NDP throne speech no defining moment

Pundits are calling passage of Barack Obama’s health care legislation last weekend historic, and a defining moment for his presidency. The legislation is far from perfect, of course, the not unexpected result of all the far too many messy compromises needed to cajole and barter the 216 votes required to pass it. And the resulting […]

Mike Duffy… you're no Mike Duffy

To paraphrase a famous American: I knew Mike Duffy, Senator, and you’re no Mike Duffy… I couldn’t help thinking that as I read Halifax Metro’s account this week of Duffy’s inane, ill-tempered and spectacularly ill-informed rant about the King’s College Journalism School. Full disclosure: I teach at King’s. “Kids who go to King’s, or the […]

The sound of one cymbal clanging

It’s difficult to comprehend how a politician seemingly in such perfect harmony with the populist political zeitgeist eight months ago could have become so cymbal-clangingly tone deaf so quickly. Darrell Dexter got himself elected premier by channeling Coffee-at-the-Tims Everyman. He was like us, only smarter. We could—and did—trust him. We forgave him for lying to […]

A promise is not a law until it is

It happened so long ago that Alexa McDonough was still the leader of a rag-tag band of New Democrats in the provincial legislature. And I was a still-young-ish reporter. McDonough had just introduced a private member’s bill to reform the ways in which political parties got financed. Its specifics have long since escaped my memory. […]

'IWK: A Century of Caring' nominated for book award

2010 Atlantic Book Awards Shortlists… Dartmouth Book Award (Non-fiction) Greg Cochkanoff and Bob Chaulk, SS Atlantic: The White Star Line’s First Disaster at Sea (Goose Lane Editions) Stephen Kimber, IWK: A Century of Caring for Families (Nimbus Publishing) Anne Murray with Michael Posner, All of Me (Knopf Canada)

Africville apology an historic moment

Wednesday’s historic agreement between the City of Halifax and the former residents of Africville, which was intended to turn the page on their bitter 40-year dispute, did not please everyone. How could it? The old wounds run too deep; the new hurts remain too raw. Make no mistake. There are legitimate questions to ask about […]

Reclaiming black history, acknowledging our own

Nova Scotia’s black history is rich and remarkable—Birchtown, for example, was North America’s largest settlement of free blacks when it was founded in 1783—but that realty is rarely acknowledged. Now finally, that may be about to change… Shortly before 10 on the evening of March 31, 2006, residents along the Old Birchtown Road near Shelburne […]

Africville… a look back at the struggle for redress

Today’s announcement (February 24, 2010) of an agreement between the Africville Genealogy Society and various governments will mark the culmination of a decades-long, sometimes seemingly endless and too often hopeless struggle. The deal—like almost anything to do with Africville—will be controversial. But as we consider what it means, it is worth looking back at how […]

MLA expenses a scandal but….

Yes, the MLA expenses scandal is a scandal. Some of what some MLAs filed as legitimate expenses were not. A few claims may even be criminal. Let’s make MLAs pay back what they can’t justify, and prosecute those whose actions crossed the line. Let’s fix a screwed-up system. Then let’s move on. When it comes […]

Whose best interests?

For Family Court Judge Beryl MacDonald, the question seemed simple. Does she have the authority to order the minister of community services to provide a service the department, by policy, doesn’t offer? Her answer, delivered during a family court hearing this week, was equally simple. She does not. The legal issue may be simple; the […]