ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - After a year-long vitriolic feud that has degenerated to nationwide attack ads and name-calling, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Danny Williams will meet Friday in a bid to establish a truce.
The meeting between the two Conservative leaders, who have been engaged in a very public dispute over the province's share of revenues from its offshore oil sector, would be the first since Williams launched an unofficial campaign more than a year ago bent on dethroning Harper.
Officials with Harper and Williams declined to comment on the meeting, but in a statement Thursday the premier said he was "pleased'' to meet face-to-face with the prime minister, who is touring the province Friday and Saturday, to discuss issues of importance to Newfoundland and Labrador.
The meeting will be in St. John's.
"I will take the opportunity to discuss with the prime minister the numerous commitments that have been made by the federal government to our province,'' Williams said.
"Primary among these will be the issue of non-renewable resource revenue ... the fishery and also the impact of the strong Canadian dollar on many of our industries.''
One federal official said Harper doesn't have high expectations that Williams will ease his rhetoric, but wants to give him a chance to raise his concerns in person.
"We're expecting the same old Danny,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The question is, `Where's he going to go from here?'''
Newfoundland Conservative MP Fabian Manning, no stranger to tussles with Williams, said the meeting signalled a positive change in federal-provincial relations.
"The fact that any movement is made for the prime minister and the premier to sit down has to be deemed as positive,'' Manning said in an interview.
Manning was booted out of Williams's caucus in May 2005 after he broke ranks with the premier over provincial crab policy. Manning later ran federally and now represents the riding of Avalon.
The last meeting between Williams and Harper, at the provincial Tory convention in October 2006, ended in acrimony after Williams warned he would deliver "a big goose egg'' for Conservatives in a future federal election if the province lost out in a new equalization formula.
The premier has since accused Harper of breaking a promise vital to the economic future of Newfoundland when he introduced changes to equalization this past spring that Williams says will cost the province's treasury $11 billion.
Williams has taken out newspaper advertisements across the country attacking Harper and repeatedly referred to him in the diminutive "Steve,'' contending that he must "treat him with the same disdain that he's treating Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.''
Harper has also taken out newspaper advertisements in his defence, denying that he broke any promise and emphasizing that Newfoundland won't lose a dime if it sticks with the Atlantic Accord, a federal-provincial agreement that protects the province from clawbacks on equalization payments until at least 2012.
Political observers say they don't expect much to result from the meeting, but it could serve as an attempt to boost federal Tory fortunes in a province overwhelmingly supportive of Williams's stance.
"Presumably, Mr. Harper wants to improve support here provincially and maybe wants to limit the amount of damage that the premier could be doing,'' said Alex Marland, a Memorial University political science professor.
Manning brushed aside suggestions his was one of the vulnerable Tory seats in Newfoundland.
"I'm doing the job to the best of my ability and at the end of the day the people will decide whether they want me to continue on as their representative,'' he said.
"I feel quite comfortable that they will.''
Michael Temelini, another political scientist at Memorial, said nothing short of a mea culpa from Harper would mend his caustic relationship with Williams.
"Unless Stephen Harper comes out and apologizes to the people of this province for breaking a promise, this will be nothing but maybe a step, the opening of a dialogue between the two levels of government,'' said Temelini.
"In some ways, it has less to do with Harper being interested in resolving issues, frankly, than it does for him to show the rest of Canada that he's a reasonable man.''
After Williams secured his re-election in a landslide last month, he took aim at Harper again, saying his victory represented "a vote of confidence'' to continue challenging Ottawa.
But the combative premier has lost allies in his fight with the federal government in recent weeks.
One day after the Oct. 9 election, Harper signed a deal with Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald in an attempt to smooth out their own differences over offshore resource revenues.
A month later, Lorne Calvert, who stood with Williams in his battle to secure more revenues from Ottawa, lost his election in Saskatchewan.
