So, let us begin today’s wreck-onomics lesson in Athens where — as I write this — Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is in the frenetic middle of executing an Olympics-worthy double-reverse cartwheel flip, trying to convince his countrymen to vote in favor of a European bailout deal they — and he — decisively rejected the […]
- 09/09/2015
- StephenKimber
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Who would want to tamper with Prince Edward Island’s signature crop? And why? PEI potato farmers may not know the answer to those questions, but they did know how to respond when the story broke. Raise safety standards. “We’ll fix this.” Still, Islanders want to know: who did it and why? If you want to […]
- 09/09/2015
- StephenKimber
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Two key, interconnected figures in the story of the Cuban Five are in the news. Guistino Di Celmo, 94, died in Havana on September 2, 2015. An Italian-born businessman, he relocated to Havana after his son, Fabio, was murdered by a terrorist bomb set off in the Copacabana Hotel on September 4, 1997. The terrorist behind the 1997 bombing […]
- 09/02/2015
- StephenKimber
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Havana, September 4, 1997, 11:00 a.m. Fabio Di Celmo was apologetic. Another day perhaps, he suggested into the telephone. The person at the other end of the line was a representative of Biconsa, a division of Cuba’s Ministry of Domestic Trade with whom he hoped to make a deal. But not today. Their appointment was for noon, […]
- 09/02/2015
- StephenKimber
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The last minute of play in this period is brought to you by… What would happen, I often wonder, if the company that pays for that last minute of play in each period of Halifax Mooseheads home hockey games stopped sponsoring it? Would the 20-minute period be reduced to 19? Among life’s eternal, infernal mysteries, […]
- 08/31/2015
- StephenKimber
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It’s hard not to feel a twinge of sympathy for the conundrum Stephen McNeil’s Liberals face as they scramble to figure out what to do next with the listing ship that is the Yarmouth-Portland ferry service. But it’s also hard not to believe the government’s decision last week to put off deciding who will run […]
- 08/24/2015
- StephenKimber
- 1 Comment
One would like to believe newly installed Finance Minister Randy Delorey meant it. Last week he told union leaders representing teachers, health care workers, paramedics and assorted clusters of government employees he wanted to meet to discuss a “new approach” to collective bargaining. There are more than 300 collective agreements slated for re-negotiation this year, […]
- 08/17/2015
- StephenKimber
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It was not a good week for Nova Star Cruises, the operators of the Yarmouth-Portland ferry. But it may turn out to have been an even worse week for Stephen McNeil’s Liberal government. Let’s start with Nova Star. Last Tuesday, CEO Mark Amundsen announced it had reached a multi-year deal with Euroferries Express Ltd. to […]
- 08/10/2015
- StephenKimber
- 1 Comment
So, let me see if I understand this correctly. Nova Scotia’s Department of Motor Vehicles takes in $120 million a year to register vehicles, peddle license plates, test drivers, promote highway safety, etc. The DMV costs $30-35 million a year to operate, meaning it nets the provincial treasury $85-90 million a year. But the DMV’s […]
- 07/27/2015
- StephenKimber
- 4 Comments
Flora MacDonald, Canada’s first female Secretary of State, died today (July 26, 2015). She was 89. In the fall of 1979 — the year she became Secretary of State — I spent a few days following the North Sydney, NS, native around her adopted hometown of Kingston, ON, for a profile in the November 1979 issue of Atlantic Insight magazine. […]
STEPHEN KIMBER, a Professor of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax and co-founder of its MFA in Creative Nonfiction Program, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. He is the author of two novels and eight non-fiction books. Buy his books
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