The reason Williams doesn't accept his pay cheque is that he's made a fortune by selling his father's cable company to Rogers and doesn't need the money. He'd been sucking cable users dry for decades before that to build up his little bank vault.

And you seem to overlook Joey, who was the best thing that happened to Newfoundland because he won the province the lottery by hooking up with Canada. Perpetual money from Ottawa, year in an year out. But now that the possibility is arriving that Newfoundland could become a "have" province, it seems the rules don't apply.

Martin was blackmailed into writing a deal that was blatantly unfair to the rest of the country and "have" provinces that have been carrying Newfoundland since it became our 10th province. He wanted the votes and didn't have the balls to stand up to Williams. Harper is the first PM to tell the provincial blowhards where to get off.

But back on topic, this has become a constant theme of belly-aching. And every time AC has attempted to come up with a solution, but the loads never materialize. Well, that's the tyranny of the marketplace. Perhaps if Williams would talk to the sealers and have them stop their slaughter, the province might gain some stature among the very people it hopes to lure as tourists. However, for the moment, there is a world-wide boycott launched by various wildlife and animal rights organizations of both fish from the province, as well as tourism to it. This may well have contributed to the lack of loads for both airlines this summer, since Europeans are known to be rather finnicky about what countries they visit when these campaigns are on.