And to judge from his relations with the government of Stephen Harper, he appears to exist in a state of permanent agitation.

The premier has been screeching to high heaven of late over the federal budget and the apparently grievous injustice it has inflicted on his province. He has proclaimed to all who will listen that the feds have introduced, on the sly and without consultation, changes to the equalization formula that will cost Newfoundland and Labrador $1.5 billion, or one-quarter of provincial revenue, over the next three years.

This is merely the latest round in the premier's continuing and increasingly tedious battle with the Harper Conservatives over equalization. At one point, Williams adopted the schoolyard tactic of dissing his adversary by referring to him as Steve rather than Stephen.

He launched an ABC - Anybody But Conservative - crusade that cost the government dearly in last fall's federal election. Williams dispatched his Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers to campaign with Liberal and NDP candidates, and the province's voters responded by sending six Liberals, one independent and zero Tories back to Ottawa.

Williams collected on his political IOUs by pressuring the province's Liberal MPs to vote against the budget even though party leader Michael Ignatieff and the rest of the caucus supported it.

The average voter will never know for sure whether the Harper government really is shafting Newfoundland and Labrador because the whole equalization program is so complex, so byzantine and so riddled with side deals and special considerations that it is utterly incomprehensible.

But most of us do understand and support the basic principles. The program was introduced in 1957 to ensure that provincial governments across the country could provide roughly equivalent levels of essential basic services such as health care and education.

Since then, the wealthier provinces - Ontario, Alberta and sometimes B.C. - have contributed billions of dollars to the federal treasury, which were then doled out to the have-nots in the form of equalization payments.

Now, common sense would suggest that if the economy of a have-not province takes a turn for the better, and if it begins generating sufficient revenue to pay for government services, then the equalization payments should stop.

Last year, the economy of Newfoundland and Labrador made just such an historic transition. Thanks to the royalties and taxes collected from offshore oil companies, the province was ineligible for equalization payments for the first time in 51 years.

The economy of Newfoundland and Labrador grew by a whopping 9.1 percent in 2007, according to TD Bank Financial Group. It was flat in 2008 and is projected to shrink by 0.5 percent this year. By comparison, Canada's gross domestic product is expected to fall by 1.4 percent while the country's two big have provinces, Ontario and Alberta, will see their economies shrink by 1.8 percent.

The Royal Bank's economic department predicted in a report written in December that Newfoundland and Labrador would begin 2009 "with panache and enthusiasm that contrasts with the morose mood spreading across the continent."

The report went on to say that: "Residents of the province appear to be putting aside any concerns about the global downturn and are still busy spending on housing, at retail stores and on big-ticket items such as motor vehicles."

But none of this is enough to put a smile on the face of Premier Williams - the angry man of Confederation. He contends that the Harper government is sticking it to his province by unilaterally changing the terms of the Atlantic Accord, an agreement signed with Ottawa in 1985 and sweetened in 2005 by then prime minister Paul Martin.

According to a summary of these agreements available on the website of the federal Finance Department, the province is allowed to tax offshore oil and gas production while at the same time receiving "transitional protection ... from large reductions in total equalization that would otherwise have resulted once the province's offshore revenues began to grow."

In other words, it is the law of the land in this country that you can eat your cake and have it, too.

Newfoundland and Labrador can go from have-not to have province and receive 100-percent protection from any reduction in equalization payments.

Premier Williams has been waging a lonely crusade on this one. No other premier has rushed to his side because his cause is manifestly absurd. He is behaving like someone who has attained adulthood, has found employment, is earning a living and stands on Mom and Dad's doorstep screaming for his allowance.

(D'Arcy Jenish can be reached at jenish@businessedge.ca)