There is no point anymore in Newfoundlanders dreaming about the economic paradise of Alberta, but anyone who needs a replacement fantasy can close their eyes and happily visualize a jail door slamming behind the architects who concocted the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.

To make it even more fun, a public contest or lottery could be held, with the lucky winner getting the honour of slamming the door shut, while saying something historic, like, “One small step for a Newfoundlander, one giant leap for Newfoundland.”

It didn’t take long for Premier Dwight Ball and his Liberals to take political advantage of Commissioner Richard LeBlanc’s report, “Muskrat Falls: A Misguided Project.”

(“Misguided”? Despite its myriad revelations and condemnations, the report’s understated title is equally shocking. You can imagine LeBlanc on the bench, sentencing a serial killer: “Young man, you are seriously misguided.”)

Ball referred LeBlanc’s report to the police and to the Department of Justice for possible further investigation and/or legal action.

Some among the masses might cheer this move, and raise their pitchforks in approval.

More reasonable citizens might object that such a move not only reeks of rank politics, it is a dangerous manoeuvre expected in a police state, but not in a democracy.

Perhaps Ball and his Liberals need reminding that he and his Liberals supported building Muskrat Falls. So, if the police and the Department of Justice are tasked with investigating malfeasance in the creation of the Muskrat Falls debacle, well, their dragnet should snag more than just Tories.

That would be a good lesson to Ball of the danger of involving the police in an issue that is, and was, political. Period. Full stop.

Ah, but what of the misinformation, misrepresentation and lies cited by LeBlanc in his report — surely the dirt he discovered should result in some pretty prominent people taking a perp walk.

Ball and Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady apparently think so, and they’ll probably be supported by mobs across the province justifiably eager for retribution and revenge.

Here is an exercise. Imagine that all the lowly citizens of Newfoundland are shareholders. The CEO and board of directors of Newfoundland Inc. have just blown $12.7 billion on a deal gone bad.

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