The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Insiders #nlpoli
The story of the 2014 provincial Conservative Party leadership contest is a study in politics on its most basic level. It is a story of those with influence and of those who have less of it or none at...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Premier Peek-a-boo #nlpoli
Pretty well every Conservative who is anyone in the province turned up on Wednesday night at Danny Breen’s by-election headquarters. Every Conservative, that is, except the fellow who is the...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Experience still counts #nlpoli
Now that Frank Coleman is the de facto leader of the provincial Conservative party, there’s no reason why Coleman can’t be in the Premier’s Office with his new cabinet in place when the House of...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Further Adventures of Premier Peek-a-boo #nlpoli
Frank Coleman didn’t speak to reporters about the Conservative Party by-election loss in Virginia Waters. Someone wrote up a prepared statement and sent it to reporters later on. The Western Star...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Legitimacy and Credibility #nlpoli
In the crude, modern way of putting things, shit got real for Premier-in-waiting Frank Coleman on Friday. The Telegram’s James McLeod tweeted Coleman’s response to a question about whether Coleman...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Crazy Train Wreck #nlpoli
Premier-in-waiting Frank Coleman was off in Toronto on Monday – reputedly undergoing intensive media training - and so he wasn’t willing to talk to reporters about anything, least of all the...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Four days late and a few dollars short #nlpoli
Premier-in-waiting Frank Coleman did speak to the Telegram on Monday evening about the controversy that has been raging all weekend over his views on abortion and what that might mean for public policy...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Strategically Unwise and other political...
Depending on which interview you listened to on Tuesday, Tom Marshall would be hanging around as Premier until the end of the summer. At least. That’s the VOCM story. Marshall will run the place for...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Prepared Statements and Unprepared Politicians...
CBC Radio’s St. John’s Morning Show is so off-put by politicians who issue prepared statements that they’ve found a former journalist turned journalism professor to discuss the growing trend not only...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Decisive Leadership in Action #nlpoli
How hard can it be for someone to figure out when they want to start a job? Seriously. A job you want, mind you, not one you have been forced to take a gunpoint. Apparently, Frank Coleman has finally...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: HVP controversy deepens #nlpoli
[In a hole with a jack-hammer update at bottom] The controversy around Humber Valley Paving got worse for the provincial Conservatives on Monday as transportation minister Nick McGrath confirmed that...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Power and Influence #nlpoli
If nothing else, the controversy over the sweet heart deal the provincial Conservatives cut with Frank Coleman’s son at Humber Valley Paving should dispel the fairy tale that Coleman and his family are...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Promises, promises… 2003 contracts and tendering...
In light of the controversy about Humber Valley Paving, here are some of the Conservative promises made in 2003 about contracts and public tendering, controls on political donations, special committees...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Tom Marshall’s puppet government #nlpoli
Whatever is going on in the Premier’s Office these days, it isn’t an orderly and organized transition from one premier to another. That’s certain. Every transition from one premier to another since...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Friday Night Massacre #nlpoli
Frank Coleman recorded CBC’s On Point with Peter Cowan on Thursday or Friday afternoon. During the show, Coleman acknowledged that he had a personal financial interest in a decision by transport...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: McGrath comments “preposterous”: surety...
From the industry association representing companies that provide sureties and other bonds, released May 26, 2014: News Release For Immediate Release: May 26, 2014 Recent remarks by Nick McGrath,...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Contrasting Speeches #nlpoli
Liberal leader Dwight Ball and Conservative leader-designate Frank Coleman delivered speeches in St. John’s last week and you couldn’t have scripted more startling contrasts. Ball delivered a speech at...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Coleman, Marshall, and the Broken Chain of...
The Telegram’s James McLeod started a story that appeared on 26 May with the following sentence: Premier-designate Frank Coleman says he wants to run a premier’s office with fewer people, and he’s...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Grimes on Frank, Tom, and the Kami project #nlpoli
Roger Grimes’ is through his heart surgery and nice vacation and that has left him with a new vigour. He called VOCM’s BackTalk on Tuesday to talk about the Kami project, the Friday Night Massacre,...
View ArticleThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: No sense of irony at all #nlpoli
The smart guy they could have had – but frigged over twice - told Canadian Press: “The understanding of the [provincial political] climate isn’t as sophisticated as it should be for those who are...
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