Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams gives an interview at his St. John's office on Nov. 13, 2009.Kevin Van Paassen
As Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Danny Williams has shepherded and vividly communicated his province's rise to prosperity, after decades of comparative poverty, both before and after it joined Canada in 1949. Mr. Williams' political success has few peers: an unprecedented majority of the popular vote in the elections of 2003 and 2007.
Mr. Williams was not beloved throughout Canada, and some of his interventions came at the expense of national unity. But he was admired in Newfoundland and Labrador, and throughout Atlantic Canada, because he asserted his people's interests vigorously. And in his earlier personal success in business and in his political style, "Danny Millions" embodied the kind of confidence Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and Atlantic Canadians generally, see as an essential precondition for the region's development.
The timing of his resignation after seven years is explicitly related to the Lower Churchill hydroelectricity agreement with Nova Scotia, Nalcor Energy and Emera Inc., in which New Brunswick is also expressing its interest - one of the most substantial acts of co-operation among Atlantic provinces in history. Mr. Williams deserves the lion's share of credit for taking a tough stance with Quebec and cutting the Gordian knot that had stopped previous administrations from exploiting one of the great untapped natural resources in Canada.
But Mr. Williams' petulance - his sense that he did not have to play by anyone else's political rules - could come at a cost. His high-handed nationalization of lands belonging to AbitibiBowater Inc. led to a successful claim under NAFTA, and the federal government had to foot a $130-million bill. When Paul Martin's federal government threatened to include offshore oil and gas royalties in equalization calculations, to the detriment of the province, he took down Canadian flags from public buildings. When a similar fight arose with Stephen Harper, Mr. Williams told voters in the upcoming federal election to vote "Anybody But Conservative." The voters dutifully did so, but the fissures in federal-provincial relations deepened.
Mr. Williams transformed the mentality of the province. The underlying conditions will take longer to evolve. Newfoundland and Labrador may have a positive economic growth trajectory, and is no longer receiving equalization payments, but it is still heavily resource-dependent. It has 10,000 fewer residents today than when Mr. Williams took office, with more and more outport communities emptying out. Though the province's out-migration trend has reversed in the past two years, keeping young people and attracting new immigrants remains the biggest challenge in the province and the region.
More than anything, Mr. Williams was a charismatic personality. He dominated the political landscape of the region, and was a significant national player as premiers in other provinces came and went. Like former Atlantic Canadian premiers Richard Hatfield, Frank McKenna and Joe Ghiz, he punched above his weight. And Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can be thankful for that.