John Risley, the president of Clearwater Fine Foods and a columnist for Atlantic Business Magazine, says I’ve got it all wrong when it comes to the Occupy Movement. “In the previous issue of Atlantic Business Magazine,” Risley writes, “my fellow columnist — Stephen Kimber — attempted to explain the Occupy movement. Unfortunately he got it […]
- 03/13/2012
- StephenKimber
- No Comments
While not nearly as addictive as Angry Birds, spending a few hours with the province’s You-Be-The-Finance-Minister teeter-totter app—more prosaically known as backtobalance.ca—is entertaining. And depressingly, face-slappingly educational. The government created the interactive online budget-making tool as part of its pre-budget consultations. It allows taxpayers to virtually raise and/or reduce revenues and expenses—and immediately see the […]
- 03/12/2012
- StephenKimber
- 1 Comment
By 2009, Richard Homburg’s glitzy, buzz-worthy annual office parties had become corporate Halifax’s post-Christmas social hot ticket. Two hundred of the city’s elite investors, investment advisors, developers, lawyers, accountants and assorted corporate hangers-on would gather in the January freeze to mix and mingle at Homburg Citadel, Homburg Invest’s global corporate headquarters. A modern building insinuated […]
- 03/08/2012
- StephenKimber
- No Comments
It’s time to make transit an essential service. By that, I don’t—necessarily—mean it’s time to take away bus drivers’ right to strike. What I do mean is that, however the current labour dispute ends, it’s long past time city council made transit a can’t-live-without service. And not just for those who, because they can’t afford […]
- 03/05/2012
- StephenKimber
- No Comments
Peter Kelly’s final mayoralty meltdown announcement last week was not triggered by any of the many mis-governance issues that should have long since ended his political career. Ironically, the mayor was ultimately hoist on the petard of his own sloppy-and-perhaps-worse handling of the estate of a friend, a private matter unrelated to his duties as […]
- 02/27/2012
- StephenKimber
- No Comments
With 760 bus drivers walking picket lines, 130 brewery workers on the edge of lockout, 870 professors voting to strike and 3,800 health care workers heading for conciliation, it’s no surprise news that 36 provincial court judges have a new three-year deal with the province passed almost entirely unnoticed. Judges don’t actually negotiate their salaries. […]
- 02/20/2012
- StephenKimber
- 1 Comment
So let me see if I have this right. When workers are at their most vulnerable—when, for example, they’ve decided to join a union and are attempting to negotiate a first contract with a more powerful, perhaps hostile employer—Jamie Baillie is a champion of free collective bargaining. Let the chips fall where they may… so […]
- 02/13/2012
- StephenKimber
- 7 Comments
Sobeys this week made what the business website allnovascotia.com called a “shock announcement.” Its CEO Bill McEwan will be stepping down this spring for unspecified “health” reasons. Back in 2003, shortly after he assumed the reigns of the Nova Scotia-based supermarket giant, I wrote this profile of McEwan for the Globe and Mail’s Report on […]
Whatever else one can say about the rights-wrongs of the current Metro Transit strike, it is clear city negotiators were never interested in negotiating with its 760 bus drivers, ferry operators and support staff. The contract between Metro Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Union expired Sept 1. There was just one face-to-face session—essentially a presentation […]
- 02/06/2012
- StephenKimber
- 2 Comments
Why would the Canadian Taxpayers Federation make a mountain out of the minuscule? Why indeed? So the sleuths at the Canadian (sic) Taxpayers Federation have uncovered the startling (to me, at least) fact I’m “on the CBC payroll.” They appear to believe this is the only possible explanation why I—and other members of the Friends […]
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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