Fuelling the Flames of Newfoundland Separatism

Interesting news from the Rock: apparently Premier Danny Williams has ordered the removal of Canadian flags from government buildings in Newfoundland. This is in response to the federal government's insistence on renegging on a promise made during the June election to ensure that equalisation funding provided to his province is not clawed back because of the natural resource revenue it receives.

Never mind that the federal government seems to want to encourage the poorer provinces to remain in a retarded state of development by preventing them from benefitting financially from resource exploitation: the Liberal government lacks simple political tact. Given their precarious minority position, you would think that they would want to be as endearing as possible to a province that delivered all of its seats (save two) to the government in the last election, but I expect nothing less from the politically incompetent regime of Paul Martin.