From Atlantic Business Magazine Posted on August 19, 2013 This story, which originally appeared in the July-August issue of Atlantic Business Magazine, is a finalist in the 2013 Atlantic Journalism Awards. The awards will be presented May 10, 2014 in Halifax. Canada hadn’t been part of Jeremy Wellard’s master plan. Nova Scotia wasn’t on his map. […]
- 04/17/2014
- StephenKimber
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The battle is over. It ended shortly after seven Friday morning when a marathon legislature session culminated with passage of the reassuringly entitled Essential Health and Community Services Act, forcing 2,400 Capital Health District nurses back to their stations. With its passage, the larger war for the future of labour relations in this province was […]
- 04/16/2014
- StephenKimber
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Could Stephen McNeil’s read-my-lips election promise to “save you $46 million per year” on your power bills become his defining, Darrell-Dexter-like, no-new-taxes/no-program-cuts, dead-on-the-doorstep electoral moment? During last year’s election campaign, the Liberals’ cross-their-heart pledge was straightforwardly specific: if you elect us, we will eliminate the efficiency tax on your electricity bill and force Nova Scotia […]
- 04/14/2014
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“And so capitalism is about to seize defeat from the jaws of victory, all by its own hand. That’s the astonishing end of this story, unless we reverse course.” –David Simon, Festival of Dangerous Ideas Sydney, Australia, November 2013 David Simon is not a politician. He’s not a philosopher. And he’s certainly not a prophet. […]
- 04/12/2014
- StephenKimber
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The Canadian Booksellers’ Association has announced the nominees for its annual Libris awards for books, publishers, booksellers and authors. What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five is nominated for Nonfiction Book of the Year. The nominees in the category include: The Massey Murder by Charlotte Gray (HarperCollins) A House in the […]
- 04/12/2014
- StephenKimber
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No one seemed to know why. Neither side had made a new offer, each side insisted with equal insistence. Nor had there been any concessions or Saul-like conversions on the path to the picket line anyone knew about. Despite that, the conciliator had called, so they were heeding the call. Negotiators for Capital Health and […]
- 03/31/2014
- StephenKimber
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Let me see if I understand this. Capital District nurses have the legal right to strike. In February, they voted 90 per cent in favour of striking to back contract demands. But if they actually walk off their jobs, they will effectively — and almost instantly — lose that right. (See the McNeil government’s legislation […]
- 03/24/2014
- StephenKimber
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Why is it that all those stats-stuffed, footnote-filled, soberly sincere public policy backgrounder research reports published by inevitably “independent, non-partisan” yet somehow transparently ideological think tanks and authored by multi-award-winning senior fellows and/or professors emereti are so… well, pedantically, ploddingly predictable? Take, for example, “The Cost Disease Infects Public Education Across Canada,” the latest tome […]
- 03/17/2014
- StephenKimber
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Forget for the moment whether last week’s Emera executive bonuses come out of your right pocket or your left. And don’t probe too deeply into whether the supposed wall between the cash shoveled into the bank accounts of Emera executives for the work they do for our own Nova Scotia Power electricity utility and the […]
- 03/10/2014
- StephenKimber
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Whose services are really “essential”? And what does that mean? On Friday, the McNeil government recalled the legislature to designate most home support workers — including the 400 Northwood employees who began a legal strike Friday, the 670 VON workers who could walk off their jobs this week and even the hundreds of others still […]
- 03/03/2014
- StephenKimber
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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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