooops … did I just answer the question by accident?

Unfortunately, skill in this area cannot be taught although it can and must be learned to be successful in a sustainable way.

In the meantime, please strive harder to not be an inspiration for posters like this:

Or this:

The world needs more people who know what they are doing …. and it needs them in a hurry.

Are you one of those people?

Are you sure?

How do you know?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS This applies to politicians as well.  Those studying former Premier Dunderdale’s recent flameout in Newfoundland and Labrador would do well to understand the lessons contained within or run the risk of repeating them.

Everyone Makes Mistakes–Leaders Learn From Them

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them. - Bruce Lee

A man (or woman) must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them. John C. Maxwell (I added “or woman”)

My blog Newfoundland–A Leadership Crisis, Not An Energy One, with my criticism of Premier Dunderdale’s handling of the electricity outage in Newfoundland, was hotly debated by a number of people in recent days with the vast majority agreeing with my musings.

A lot of people believe that my blog and similar musings prove that the final nail has been driven into her political coffin.

But I’m not so sure.

Few of us can claim that we have never made mistakes in our Life.  Some of us, including myself, have made some humdingers that we wish we could have taken back.  Most of us are fortunate that our worst mistakes have been mostly or completely kept out of the public eye.

But we move on, asking, pleading or demanding for forgiveness under the notion that we are only human and that we did the best we could with what we had at the time.

And now Premier Dunderdale has called for a full review of the decisions that led to the massive near Island-wide outage and the events that took place during and immediately after the event.

As a strategy guy and as a human being who has made mistakes, I offer this thought for consideration.

I posit that the people’s confidence in the electricity generation and distribution system of the Province could be restored IF the review’s terms of reference:

• include full access to all information (including not being blocked by Bill 29 legislation)
• include access to all required individuals, unhindered by the fear that their career is at risk for speaking transparently
• have clearly defined measurable outcomes set out before the review begins
• are fully transparent in execution
• are acted upon with appropriate strategy, actionable items and measurable outcomes that survive the vetting process of “why” and “how do we know” for every action defined
• provide a roadmap that illustrates that such incidents are unlikely to occur again and that the solution(s)can be measurably proven to be the best that is reasonably possible
• are designed as a fact finder / strategy creator / problem solver and not as a finger pointer / political hammer / political “saviour”
• are not a means of establishing a scapegoat who is willing to “take one for the team”
• are conducted by verifiably credible, independent experts in the industry who can be proven to be outside circles of interference and conflict of interest.

If these conditions are not met, then the review is a political tool (or an exercise of the incompetent) and will be a waste of time and money.

Premier Dunderdale is making a significant roll of the political dice, with her personal credibility, her political future and the future of her party on the line.

As someone who has made mistakes, I am willing to hold off on an emotional assessment of her upcoming actions until the measurable result potential of the review can be established.

After all, it is the measurable results as defined within the review and the execution that follows that will show Newfoundland if its Premier is willing, able and capable of learning.

Such learning is what separates leader wannabes from true leaders.

I have been strongly critical of the Premier but as a fallible human being, I am willing to put emotion and political analysis aside to see what happens next.

How about you?

Besides, if we are unwilling to explore every option available to solve the problem or if we actively block exploration of such options, don’t we become part of the problem?

If she does well, learns from the experience and produces positive, measurable results, the people of Newfoundland win.

If she doesn’t do well, she will have sealed her fate as many believe she has already done.  In that case, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of the most passionate, politically-engaged groups of people on the planet.

Bottom Line – Fairness With a Warning

She deserves an opportunity to prove she is part of the solution and not part of the problem.  And besides, since she has almost two years left in her mandate, do the people have much choice at this point but to allow her to try?

But she better not take too long (with time and past performance not being her friend) otherwise she deserves what she gets, possibly and unfortunately damaging the future of the Province in the process.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum – Intentional Redundancy? - January 10, 2014

With the Premier and the Public Utilities Board both announcing separate, independent inquiries, I wonder what happens if they produce conflicting results.

Who would break the tie?

Who would have enough knowledge and context to know which action items would produce better results?

What happens if the Government uses the deadlock as justification for not taking action or for “needing to explore things further”?

The fun begins.

Addendum 2 – Premier Dunderdale Resigns – January 21, 2014

The press has announced that Premier Dunderdale will be announcing her resignation on January 22, 2014 and that Tom Marshall will be taking over as Interim Premier.  With public opinion significantly against her, this appears to be the only viable option available to her and she is taking it.

I am reminded of this blog post I wrote over three years ago when the previous leader, Premier Danny Williams, stepped down and I warned about the lack of strong leadership candidates to succeed him - Premier Williams and His Legacy.

Whether she was responsible personally for her political demise, she received poor advice or she failed to accept good advice, the world is not kind to leaders who appear to be weak as far as being strategic, tactical, fair, competent or empathetic is concerned.

I wonder whether history will be to Kathy Dunderdale.

As for her departure, it is unknown what is best for the Province – that a leader be burned, learn from the experience and come back better than ever or to go with an untried leader who, as an unknown, could be far better or far worse.  That’s why I think “celebration” regarding her departure is both unfair on a personal level and premature.

Newfoundland–A Leadership Crisis, Not An Energy One

Where there is no vision, the people perish - Proverbs 29:18

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? - Benjamin Disraeli

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. - Publilius Syrus

<<Continued from my earlier blog post Newfoundland–Leadership (or Lack of It) in Crisis.>>

I am an optimist and I strive to see the best in every situation and in every person.

However, as my native Province of Newfoundland and Labrador enters its fifth day of rolling power blackouts, with 30,000 customers still without power after two major blackouts in 36 hours, even my eternal optimism is being strained.

Consider these items:

1. As previously noted, the Province is entering its fifth consecutive day of rolling blackouts with no official end in sight

2. On Saturday morning, the Province experienced a near Island-wide outage that put almost 200,000 customers in the dark.  At the time it happened, they had no real idea when the power would be restored.  Many were without power (and in many cases water also) for 24 hours or more.

3. After getting almost everyone back up by Sunday night, the Province suddenly had another outage that put 100,000 customers back in the dark.  The reason has not been officially identified at the time I write this (12:30pm Newfoundland time) and 30,000 customers are still without power.

4. Some towns are reporting food, heating oil and fuel shortages.

5. Schools and universities are closed until at least Wednesday.  Government offices are being closed early today as well.

6. There were emergency evacuations of senior citizen homes.

7. Some businesses, including the second largest shopping mall in the capital city of St. John’s, have closed down as pipes froze and burst without heat to protect them.

8. Some of the energy generating components used by Nalcor Energy have been identified to be years beyond their useable life. Nalcor has admitted that this creates risk for future energy production until Muskrat Falls comes into production 3-5 years down the road.

9. The Premier admitted that with such aging infrastructure, the possibility exists for the current power outage events to occur any time in the future until Muskrat Falls comes online.

10. Heavy rain warnings for some areas without power leave people wondering today if their basements will flood without electricity to power sump pumps.

11. Phone systems (landline and cell) started dying in some areas last weekend as battery backups became depleted, thus cutting off communications for some residents.

12. The Government asked towns and municipalities to implement their emergency contingency plans, including the setting up of warming centers.  Some towns declared a state of emergency.

13. For the first three days of the event, the Premier was nowhere to be found publicly and made no comments at all until her press conference on Sunday when people were crying out for their “leader” to appear.

And finally the Premier appeared

And now that she has surfaced, her focus appears to be on damage control, insisting on local and national media that there is “no crisis” and “no critical situation”.

With all due respect Premier, whenever electricity goes out for most of the Province and you admit that it could happen again at any time without warning for any duration, that has the potential to be a crisis. 

For some people, the events of this weekend were in fact a crisis (having limited or no access to food, water, heat, fuel and communications) and so it is unfair to tell people, without having context for their situation, if they were experiencing a crisis or not. 

A strong leader understands this and doesn’t make generalized statements negating or making light of specific situations without knowledge of those situations.

Adding to the confusion, some of the Premier’s messages have been mixed, indicating on Sunday that the events were not a critical situation while saying on VOCM this morning that they are.

When the Premier cites aging infrastructure being to blame, that is not the fault of the people.  It is the fault of the Government.  And when the Premier says the cold weather “caught people by surprise”, I would assume that people are paid good money for contingency planning. 

And besides, it’s Newfoundland.  Winter has been known to arrive there on occasion.

There are even rumors swirling around that the reason the Premier was publicly absent in the early days of the event is because she was secretly out of province on vacation and doesn’t want to admit it.  If (and I say if) that is true, then she also lied to the people in her press conference on Sunday when she indicated she was home during the crisis. Ahhhhh social media – a blessing and a curse when it comes to ferreting out the truth.

So now the Premier is doing the media circuit in typical CYA mode, even daring to get angry with people who challenge her leadership.

Personally, I would find it difficult to judge her leadership during the event. 

After all, she was invisible.  How can you judge what you can’t see?

However, I will agree with the Premier on one thing

She insists that there is no crisis regarding an energy shortage in the Province.

I somewhat agree with her although the potential for a real energy crisis is significant.

However, there is a more insidious crisis in the Province.

I believe there is a serious leadership crisis within the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

And as in Alcoholics Anonymous where you learn that you can’t begin working on solutions until you admit there is a problem, I believe the leadership crisis has far more dangerous ramifications than the current energy one.

To the Premier, I say (and with all due respect), leadership is not merely a title or how you see yourself.  It is how others perceive you, the actions you take and the results you produce.

To the people of Newfoundland and Labrador I say “Da arse is gone right out of ‘er, bys”.

No, I’m not referring to the Province, your storied history or the great people who live there.  You have always risen to the occasion (often with a great sense of humor) and you will again in the coming days.

I’m referring to the person who believes she is leading you.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum – Preparedness – January 6, 2014

Discussion about the impact that someone else’s choices and competencies can have on your Life brings me back to thoughts of preparedness.  Preparedness and contingency plans for personal health and safety in times of emergency can mean the difference between an event being a crisis, an inconvenience or a non-event altogether.

If you have the capability, resources and interest to be more self-reliant, then I recommend that you take steps to protect yourself as best as is reasonable from the impact of future events.

For those who do not have the capability or resources to create a stronger sense of self-reliance (despite their desire to do so), they unfortunately rely on the people who lead them.

Or attempt to.

When (not if) an event occurs, the problems of the unprepared become the problems of those who are self-reliant because as human beings, we care for those who struggle.

And so no matter how self-reliant you think you are, you are never isolated from the impact of decisions by leaders (whether self-described or real).

And that is why we all need to care more about the impact of decisions made by those who govern us.

Or attempt to.

Addendum 2 – Accountability - January 6, 2014

As of 6:00pm Newfoundland time, less than 1,000 customers remain without power, thanks to the tireless efforts of the men and women who are braving difficult conditions to restore service.

It has also been reported that 1 death and 8 injuries from carbon monoxide poisoning have been reported by Eastern Health.  No matter how much information about safety is promoted by officials, some people continue to fall prey to such accidents …. sadly.

As things get back to a sense of normalcy in the Province, it is important to not get complacent nor to allow “leaders” to duck accountability and responsibility under the guise of “we can’t talk to you right now because this is not the right time for you to be asking questions”.

There are too many times when problems never get resolved because of the interaction cycle that looks like this:

1. We’re too busy solving the problem to answer your question.

2. We’re too busy investigating the cause.

3. We’re too busy writing the report.

4. We’re too busy reviewing the report.

5. We’re too busy investigating the impact of the report.

6. I’m confused - what problem are you referring to?  Oh – that issue that we already commissioned an inquiry / investigation on?  I’ll get back to you on that.

8. You will have to follow the request for information process as clearly defined in step 7 <<if you can find it>>.

9. Sorry, I’ve got another problem to deal with right now. I’ve got priorities, you know.

And so the cycle repeats with each prior problem getting pushed down the pile and waiting to resurface at an inconvenient time.

Not keeping the issues front and center while the rawness is still being felt will allow people to get complacent only to relive the pain when the next event occurs.

Addendum 3 – Closing Thoughts – January 6, 2014

As the peak concerns fade and Newfoundland moves forward, it occurs to me why I was disappointed in the performance of the Premier.

I was in NYC during 9/11 and witnessed Mayor Giuliani work tirelessly around the clock.  He coordinated rescue, recovery and security efforts during a horrific disaster and yet was also constantly seen on the cameras and in the streets.  Our leader was involved, he was engaged and we felt the energy and inspiration that came from him.  He inspired us to pull together and move forward.

I was in Calgary during the flood of 2013 and witnessed the tireless, positive energy of Mayor Nenshi and Premier Redford, both working hard to coordinate efforts behind the scenes while simultaneously presenting focused, upbeat, inspiring personas to the people.

And then I witness Premier Dunderdale who makes an appearance several days into a difficult time for the Province and makes comments that could almost be translated as “My goodness, what’s all the noise about people?  Quit your griping and move along.”

When I see such lack of empathy, I cannot help but think of this excerpt from “History of the World – Part 1”:

So in defense of Premier Dunderdale, I was spoiled by better leaders and dared to hold her up to their standards – the standards of a leader of the 21st century.

Please accept my apologies for doing so, Premier.  Moving forward, I will lower my expectations to make your Life easier.

Addendum 4 – Thoughts on the Announced Review – January 9, 2014

After the Premier announced her plans for a transparent review of the events surrounding the power outages, I offered this musing - Everyone Makes Mistakes–Leaders Learn From Them

Addendum 5 – Premier Dunderdale Resigns – January 21, 2014

The press has announced that Premier Dunderdale will be announcing her resignation on January 22, 2014 and that Tom Marshall will be taking over as Interim Premier.  With public opinion significantly against her, this appears to be the only viable option available to her and she is taking it.

I am reminded of this blog post I wrote over three years ago when the previous leader, Premier Danny Williams, stepped down and I warned about the lack of strong leadership candidates to succeed him - Premier Williams and His Legacy.

Whether she was responsible personally for her political demise, she received poor advice or she failed to accept good advice, the world is not kind to leaders who appear to be weak as far as being strategic, tactical, fair, competent or empathetic is concerned.

I wonder whether history will be to Kathy Dunderdale.

As for her departure, it is unknown what is best for the Province – that a leader be burned, learn from the experience and come back better than ever or to go with an untried leader who, as an unknown, could be far better or far worse.  That’s why I think “celebration” regarding her departure is both unfair on a personal level and premature.

Newfoundland–Leadership (or Lack of It) in Crisis

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control. - Tom Landry

As I write this late on Saturday evening, electricity is starting to return to the Island of Newfoundland after a near Island-wide outage today.  Regardless of one’s thoughts on energy distribution, redundancy, strategy and the like, I think everyone on the Island owes a debt of gratitude to the men and women of Nalcor and Newfoundland Power who toiled ceaselessly, in lousy and sometimes unsafe conditions, to get electricity restored to the Island.

However, there is an interesting element that becomes more glaring as the Island-wide power outage progresses.

That element is the absence of any public comment or appearance by the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Premier Kathy Dunderdale, for the duration of the event.

Now one doesn’t expect her to be putting out fires in substations, climbing poles with linesmen, restarting the generators in Holyrood or doing anything else so complex (or potentially dangerous).  One assumes that she is in touch with critical leadership team members behind the scenes.

However, in times of crisis, many people want and need to hear from their leader.  For some, it brings comfort to hear from their leader even if the leader is not actually out “in the streets” addressing the issues.

But for many, to hear from their leader during a crisis shows that their leader gives a damn about them at all.

It’s all about smart strategy, being sensitive to the people they serve, the leader’s level of intelligence and their knowledge regarding the optics of ignoring the public.

I think that the Premier appears to be lacking in one or more of these.

What do you think?

To the great people of Nalcor and Newfoundland Power who fought the battles “in the trenches” today (and will continue to do so for a while), the people of Newfoundland say “Thank You”.

To Premier Dunderdale, you might as well stay where you are.  It doesn’t seem to make a difference at this point whether you have anything to say or not and it appears that you still have a lot to learn about leadership.

And besides, the Province did just fine without you.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Further Musings: As the power outage issues continued into January 6, 2014, I shared additional concerns about the leadership of Premier Dunderdale in my blog post Newfoundland–A Leadership Crisis, Not An Energy One.

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Addendum – January 5, 2014

A nervous sounding Premier Dunderdale appeared in front of the media at 12:30pm Newfoundland time on Sunday, making her first comments since the rolling blackout issues started on Thursday and the extensive Island-wide power loss occurred more than 24 hours ago.

Of all the challenges that exist for leaders, there are three critical components that separate self-described leaders from publicly recognized ones:

1. How well a leader responds during a difficult event.  The Premier was totally absent and silent for the brunt of the event and so a failing grade as a leader is the best one can offer.

2. How well a leader responds to the experiences of others.  Her dismissal of the opinions of others, including some people who actually experienced significant difficulties during the event, as merely “experiencing inconveniences” (without having specific knowledge of what they experienced) shows a lack of courtesy and empathy.  Perhaps some better communication skills would help in this area.

3. How well a leader guides and coordinates others towards solutions in the future. It is impossible to predict the future.  However, if past performance is any indicator, I would be concerned although for the people of the Province, I would like to be proven wrong.  Time will tell.

When asked during the press conference why she didn’t make any public appearances during the event, she said and I quote:

“It wasn’t a crisis.” (Even though Ed Martin, President and CEO of Nalcor Energy, indicated in the same press conference that he considered it a crisis).

“It wasn’t a critical situation.”

I’m sure the thousands of residents who huddled in the dark in extremely cold conditions, some in towns without water also, would beg to differ.  Most provincial or state leaders would have considered such an event as a critical situation, especially when it wasn’t known at the time when electricity would be restored.  The Premier also cannot offer assurances that it won’t happen again due to aging assets (the latter being a reflection of choices made by the Government).

It is easy to be a leader in good times.  True leadership is revealed during difficult times and when defining the future that leaders attempt to create.

When the Premier indicated during the press conference that she was “comfortable in her home” while others were freezing, I was reminded of the apocryphal response attributed to Marie Antoinette when told that the peasants were starving – “Let them eat cake”.

Leadership is a skill possessed by few.

Addendum 2 – January 5, 2014

A little after 9pm Newfoundland time tonight, the Holyrood generating station had an incident that immediately plunged 100,000 customers back into the dark.

While solutions are needed immediately and for the future, the Premier now seems more focused on her television / radio appearance schedule to explain her “side of the story” instead of being a leader in times of difficulty.

Real leaders lead – the rest go into automatic “CYA” mode.

4 hours after the most recent incident occurred, more than 90,000 customers are still in the dark.  They don’t want “CYA” – they want to know how their confidence in the system can be restored.

Is the Premier capable of restoring that confidence?

Time will tell but it sure makes a Provincial election almost 2 years out suddenly seem a lot larger and closer.

Meanwhile, the great men and women “out in the trenches” continue to do an amazing job while she hangs out in various media studios.

Politics and fairness don’t always see eye to eye, do they?

Addendum 3 – Premier Dunderdale Resigns – January 21, 2014

The press has announced that Premier Dunderdale will be announcing her resignation on January 22, 2014 and that Tom Marshall will be taking over as Interim Premier.  With public opinion significantly against her, this appears to be the only viable option available to her and she is taking it.

I am reminded of this blog post I wrote over three years ago when the previous leader, Premier Danny Williams, stepped down and I warned about the lack of strong leadership candidates to succeed him - Premier Williams and His Legacy.

Whether she was responsible personally for her political demise, she received poor advice or she failed to accept good advice, the world is not kind to leaders who appear to be weak as far as being strategic, tactical, fair, competent or empathetic is concerned.

I wonder whether history will be to Kathy Dunderdale.

As for her departure, it is unknown what is best for the Province – that a leader be burned, learn from the experience and come back better than ever or to go with an untried leader who, as an unknown, could be far better or far worse.  That’s why I think “celebration” regarding her departure is both unfair on a personal level and premature.

Newfoundland, Rolling Blackouts and Preparedness

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. - Carl Sagan

As the cold weather unfolds in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the local utilities are having to implement rolling blackouts in order to protect the power distribution systems in the Province.

While no one likes to deal with blackouts, the response from many people in the Province has been, depending on your perspective, ignorant or humorous.

Many have taken to social media to complain that their supper will be late, that their aquarium fish are getting cold or that the entire rolling blackout procedure is in fact a huge conspiracy by Premier Dunderdale to ensure that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will see the need for Muskrat Falls.

However, my favorite is from the ignorant people who wonder why Nalcor, the Province’s energy arm, has deliberately scheduled a rolling blackout for the coldest, highest electrical-demand day of the year.  I guess understanding correct cause-and-effect order would probably be too much for these people to understand also.

When one points out that many unlucky folks in Toronto went without power over the Christmas holidays for over a week, they don’t care.  I guess supper must have been planned to be something unusually special.

These people, as do all of us, have realities to face.

1. If we want a power distribution system, a phone system or any other type of system that never goes down, can handle any demand, etc., we do in fact have the technology to build such systems.  However, once we build them, we will then complain that our monthly bill is 5-20 times what it used to be in the good ol’ days.  When much of the new system sits idle during non-peak times, we will also complain about the waste that the utilities have burdened us with.  Balancing acceptable levels of service, peak demand capability and cost stretches the minds of the smartest people in the world – armchair engineers and accountants need not apply.

2. Despite the pleas of governments on all levels, provincial, state and federal, for all of us to have an emergency preparedness plan for ourselves, our families and our communities, most of us don’t bother.  After all, isn’t the government supposed to take care of all of our needs on demand?

3. Some day, maybe a lot sooner than we think <hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink>, a lot of things may go wrong at the same time.  When this happens, there won’t be any time for complaining – we will be too busy surviving.  And besides, there will be no one on the other end of the phone / email to listen to your complaints because they will be too busy surviving also.  Well … that’s if communication and power systems are even working when the events occur.  My money says they won’t be.

The Bottom Line

The next time we are investing more time, energy and money into planning our next vacation, our next vehicle purchase, our next mansion or our next party than on our personal emergency plan, remember that emergency preparedness starts with each of us.

Not with someone else.

And since we’re on the subject of energy, I think energy spent on our personal preparedness is far more strategic than energy spent complaining that someone else is not doing enough for us. 

A lot of very smart, very dedicated people are doing the best they can for us. Maybe we should step up by helping do the best we can also.

What do you think?

Stay warm, Newfoundland and Labrador.  You’ll survive – you have overcome much worse in your storied history.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum

As I watch many people take to social media on their battery-powered devices to complain that their power is out, I am reminded of times in my youth when the power would go out in Newfoundland.

When the power went out in those days, we were resigned to the fact that we were cut off and that we were forced to deal with each other’s company, face-to-face, until the power came back on.

We were actually forced to interact face-to-face.  Can you imagine?  Thank goodness we are protected from the horror of those barbaric days.

Addendum 2 – Advice For Aquarium Owners

For the person who wrote me a slightly nasty email informing me about the importance of their fish tank, I offer the following Public Service Announcement.

While I’m sure that aquarium fish will be fine during a brief power outage, there are two alternatives that aquarium owners who are fearful can explore.

Simple, straight-forward option:

Buy a generator in advance and keep it on standby for the fish tank.  This is easy but not very “sexy”.

Cool, techie option:

Go down in the basement or out in the shed and get your hands on a dynamo.  If you don’t have one, you can make one out of a couple of magnets, some shellacked fine copper wire and a few other odds and ends (Google will help you).  Hook it up to the rear tire on a bicycle.  Run the wires from it to a DC to AC converter.  Plug the aquarium lights and heater into the converter also.  If you built your dynamo without a commutator, it will produce AC and so you won’t need the converter.

Meanwhile, run a long piece of tubing into the aquarium filter.

Now here comes the tough part and you will need 4 people for this.

One person gets on the bicycle and inserts the tube into his mouth.  That person’s exhalations will push air through the aquarium filter.

Two people hold “the arse end” of the bicycle up so that when the rider starts pedaling, he doesn’t tow the aquarium all over the house.  As the rider pedals, the dynamo will power the aquarium light and the heater.

One person holds their smartphone for the purpose of filming the event for a subsequent YouTube upload.  Since the person will no doubt be shaking with laughter, make sure the “Steady Camera” option is on.

The fish would have been fine even if you didn’t do this.

But at least you will have a funny memory to remember the event by. :-)

Addendum 3 – January 4, 2014 - Bad to Worse

Most of the Island of Newfoundland went dark on Saturday morning when a major power distribution terminal at Sunnyside caught fire, a reminder that:

1. Nalcor needs to review its redundancy contingency, with a single point of failure taking out most of the Island.  Newfoundlanders may remember when a fire in 2006 knocked out all communication (landlines, cell phones, Internet) and services relying on these, including  911 and debit / credit card processing, for most of the Province.  Bell Aliant’s claim at the time to be “world class” regarding redundancy was pretty ridiculous given that the catastrophic failure occurred so easily with such wide impact.

2. Things can go from inconvenient to problematic very quickly.

3. We are ultimately responsible for our own needs and safety.

Murphy’s Law tends to get complex in times like this – that bad can go to worse quickly despite assurances from “experts” during the “good times” that such things are statistically improbable or “near impossible”.

But that is what personal preparedness is all about – protecting yourself from what “the experts” tell you is statistically unlikely or improbable.

Because when you are cold and dark, “I told you so” from those who are prepared brings no comfort.

The Newfoundland Government–Headed For the Garbage Can

There is a garbage culture out there, where we pour garbage on people. Then the pollsters run around and take a poll and say, do you smell anything? - Bob Woodward

I have been inundated with emails, comments (only a few have been approved yet), threats and just about everything else as a result of my blog post The Power of the Four-Poster Interview, where I describe allegations of inappropriate behavior on the part of Newfoundland and Labrador Government Minister Joan Shea and some questionable public service appointments that may have been influenced by her.

As Premier Dunderdale’s Government continues to slide into oblivion in the polls, I’ve got some bad news for people who assume that a new government will automatically be better.

Here’s why.

The diagram below demonstrates a very simplified view of an organizational theory known as organized anarchy – a view of how bureaucracies (including governments) tend to operate.

Organized anarchy is also known as garbage can theory.

Here’s how it works, expressed in an extremely simplified form and expanding on John Kingdon’s original “three streams” theory.

In making decisions, large bureaucracies often rely on five key elements:

• A random collection of problems, some new but many old and still unresolved
• A random collection of pre-canned or partially completed solutions, including policy, legislation, responses to external events, etc.
• Feelings looking for opportunities in which they might be aired or leveraged
  
• A random collection of participants at different times that may include voters, politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, other governments, corporations and anyone else with an interest in the affairs of the government.
• Random windows of opportunity when it would be useful to produce an action such as pass legislation, promote policy, react to external events, announce partnerships, etc.

While people believe that politicians are actually taking prioritized, meaningful, wilful action in response to pressing issues, they are in fact submitting themselves to the Russian Roulette process of garbage can theory.

What comes out of the garbage can in terms of results is largely dependent on what is in the garbage can at the moment.

In essence you have a collection of pre-canned solutions looking for problems, problems looking for solutions, people looking to be busy with something and feelings looking for causes  …. with the notion that any given moment in time might prove to be a good time to bring all these elements together (as long as they are in the garbage can at that moment) to produce something of value.

Now in truth, there are ways to influence the results of the garbage can process, where people with specific skills can guide the result somewhat coherently but there is never a guarantee of total control or perfect predictability of the outcome.

But as I look at the leaders in place right now within the Government, I am not sure that any of those present within the elected ranks have the skills to actually be that guiding influence.  Bullies, people not familiar with the process, people who rely on luck and (with apologies in advance)  people who are not that bright cannot be considered candidates for success in this arena.

And you know what they say about “garbage in, garbage out”.

Which leads me to a second problem that the Government has … or maybe it’s a problem that the electorate has.

Politicians can only be successful when they keep two masters happy at the same time, the voter and the bureaucrat, as illustrated below.

The bureaucrat needs the politician to be the buffer between the bureaucrats, with their long-term strategic and tactical intentions for the government remaining mostly unknown to the voter (and therefore not be interfered with by the voter) and the voters themselves with their expectations of the government.

The voter, meanwhile, needs the politician to deliver everything they demand as promised and as soon as possible.

When a politician behaves, he or she is rewarded with the support of the voter at the ballot box and the support of the bureaucrat with information, guidance and the data necessary for the politician to do their job.

When they don’t behave, not delivering what each of the two coalitions (voter-politician, politician-bureaucrat) requires, then the voters and bureaucrats remove their respective support and the politician’s career flatlines.

With voter and bureaucrat needs and intentions often being polar opposites, the politician is left with the near-impossible job of pleasing both masters.  Such a task is akin to balancing a bowling ball on the top of a broomstick - their efforts look very impressive early on but eventually the bowling ball falls, injuring or killing the person who was attempting the impossible balancing act.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, it appears that the politicians in power are rapidly losing control of both coalitions and with that comes inevitable doom for the current government unless the politician, as the link between the two coalitions shown above, can restore confidence with both masters.

The darker truth

The difficulty here is that unless voters and bureaucrats collaborate directly, it doesn’t really matter what government is in power.  Such a coalition is not possible, since what the bureaucrats work on is too complex for voters to understand (and they don’t want voters to interference with their plans) and what the voters want may or may not be in alignment with what the bureaucrats see as the long-term needs of the province.

And so it is difficult to see the win for the voters in the current government or in any subsequent one.

If what matters in any measurable way depends on a conversation between the voter and bureaucrat that will never be allowed to happen (or which is just not feasible) , can it be posited that the comedy and tragedy that is public politics in Newfoundland and Labrador is in fact just theater?

Who knows?

Meanwhile, the Government will continue to play Russian Roulette with the people and with their own political future.

Sadly, when one plays Russian Roulette, one can’t be assured that the hammer will always fall on an empty cylinder.

The real tragedy is ….

When the gun goes off, who is the victim, the Government officials who move on to other plum appointments or the people who are left behind to sort out the mess and wonder what happens next?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

The Power of the Four-Poster Interview

Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.- Oscar Wilde

Obviously, I did a couple of things right on the old casting couch. - Jason Bateman

I guess by now you have figured from these quotes what a “four-poster interview” is.

If you haven’t, well ….

I read about the most recent Newfoundland and Labrador Government cabinet shuffle with some interest and concern for the future of that great, storied province.

For starters, Premier Dunderdale added two new cabinet appointees, Steve Kent and Dan Crummel, indicating that “they were chosen for their enthusiasm”.

I wonder if other credentials such as qualifications were considered or if that would have muddied up the selection process or perhaps overwhelmed the people making the selections.

Speaking of qualifications, the other surprise was that Joan Shea continues to be a Minister in the Newfoundland and Labrador Government.

Why am I surprised?

Back in January of 2009, Minister Shea (then Education Minister Burke) attracted some negative attention by appointing Terry Styles to chair the College of the North Atlantic Board of Governors.

The reason it attracted negative attention in the public eye was because Mr. Styles was a leading contributor to Minister Burke’s election campaigns at the time.

For at least one family and some residents of the Stephenville area, it attracted negative attention for a different reason.

It was because Mr. Styles at the time was allegedly engaged in a “personal” relationship with Minister Burke, even though they were both married to other people at the time.

How do I know this?

I know this because I know his former wife and have awareness of her former job working with Minister Burke (now Minister Shea) and the trappings of how the Minister and Mr. Styles came to know each other.  Mr. Styles’ former wife also had the courage to share her personal journal with me, documenting the events that took place.

Now one would think that an alleged relationship between Mr. Styles and Minister Burke would present a conflict of interest scenario but under the Newfoundland and Labrador Government’s conflict of interest guidelines (Conflict of Interest Act, 1995), one can see that there is a legal gray zone here.  It discusses appointments made when a spouse or cohabiting, conjugal partner stand to benefit from an appointment where a government minister is involved but if you are allegedly just having “a relationship”, the law is open to interpretation.

It appears that legality in its purest form trumps ethics, morals and common sense.

Fast forward to June of 2012 where Mr. Styles was appointed as the Chairman of Nalcor and which I wrote about in The Newfoundland and Labrador Government–The Latest Newfie Joke.

In that blog post, I wondered how a man running a company with 10 employees and little if any profits (according to his former wife who I’m told was 50% owner around that time) could suddenly find himself running a Crown Corporation with over 800 employees and 2011 revenues of $730 million (allegedly because of his astute business background).

At the time of his appointment to Nalcor, I was told that he allegedly didn’t have his high school diploma (I am not certain of his current education credentials).  While it is true that Bill Gates didn’t have a degree when he founded Microsoft, there is a big difference between founding a company and driving it to success without formal education and being handed the reins of one without any.

Could it be possible that his alleged ongoing relationship with Minister Shea had an influence on his appointment to Nalcor?

I’m sure it’s all good

After all, between the two unusual appointments, Mr. Styles divorced his wife and Minister Shea divorced her husband and they allegedly found comfort in each other’s company.

But one can easily wonder if an alleged “personal” relationship could be a major contributing factor to transitioning from being the owner of a little-known small-town company to suddenly becoming Chair of an organization running multi-billion dollar projects such as the Muskrat Falls project.

For most people, it would be considered winning a career lottery, as the options opened up by such a “win” are unlimited in potential for Mr. Styles.

However, if such an alleged relationship did play a major factor in his sudden meteorical rise (no pun intended) to the top, it creates a concern for me.

It makes me wonder if the Newfoundland and Labrador Government is doing the best it can to select the best people for the job, whatever that job is.

How will we know if such appointments are made based more on one’s “private performance” than one’s public performance and qualifications, especially with the Province’s draconian privacy legislation, Bill 29, making Newfoundland and Labrador one of the least transparent governments in the world?  I wrote about this in We All Answer To Someone .. Or Do We? 

In addition, how can we know when the Premier flies off the handle when someone even questions the appointment as described here?   Such feigned anger is a common attention redirection technique that I wrote about in the unrelated post Democrats: Kicking Our Butt Instead of Kissing It.

I wonder if governments are so brazen that they don’t care about public perception anymore, with conflict of interest guidelines being more of a public relations exercise (or a source of irritation) rather than a legal, ethical and moral code implemented to ensure that people don’t benefit unfairly and that competition for public positions is as transparent as possible.

If this alleged relationship supposedly created benefits for one or both of these individuals, don’t they realize that each of them are being used by the other, each being vulnerable when the next opportunity for a climb up the ladder of power becomes available to the other?

After all, past performance is a strong predictor of future behavior.

In the meantime, if all of this transpired as it seems to have, then three victims remain ….

• The former family of Mr. Styles, some of whom continue to suffer as a result of what transpired
• The former family of Minister Shea
• The great people of Newfoundland and Labrador who have no idea if the people being appointed or elected to represent their interests are in fact the best people for the job or if they are more focused on feeding their own interests.

And to think that I spent a weekend with the Minister and others at a leadership conference in Stephenville just months before Mr. Styles’ first appointment.  Had I known she was interviewing for a new position (and speaking of enthusiasm), I would have been happy to whip out my qualifications. :-)

But seriously, having had access to Mrs. Style’s personal journal, there is a line in the journal that really struck me.  Here it is, shared with her permission:

Yes, it is debilitating to suffer an ended marriage, but it is cumulatively debilitating to have a Minister in the House of Assembly, the supposed “Honorable”, the supposed “provincial advocate” for those of us who are struggling with our disabilities, to behave in such a distasteful, neglectful, and faithless manner.

This is a line from a wounded heart that speaks volumes to each of us, to the Minister and to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Bottom Line

I wrote to a number of officials in private about this (see the blog addendum).  If my private query had been responded to instead of being ignored, I would have accepted any answer on the respondent’s “word and honor” and moved on. 

I think, however, that silence invites suspicion and a need to explore this further.

What do you think?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

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Addendum

Out of fairness to all parties, I sent a note to the Premier, Minister Shea, Lorraine Michael and the interim leader of the Liberal Party, Eddie Joyce, regarding this back in August of 2013 and I invited their comments on the matter. 

Here is my original note:

Dear Honorable Premier Dunderdale,

Word on the street in Stephenville these days is that the Honorable Minister Shea was dating Mr. Styles prior to and during his appointment as Chairman of Nalcor.

I wanted to bring this to your attention and invite your comment on it.  I have copied the leaders of the Liberal and NDP party as well as Minister Shea in case they also have a comment on the matter.

If the story is not true, then it is in your (and Minister Shea’s) best interests to refute the story before it grows.

If the story is true, I would think that this represents a serious conflict of interest and should be investigated.

I welcome your comments and look forward to your response.

Take care and create a great day, Honorable Premier.

Yours respectfully,

Harry Tucker

A member of the Premier’s staff responded with this note on August 20, 2013 (the only response to my query):

Dear Mr. Tucker:

Thank you for your correspondence to Premier Kathy Dunderdale. Please be assured that your comments will be given due consideration.

Kindest Regards,

Chantalle Hull

Office of the Premier

Minister Shea and the other recipients had no comment at all.

And no additional comments have been received from the Premier’s office since.

Allegations that are wrong or inaccurate, especially ones with potentially damaging information, are usually easily and quickly refuted. 

Add to this the fact that what I have discussed in this blog is only the tip of the iceberg, where silence could be fatal for some careers as it invites additional information to be revealed.

The Bottom Line

Allegations that people choose not to comment on are either not important enough or too politically loaded to touch.

I wonder which category this story falls into.

I wonder if the great people of Newfoundland and Labrador care.

I think they should.

What do you think?

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Addendum 2 – October 10, 2013

Do you know what’s equally disturbing?

When I make a tweet like this 12 hours in advance of this blog post coming out (not identifying the Minister in question at all):

And I see tweets like this appear after my tweet (hours before the blog post appears):

So it’s not a secret, since this individual clearly had awareness of the Minister in question and her locale.

So the question becomes …..

If people already know this, why don’t people demand better?

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Addendum 3 – October 10, 2013

After receiving a number of emails today from many people warning me of my safety on a number of levels from legal to physical, I can make only one observation.

When one analyzes a series of events (already covered at different times by the mainstream media) with the intention of requesting public accountability, when one discusses things already known by many in the community where the events allegedly took place (as demonstrated with the tweets above) and when people are still afraid for my safety for writing this despite these facts (and fearing for their own safety should their comments become public), I have to wonder if Newfoundland and Labrador is governed as a democracy or as something else.

It is a sad day for democracy when public accountability is not only something to be avoided but which is something worth attacking others for in order to prevent transparency and to ensure status quo.

Insecure people, people with damaged egos or people with something to withhold from others hide behind threats and intimidation.  People confident in themselves, their facts and their ability to communicate these facts use civil discourse to make their point known to others.

A national media reporter informed me that every time they run a story about the Newfoundland and Labrador government, lawyers follow up immediately ordering them to take the story down.  Where is the transparency in this?

That being said, time will tell if democracy is alive and well in the great province that I once called home or if they are just pretending.

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Addendum 4 – October 11, 2013

Someone whose opinion I respect highly suggested that perhaps the Minister was used by Mr. Styles and that she may have potentially fallen into a conflict of interest somewhat accidentally.

So instead of two conspirators, there may in fact only be one conspirator and one guilty of the crime of following their heart (albeit in poor fashion with damaging repercussions).

People in positions of power must be constantly vigilant that they are not being “played” by others since the results, rewards and punishments often don’t discriminate as to the original motivation for participation in an event.

I hadn’t thought of that – an intriguing variation.

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Addendum 5 – October 12, 2013

After being informed yesterday that Premier Dunderdale’s Chief of Staff, Ross Reid, was making inquiries into my background and motivation, I sent him this email:

Dear Chief of Staff Reid,

Thank you for taking the time to make inquiries regarding my background and my motivation regarding the recent blog that I wrote.  The motivation for my blog was not political, was not backed by any media or anything else.  It was simply a desire to request  transparency on the part of the Government in light of the fact that my private inquiries for same were ignored.

As a long time public servant, you have always done your best to serve the people of Canada and the great Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and I believe that you strive to ensure transparency in how  governments manage their affairs.

To assist your understanding of my background, I am a strategy advisor to a number of Fortune 25 organizations in the US.  My political leanings are on the Conservative side and I believe that Conservative policies are the only sustainable ones in the current political climate.

As you may or may not know, I made private inquiries with the Government regarding what I believe are conflict of interest concerns on behalf of Minister Shea and nobody cared to answer.  You and I both know that hiding from an answer suggests a problem and ever-increasing interest in my blog suggests the same.

If you are able to provide a  satisfactory reply to my original query (which is all I wanted originally) and the supposition in my blog, I would be quite content.  I have no axe to grind with the Government of the Province or any members of it, as I believe that Conservative policies are the best policies for what the Province needs right now.

That being said, it is critical that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador see their government operating in the best way possible, especially with the Government being two years from an election.

I thank you for your many years of public service and I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours most respectfully,

Harry Tucker

I await his reply.

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Addendum 6 – Closure (for now)  – October 18, 2013

I’ve been overwhelmed by emails from bureaucrats in the government, based on this post and the post The Newfoundland Government–Headed For the Garbage Can, confirming many things and offering details I wasn’t aware of.

But surprisingly and not, I received no response from Mr. Reid.

Oh well – election time is not that far away.

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Addendum 7 – Terry Styles Resigns – March 28, 2014

On March 15th, after receiving notification from multiple parties, I tweeted the following:

It was revealed today that Mr. Styles had resigned effective March 14, 2014, corroborating what those sources had told me earlier.  No reason was given for his departure.

Could this blog have played a role?  I have no idea. Perhaps the NL Government will be more transparent in their high-profile hiring moving forward and more sensitive to managing public optics.

However, when one sees tweets like this ….

…. then one realizes that a course in optics management is necessary for some Government officials.

Or is it a course in character?

The problem is that the latter can’t be learned in a semester.

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Revising Expectations of Politicians

One of the things that people love to complain about is how politicians let them down, either not delivering on what they promised, not delivering on what we expected of them or not delivering on what we thought they had promised.

It was for this reason that I was struck by the naked (perhaps accidental) honesty of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Finance Minister, Jerome Kennedy, in a recent interview.

James McLeod recently interviewed the Honorable Minister on how well the Progressive Conservative government in Newfoundland and Labrador was delivering on the promises it had laid out in its Blue Book prior to the last provincial election.  During the interview, Mr. Kennedy said something stunningly transparent when it came to meeting the “promises” laid out in the Blue Book while at the same time contradicting his leader, Premier Dunderdale.

Leading up to the provincial election in 2011, Premier Dunderdale referred to the material in the Blue Book as “promises” to the citizens of the Province as noted in this CBC report.

But in this recent interview between Mr. McLeod and Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Kennedy made these curious remarks (see the link for the full conversation):

---

McLeod: Do you think that the government can, with its fiscal situation being what it is, make good on all those promises before 2015?

Kennedy: Well, I’m not aware of the all of the promises or, excuse me, all of the commitments that were in the Blue Book

---

McLeod: Can we afford to do the things that your party promised to do in 2011?

Kennedy: You used the word promise. I’m not sure that the Blue Book can be described as a promise. It outlines a platform of initiatives ….…… It’s a blueprint or a platform, as opposed to an absolute promise that we will do things.

---

And with those interesting comments, we must come to a couple of conclusions.

1. Senior ministers and politicians in general, once in power, can toss out their “promises”, forgetting them altogether as the Honorable Minster professes to not even know what’s in the platform documents used by his party to win the last election.

2. The word “promise” as used by many (not all) politicians is merely a suggestion and not a “promise” as we interpret it.  Many people have known this for years but it is refreshing to hear a senior politician admit it. :-)

And with the open admission that a politician’s interpretation of the word “promise” differs drastically than our own (shocking, yes I know), we need to change our approach when it comes to our expectations of politicians.

We need to forget about what we can expect from elected officials since once we have two dictionaries in places, all bets are off.

And in the meantime, we need to raise our expectations of ourselves, apply better levels of scrutiny of the candidates before us and raise the bar in how we select our representatives.

For if we don’t, we might think we are disappointed in the people we elect when in fact, we are merely disappointed in ourselves.

We just don’t recognize the subtle difference.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum

Will Rogers once said “A fool and his money are soon elected”.  When people are elected because of the gullibility, apathy or indifference of the electorate, I wonder who the real fool is. :-)

Does Premier Dunderdale Enjoy Pornography?

More than likely she doesn’t and frankly I don’t care what she thinks of it.

However, the scuttlebutt developing in my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Premier’s interpretation of guilty by association when it comes to social media automatically implies that she does.

Doesn’t it?

Earlier this week, MHA Gerry Rogers was tossed from the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature because she was a member of an anti-Dunderdale Facebook group, a group in which a couple of stupid people made threats of violence against the Premier.

Threats against ANYONE have no place in society, especially against the men and women who give up many things personally and professionally in order to serve in public office.

However, because Ms. Rogers was a member of this group, she was informed that any comment by anyone in the group is considered to be automatically endorsed and condoned by all members of the group, including Ms. Rogers.

When the House therefore demanded an apology from Ms. Rogers for the threats she didn’t make (since she was considered guilty by association), she was removed from the House.

The Premier made a big fuss about how we should always be cognizant of who we associate with in social media, after which she had to deal with the embarrassment that she was following a porn account on Twitter.  Her embarrassment led her to close her Twitter account altogether instead of doing what most of us would do, blocking the offending account in question.

Now if I were to follow the Premier’s reasoning for punishing Ms. Rogers by association, I could state that one of the following is true:

1. The Premier enjoys pornography

2. The Premier enjoyed it for a time but stopped enjoying it this week

3. The Premier (and/or her handlers)  have no understanding of social media and the difficulties associated with managing one’s reputation in a world where anyone can state anything at any time.

Please make your selection now.

Regardless of whether Ms. Rogers was in the group wilfully (to monitor what others were saying) or she was enrolled without her knowledge, to place the words of an ignorant person into her mouth doesn’t make sense at all.

After all, heaven help us if we are all guilty based on a collision of the principles of guilty by association and 6 degrees of separation.

There wouldn’t be an innocent person left in the room …. or in the world.

As a proud Newfoundlander, I have heard many “Newfie” jokes.

But the worst (or best, depending on perspective) Newfie jokes of all are the ones where someone didn’t set out to make us laugh but did anyway.

As Premier Dunderdale did this week.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum – Leadership Observation

I could have titled this blog “Premier Dunderdale’s Favorite Porn Sites” or something nastier.

However, to do so would have unfairly associated the Premier with the subject at hand and judged her without data, without facts, without merit - unfairly and unprofessionally.

Most importantly, it would have unfairly judged her character.

I think we must be careful not to jump to conclusions or to intentionally sully anyone’s character before we know the facts.

What do you think, Premier?

Addendum – April 23, 2013

The Speaker of the House of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has now offered an official apology to MHA Gerry Rogers.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Government–The Latest Newfie Joke

** This blog was originally posted in June of 2012.  Allegations surfaced in August of 2013 suggesting improprieties on the part of Minister Joan Shea, as noted in the addendum. **

As a proud Newfoundlander, born and raised in the distinct culture that it is, I am mostly indifferent to what is known as “the Newfie Joke”.

For the few who have never heard of them, they are usually jokes that poke fun at the intelligence or common sense levels of Newfoundlanders.  Some Newfoundlanders, with the strong sense of humor they are known for, have embraced this self-deprecating humor while some tell the jokes with a mainlander substituted for the Newfoundlander being poked fun at.

Whether one finds them funny, insulting or are indifferent about them, there is a new Newfie joke making the rounds that has me greatly concerned for the people I care about in that great province.

I call that joke the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

In recent weeks, great controversy erupted over new legislation (Bill 29) that severely limits the ability for citizens and the Auditor General to have any insight into the goings-on within the Government.  I wrote about this in my blog “We All Answer To Someone … Or Do We?”.

Now the Government finds itself in a new controversy with the appointment of Terry Styles as Chairman of Nalcor.

Nalcor is a major energy producer and distributor in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, with more than 800 employees and 2011 revenues of approximately $730 million.

While Mr. Styles may be a wonderful business man, he runs a beer distribution company in Stephenville (a small town in Newfoundland, population 6719) with 10 employees.

There’s a “small” leap in qualifications there that leaves me scratching my head.  When I think that the Chairman will influence major projects, including offshore oil exploration and the multi-billion dollar Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, I am concerned about what Premier Dunderdale is thinking.

Discussion in the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature produced this exchange on June 18th, 2012:

Opposition Leader Dwight Ball questioned the premier on the appointments.  "What possible skills and experience were you looking for from those people so that they could assist the management team at Nalcor?" said Ball.

"Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that I find this line of questioning offensive," Dunderdale responded.  "Why would anybody cast aspersions on me for, and question, my ability to be premier."

"Mr. Speaker, we're ordinary Newfoundlanders and Labradorians [and] we know how to serve the people of our province," said Dunderdale.

With all due respect, Premier Dunderdale, when a leader makes decisions that are of high impact and visibility, it is completely normal to have to justify those decisions.  A strong, capable leader knows this.

In this case, the Opposition Leader was asking an obvious question about the abilities of the appointees.  We all have to demonstrate relevant skills in anything we apply for.  Claiming as she did that Life experience trumps relevant skills and knowledge borders on ludicrous when the leap is as large as it appears in this situation.

For Premier Dunderdale to take such a question so personally so quickly is a warning that the Leadership Quotient in the upper echelons of the Government is mediocre at best.

Maybe, just maybe, when convinced by the bureaucrat puppeteers who pull the strings in the NL government that she should run for Premier, she didn’t realize that she would have to defend the decisions of the puppet masters who, when they find decisions being challenged, fade into the background and leave one to defend one’s honor, intelligence and capabilities.

Alone.

Even worse, Premier Dunderdale doesn’t realize that she has been set up.  Former Premier Williams stepped down quickly, leaving her to make a number of blunders that will become her legacy.  Meanwhile, Dean MacDonald, a good personal friend of Danny Williams, will take over the Liberal Party and lead them to an “election upset” over Premier Dunderdale and her party in the next election.

It is a brilliant strategy set up by a lot of brilliant people.

Sadly, in the case of Premier Dunderale, if one allows one’s self to be set up in this way, then one’s abilities as a leader are open to questioning anyway.

And when the Premier reacts so strongly to questions that should be anticipated, she already knows this also.

Meanwhile, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador are left to wonder where this leaves them.

So there’s a new round of Newfie Jokes originating from the Legislature of Newfoundland and Labrador but they are more pathetic than funny and no one’s laughing this time.

Well .. most people aren’t.

Except for those who stand to benefit, now and in the future.

Unfortunately, those who benefit aren’t the common citizens of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

And with that, the last laugh’s on them … at their expense.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum: Out of respect for the current Liberal Opposition Leader Dwight Ball and to acknowledge the many emails I received praising his work as Opposition Leader, I agree with them that the choice of Dean MacDonald as the next leader of the Liberal Party is not a given and that Mr. Ball may lead the Liberals in the next election.  That being said, I believe the rest of my blog stands as noted. :-)  Thank you to everyone who has written in to make this point.

Addendum – August 15, 2013

Someone suggested to me that Minister Joan Shea (formerly Minister Joan Burke) and Mr. Styles were dating when the appointment to Nalcor was made.  I hope this is not true, as it would represent a serious conflict of interest should it be fact.  I reached out to Premier Dunderdale and Minister Shea for clarification but have not received a reply from either.