Too soon for champagne

Eye on Labrador -

I've been waiting for it for a long time now.

And then, not too long ago, I found it: Danny Williams has decided to scale back the planned "have" party that was to be thrown across the province later this month.

Logically, Williams said that party will be scaled back because of the economic downturn. After all, imagine how the "have" party would have gone down in Lab. West or Grand Falls-Windsor. Lead balloon, anyone?

But I think there's more to it than that. Williams, it seems, has fought and lost his Atlantic

Accord battle with Stephen Harper and maybe the same math that deemed Newfoundland and Labrador a "have" province late last year will soon determine that the province has returned to being a "have-not". I maybe wrong on that - math was never my strong point and I find the calculations used to determine who's a "have" and who's a "have-not" difficult to figure out.

So the song that became a YouTube hit - Yes We Have! - that asked "who in their wildest dreams would have thought that Canada's youngest province would be as good or better off than any other province?" is also on the backburner for now, I'd imagine. And I doubt we'll see Williams holding a glass of champagne toasting the good times anytime soon.

Now don't get me wrong. There's no way Williams could have forseen what was going to happen to the global economy and how much of a devastating effect it would have on every community across the planet. It was, however, naive of him to underestimate the fallout of the ABC campaign. I mean, was it really a shock to see Harper get some payback?

It's my guess that the "have" celebration will quietly devolve into such a non-event that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will barely even know it happened. Like the rest of the country, the people have bills to pay, mortgage obligations to meet and are spending a lot of time worrying about whether their job is about to be swallowed up in the ever-growing black hole that is the recession.

And speaking of non-events, it would be remiss of me not to throw in a comment or two about the Williams plan to run transmission lines through Gros Morne National Park. The plan attracted a storm of criticism from users of the park and conservationists last week.

But all you nature lovers and Gros Morne fans need to relax, take a deep breath and look at the big picture for a moment, because there's two reasons why this will probably never happen.

Firstly, it's a national park, so that means the feds have the final say on whether this is a good idea. If Harper is in power (pardon the pun) when the time comes to make the Gros Morne decision, there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of it happening. It's just too easy an opportunity for Harper to annoy Williams yet again.

And the second, and by far more important reason why it won't happen, is this: the Innu people of central and coastal Labrador haven't even voted yet on whether they will accept the province's New Dawn deal.

Think that's just a matter of time or that the Innu are just holding out for more money? Think again. For years the province has been trying to reach a deal with the Innu people and for years deals have fallen apart because of political fighting inside Sheshatshiu and Natuashish. A vote on the New Dawn deal has been put on indefinite hold and there's no evidence I've seen that indicates the Innu are any closer to reaching a consensus on the Lower Churchill than they have been in the past.

So it's very premature to think that Newfoundland and Labrador will "have" a Lower Churchill/Gros Morne transmission line problem in the future. Right now, the province doesn't "have" any agreement from the stakeholders who "have" all the legal power, so they don't actually even "have" a new hydro project at all.

Let's talk about this again when the Innu sign on.

When will that be? Your guess is as good as mine.