Evidence is mounting to support what had hitherto been dismissed as a local conspiracy theory — 'the shallow state,' writes Edward Riche. (Eddy Kennedy/CBC)

U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters continue to assert there exists in Washington a shadowy "deep state," a cabal of senior bureaucrats and military officers acting independently, ignoring the will of the people as expressed by the 2016 presidential election.

In Newfoundland and Labrador a contrary notion is gaining traction.

Evidence is mounting to support what had hitherto been dismissed as a local conspiracy theory — "the shallow state."

"Shallow state" believes that beneath the veneer and pretence of governance in Newfoundland and Labrador no one is controlling anything.

But there is a lot going on in Newfoundland and Labrador right now that points to there being no one at the controls in government or its agencies. - Dianne Boxticker

The further rewarding of failure on the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in the $900,000 severance to Nalcor chief financial officer and head naif Derrick Sturge; obvious regulatory shortcomings in the aquaculture sector; confusion and contradiction on carbon; and the unchecked erratic behaviour of several government ministers are lending credence to the "shallow state" hypothesis.

"It wasn't taken seriously," said MUN political science professor Dianne Boxticker.

"But there is a lot going on in Newfoundland and Labrador right now that points to there being no one at the controls in government or its agencies."

First posited by Myrtle Coveyduck in a mimeograph narrowly circulated in the downtown of St. John's in the late 1970s, "shallow state" claims that what appears to be officialdom in Newfoundland and Labrador is, in fact, a mass of self-cast actors playing those roles in an elaborate production without a script or direction.

The compensation to former Nalcor chief financial officer Derrick Sturge is some of that evidence, suggests Riche. (Terry Roberts/CBC)

With tens of thousands of performative gestures being made daily it takes only the rare confluence of performance with reality to give the illusion of business being done, albeit slowly.

This explains how Newfoundland and Labrador spends more money on health care to secure worse outcomes, or how it continually purchases ferries, wholly unsuited to purpose, in a seemingly random fashion.

Some of the few remaining journalists seeking to explain how the provincial government would build a new mental health facility in a swamp at the centre of an already overbuilt flood plain — not to mention in an area suffering from crippling traffic congestion and a chronic lack of parking, against expert advice and pleas by St. John's city council — may now finally have an answer.

If no one decided on the location then no one can reverse a decision they did not make.

It appears the proceedings of the House of Assembly and legislation passed there have been little more than theatrics and fiction since Confederation.

What has long been mistaken for a lack of accountability has been, rather, its total absence.

More largely, "shallow state" seems the only plausible reason why a Newfoundland and Labrador that should, in any real-world scenario, be extremely prosperous, is instead teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

"It was preposterous when I first heard it," said Boxticker.

"And Coveyduck was dismissed as a crank and a drunk and a drug user and a drummer and an anarchist and a cheque-kiter and rent-skipper, as someone who brushed her teeth all too rarely but looking at what has happened since, there is no reason to believe anyone is making decisions or subsequently executing plans of any kind."

It appears the proceedings of the House of Assembly and legislation passed there have been little more than theatrics and fiction since Confederation.

"There are many MHAs as stupid and corrupt as President Trump," said Boxticker.

"But in the case of Newfoundland and Labrador it appears there is no elite, operating secretly or otherwise, to keep them in check."

Since Confederation, the proceedings in the House of Assembly have been little more than theatrics and fiction, writes Riche. (Rob Antle/CBC)

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