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This editorial critiques how academic work can turn silence into proof of consent. Using Jessica Hogan’s 2025 study on wind energy acceptance in Newfoundland and the 2022 Local Paradox paper, it shows how survey numbers and governance theory are combined to manufacture legitimacy for development projects. Hogan’s “recognition justice” framework interprets resignation as support, while Local Paradox explains weak governance as incapacity. Together, they provide governments and industry with a toolkit for pushing projects through without genuine community consent. The Bayman’s Paradox counters that silence is not acceptance, but the product of structural dependency and disempowerment. Read More...

This article argues that Newfoundland politics operates on a barter system where natural resources, silence, and access function as currencies of exchange. In a province burdened by soft budget constraints and fiscal fragility, these non-monetary forms of leverage replace cash and policy as the real drivers of political decision-making. By framing silence as a commodity, resources as bargaining chips, and access as controlled capital, the piece explains why resets and megaprojects repeatedly fail while the same exchange system endures. Read More...

Imported Outrage, Local Silence examines how Newfoundland’s local leadership has borrowed scripts from U.S. culture wars and Canadian partisan media, sidelining real community issues. From Roe v. Wade tests to playground graffiti, the piece traces how outrage has been imported wholesale, drowning out substantive debates about governance, land, and energy policy. It highlights how global frameworks like the Paris Accord shape Newfoundland’s future while remaining invisible to many, and how structural weaknesses in municipalities go unaddressed. The essay concludes by questioning whether Newfoundland still has a culture of its own, or only a borrowed one — and calls on leaders to “teach our children well” with truths rooted in this place. Read More...

This article traces how reputations in Newfoundland politics are recycled and scaled beyond local disputes. It follows Tony Cornect’s shift from MHA to FFTNL president, an oral testimony from Garden Hill showing politicians inserting themselves into industry, and the continuity of influence across offices and generations. The piece then reflects on the very meaning of “kingmaker,” introduced to me in 2016 while working at Le Gaboteur. Finally, it connects these local patterns to global ones: Canada’s selective use of UNDRIP, the role of French consulates in Atlantic Canada as external arbiters, and the Canada–Germany hydrogen deal that crowned Newfoundland as Europe’s energy province without local consent. The article argues that, whether in local halls or international boardrooms, kings are appointed — not elected. Read More...

This article examines how Newfoundland’s politics and activism are shaped less by policy and more by gatekeeping. Using the Port au Port water crisis as a stage, it shows how the Environmental Transparency Committee frames legitimacy through process, how Jeff Todd Young’s career has been carefully groomed across Franco-Jeunes, Mi’kmaw Cultural Foundation, and Liberal nomination, how Tony Wakeham’s silence operates as a deliberate strategy, and how Jasen Benwah leverages Indigenous authenticity as a form of power. The piece argues that reputations in Newfoundland are not won at the ballot box but managed by those who decide who is allowed to speak. Read More...