GAP-NL (Government Accountability Project of Newfoundland and Labrador)

After the last federal election, the reaction of some Albertans toward Newfoundlanders, I went through a wide range of emotions, mostly landing somewhere between rolling my eyes and frustration. That statement is not meant to be all encompassing of the emotional range, but I have gotten most of that out of my system at this point.

I am, however, grateful for the situation in one aspect, for the passion that writing awakened inside me. I have always had my opinions on how many mistakes are made and have been made here for generations. Like most of the silent, and sometimes not so silent, majority I believe that change is necessary in Newfoundland and Labrador.

We hear of corruption and backroom deals among all the other perceived sins that occur throughout the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. I won't go off on a tirade about them, that would be counterproductive to the goals for this space, and let's face it there is enough of that on social media to make your head spin. However, to that point, I believe that the elected officials in Newfoundland and Labrador have not been accountable to the people for far too long. This project, which I hope many of us will join in, looks to play a part in the remedy of that problem.

I believe in the people's voices being heard, too many of us have been ignored for far too long.

There are two fundamental goals for this project, one is to look for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador to have a place to identify issues that they feel are affecting their communities or the province, and to look for them to offer any thoughts they may have on solutions. If we work together we can figure many of these things out. The resolve of people that have endured countless hardships is embedded in our spirit. We know the history of our home, we surely can get through this together.

The second goal is to have a record of the public ideas and solutions. I will look to sort the data through commonalities, and to present it to the MHA who is responsible for the area it came from. For provincial matters, I will look to get this information into the hands of the House of Assembly as a whole, or further if we can get it there. That way they cannot deny knowledge of the issues we want resolved, and cannot say we came just with problems if we offer plausible solutions along with them.

I hope you all will join in this project with me, let your voices be heard. The greatest hope we have to affect change is to be in this together. While many of us may differ in opinions on how to do things, or what has to be done, I believe that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador love our home, and want to see it survive and thrive once again.

Patrick A.

St. Johns West