Nice guy finishes first. Now what?

The race for HRM mayor really began on February 6, 2012, when former Liberal MP Mike Savage—surrounded by a fawning, hopeful who’s who of 300 of the city’s most influential business and political makers and breakers—declared he would challenge long-past-his-best-before-date incumbent Peter Kelly.The campaign effectively ended two-and-a-half weeks later when Kelly—already mired in myriad self-made […]

Millie and that Ben and Jerry's tub… again

The question that truly, biblically passeth all understanding is why. Why would a 77-year-old senior citizen with five last names, a 40-year criminal history as long as both your arms and one of your legs, with two dead husbands—one of whom she was convicted of killing and the other seriously suspected—a woman who is now […]

Darrell Dexter, Paul Guadet and the politics of partisanship

Perhaps Darrell Dexter’s prickly petulance last week was the result of too many too long nights reworking the on-again, off-again, can-we-have-more-please deal to save Port Hawkesbury’s NewPage paper mill. And the certainty he would be damned for saving it. Just as he would have been damned for having failed to save it. Or, more generally, […]

The mill has been saved, the question remains

I have rewritten this column three times in the past three days as the on, then off, then on-again deal to re-start the NewPage mill in Point Tupper played itself out in after-hours news releases and hastily convened press conferences.But my essential question hasn’t changed. How much is more than too much? It’s far from […]

HRM: More than just the name needs changing

When someone asks where you’re from, do you say, “I am a proud citizen of the Halifax… Regional… Municipality…”Or do you acronym-ize your place of residence as something called H-R-M? Or perhaps humanize it as HeRM? Uh… Unlikely on all counts. Most of us—especially when speaking to outsiders—probably say we’re from Halifax. If we’re being […]

Mike Savage needs to be more than Not Peter Kelly

With nominations closing tomorrow and the municipal election 40 days away, it is time—past time—for the campaign for mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality to begin in earnest.Even if one quibbles with the fine print of the latest poll from a research company whose CEO is a supporter of candidate Mike Savage—and which shows him […]

Electoral boundaries and passion… only in Nova Scotia… only in summer

We are at the drain end of August when the non-news of summer just repeats itself—Mayor Peter Kelly still refuses to rule out running for his old Bedford council seat; Lance Armstrong still proclaims his innocence; Conrad Black still wants his day in court—and no one, wisely, pays any mind.So I was surprised last week […]

Electoral boundaries commissioners being used as political cover

You could be forgiven for assuming Nova Scotia Justice Minister Ross Landry actually believes in the democratic process. “It’s very important that we look at our demographic structure in Nova Scotia… and how we get fairness and equity into the system,” he told reporters last week as his government-appointed, government-instructed “independent” electoral boundaries commission wrapped […]

Justice delayed is justice as usual

Let’s review. On February 3, 2010, Auditor General Jacques Lapointe reported some Nova Scotia MLAs played fast and loose with their expense accounts. One year after that—on February 14, 2011—RCMP charged three former and one sitting MLA with the criminal equivalent of fast and loose. Today—17 months after those charges, 30 months after that report—only […]

The politician, the judge and the sentence

You can—in a law-school-essay, sentencing-guidelines way—justify Justice David MacAdam’s decision to sentence disgraced former MLA Richard Hurlburt to house arrest instead of clapping him off to jail. But not in the real world. Richard Hurlburt repeatedly violated the trust of his electors while bilking taxpayers of more than $25,000, and then attempted—until the truth trapped […]