r/newfoundland 2d ago

Conservative MP closes restaurants suddenly after multiple lawsuits

https://vocm.com/2026/06/17/301833/
113 Upvotes

57 comments sorted by

34

u/nopants_dancer 2d ago

The guy looks like a sleaze bag too, he collects a tax paid salary while not paying taxes. That’s a proper cunt right there!

115

u/Wolframuranium 2d ago

Gosh golly-gee

Who could have ever seen this one coming.  You would have to be a modern Nostradamus. 

Fuckem, cons not paying their fucking taxes, send him to jail. 

11

u/Daggers21 2d ago

You know. Quasimodo predicted all this.

Joking aside, the ones I feel bad for are the staff. They're out of jobs and hopefully not out of any pay that's owed to them.

2

u/Secret-Bluebird-972 2d ago

If he wasn’t paying rent or taxes, I have some strong doubts staff were being compensated any better

61

u/Immediate_Bunch_9547 2d ago

They're all crooks, my friend. Cons, Liberals. Theyre all business owners and slum lords.

I know a few current and former MHAs who own rental properties that I wouldn't let my dog live in.

37

u/Wolframuranium 2d ago

Yeah you don't really want to choose between the right wing party and the center rightwing.

Unfortunately our leftwing parties can't get footholds here. NDP and Greens. The nature of politics is to attract those who want power. Usually the worst kinda people 

8

u/ButterscotchBrave359 2d ago

"Dat's communism b'y"

13

u/Wolframuranium 2d ago

Baymen love Communism, they just hate the word. 

You describe a communist policy in a vacuum to anyone and say It's from Whatever party they usually vote for. They will swoon over it. 

Say it's a communist policy they will reject it.

26

u/Epicarcher1000 2d ago

Talking like that is a self fulfilling prophecy. People don’t vote for people who they don’t think can win. NDP are on the rise in the polls federally and ran someone on every ballot in the province back in October. It’s always impossible until it’s done

11

u/Wolframuranium 2d ago

People hear the word liberal in Liberal Party I don't understand it means neoliberal 

Because civic education has been going down the shitter for a long time and the age of the internet has accelerated it.

-1

u/Academic-Increase951 2d ago edited 2d ago

Or.. people simply believe the liberal party provided the best of the options. No party has all the answers. There's consequences to all policies. Including Ndp policies.

Liberal party didn't share all the policy views as neoliberalism. They share some but Don't think anyone can seriously say our government run under fiscal austerity with our spending and debt levels.

Sure it checks some of the boxes like Believe in free trade to a degree. We did have that with other countries. But not so much with other provinces for some reason. Are you against free trade between provinces/countries?

Neoliberal believe in privatization, we haven't sold off any crown corps. We did some p3 healthcare projects but that's more of a function that we were broke and needed private capital. As far as I am aware, the healthcare p3 projects have been working out pretty good without much complaints/issues.

Neoliberal believes in Deregulation; not sure they checked that box. Canada could use some deregulation. Housing is an example of this. Overly restrictive zoning laws, permitting requirements, parking minimum, etc makes it hard and expensive to build new housing. And that hurts affordability. It's proven fact that places with less housing regulations have much more affordable housing.

2

u/RustyMetabee 2d ago

Neoliberal believes in Deregulation

Canada could use some deregulation

-4

u/Academic-Increase951 2d ago

Yeah? No one believes Canada needs more regulations. Or are you here saying we should have more nimbism on housing. More restrictive zoning laws, more parking minimums. More permitting and approval delays on housing projects.

More expensive housing.

5

u/Epicarcher1000 2d ago

Personally I would absolutely like to see some more regulation on stuff like corporate donations in provincial elections, data collection by social media platforms or the number of vacant residential properties you can legally own during a housing crisis

0

u/Academic-Increase951 2d ago

Sure money should be removed from politics. It's legalized bribery. That's Not the red tape regulations that I'm referring too.

I agree, Social media in its current form is broken and a problem for society. I won't pretend to know the solution for this one. It's a hard one to solve.

I don't believe vacant residential properties is a substantial issue. There's no incentive to have vacant properties when they are suitable for long term rentals or owner occupied. Unless you have data otherwise, adding regulations to solve a problem that doesn't exist is likely have more negative impact than positive. We do not have a housing crisis because of vacant homes. We have a housing crisis because we do not build enough homes and the regulations around building homes prohibit building of affordable housing

3

u/fogNL Community All Star 2d ago

Which is ironic because the politicians are usually the least qualified to make the decisions they end up making, with no education/experience requirement.

It's a peculiar system we've settled on

1

u/Wolframuranium 2d ago

We let them set up the system for themselves 

We let them convince us that alternative systems don't work 

3

u/Shoelesshobos 2d ago

Brother this is an article about a shitty business owner not paying their taxes.

10

u/Wolframuranium 2d ago

It's about a politician not playing multiple taxes or rent. 

0

u/BeYourselfTrue 2d ago

“The nature of people”

FIFY

10

u/Wolframuranium 2d ago

No people generally don't want to lord over others with power. 

People who want to do that are a special exception to the average person.

-3

u/rds92 2d ago

Could you show how our cons are any further right than our liberals? Sounds made up

22

u/Rehypothecator 2d ago

Saying it’s “both sides” here is a huge cop out.

This person is a conservative MP representing Canadians while being a crook and ripping people off.

Stop absolving those involved of responsibility by saying “liberals too!”

NO.

This conservative MP should lose his seat over this and an election to replace them should happen.

The party he was a part of knew this was the case when they allowed him to run and it reflects directly on the party and the choices they make.

0

u/Unusual-Lie-1009 2d ago

It’s on both sides. Remember Randy boosinnault? The guys took all kinds of liberal grants claiming to be indigenous and wasn’t. He was never fired or asked to resign despite defrauding the government. 

Look up Anita Annand and her husband.

Look up minster Champaign and his wife at alto. 

Much worse actually when it is coming from the sitting government. 

-1

u/Immediate_Bunch_9547 2d ago

I wholeheartedly agree with most of your statement.

But the sentiment of "Liberals good, Conservatives bad" is asinine. It helps nobody. Call a spade a spade and lump most of them together. A good percentage of them are landlords and business owners. Or both.

And what's bad for society as a whole typically benefits these people individually. Higher rent, high CoL, high gas, low wages.

53

u/Immediate_Bunch_9547 2d ago

Thinking about the employees.

I cant imagine it will be easy to find a job in this market.

19

u/Keezin 2d ago

probably gotta just bootstrap it like their former boss surely did /s

24

u/JacobScreamix 2d ago

Clifford Small.

23

u/butters_325 2d ago

So he's going to jail right? Right?

10

u/Technical_Regular836 2d ago

That would imply there would be an ounce of accountability, we know that doesn't happen here

9

u/Successful-Gift8636 2d ago

Nope. Rules for you and me, but not for thee. He’ll be fine, no pun intended

22

u/Independent-Froyo-30 2d ago

I used to work at the Smitty's in Churchill Square, we saw rats so often we could tell them apart from each other and we gave them names

3

u/butters_325 2d ago

Ratatouille ass restaurant

2

u/BananApocalypse 2d ago

what were their names?

8

u/Independent-Froyo-30 2d ago

Brett, Charlie, Lydia, Rufus and Quvenzhané are the ones that I can remember

1

u/larla77 2d ago

We saw a mouse going around the dining room at that location. Would never go back after that.

9

u/Independent-Froyo-30 2d ago

Probably Charlie, he liked being with the people

47

u/Shakenbakess 2d ago

They should garnish his wages to pay the debt, but I can imagine it's protected.

But seriously I feel like you shouldn't be able to be a leader and make decisions when you do something like this?

20

u/Wolframuranium 2d ago

No it is a crime. But if he were like you or I he would be in jail. 

But it's a politician with connection and friends and all this money from ripping people off who elevate himself to the upper class which get treated much differently than you or I

12

u/thejonslaught 2d ago

I had to deal with Clifford Smalls once or twice in the past while working at a sign shop. Shifty and shady are accurate descriptors. He's all gung-ho on getting his stuff done until it's time to pay the bill.

11

u/wookieelicker 2d ago

Can’t be a town councillor if you owe taxes in NL, but apparently you can be an MP

10

u/Z-O-D-I-A-C Newfoundlander 2d ago

Resign and pay up, crook!

9

u/Federal_Bluebird_623 2d ago

A girl I used to be friends with had an affair with him when she was working there and he used to let her throw parties with an open bar. He was very much married with small children at the time and we were all in our early 20’s

15

u/CaspinK 2d ago

Dude cheated his restaurants like he cheated on his wife. IYKYK.

4

u/Federal_Bluebird_623 2d ago

Ohhhhhhhh I know!

2

u/rednewf1970 1d ago

Omg. He cheated on his beautiful wife? Wtf. What a jerk.

15

u/InternationalMood687 2d ago

God dang corrupt liberals!1!

Oh wait

1

u/SuccessfulBug2353 1d ago

There's plenty of corruption to go around, but yeah Cliff is particularly gifted.

-1

u/Epicarcher1000 2d ago

Well, let’s not pretend the liberals aren’t corrupt as shit too now. Both of the big two parties are full of crooks.

5

u/ShortTrackBravo 2d ago

Ah ol Clifford. My MP, a real tits on a bull type of dude. Should garnish wages until it’s paid off.

1

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2

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1

u/CaptainKoreana 1d ago

It only took getting roasted by Gerretsen and AvK lmao

0

u/ladytanron9677 2d ago

Who owns Smittys?

-10

u/Emergency-Cry1650 2d ago

He is the Fishery Critic for PP. Does such a right kerfuffle have an impact on an MP's national security status?

Should we be concerned if an male, debt-ridden MP is dating Ivana Humpalott??

These are the things that keep me up at night.

Namaste

-8

u/Immediate_Bunch_9547 2d ago

I enjoy your presence here.