For mayor, surely we can do better

Let me ask an awkward question. Why is that we—citizens of the modestly immodest cosmopolitan, metropolitan metropolis of Halifax—seem incapable of electing a mayor who offers vision and hope, and is not… well, how can I put this? Exhibit Number 1: the late Ron Wallace, prominent local optometrist, nice guy and undistinguished Liberal MLA who […]

Reading Recovery created a reader… and a writer

Education Minister Ramona Jennex’s this-really-is-good-news-considering announcement she’ll cut school funding by “just” two per cent next year masks a truth she dismissed outright last week. “Based on this budget,” Jennex declared, “a child in a classroom should see no difference in… the education they receive.” My experience suggests otherwise. That’s not to minimize Jennex’s achievement […]

May these games be like those games

It was the sweet summer of 1969, two years after the glories of Centennial and Expo ’67 ignited a sense of what our country might become in its second century, but a full year before the October Crisis snuffed out that particular dream-flame. It was a time—the last?—when Canadians still believed in the possibilities. I […]

Whatever they call it, let's call it… The Oval

“Last minute of play in the second period,” the booming voice of the Metro Centre’s PA announcer would declare solemnly, then add brightly: “Brought you to by…” I can’t remember now which name-dropping corporate sponsor claimed credit for the last minute of play in a period at Mooseheads’ home hockey games, or whether it still […]

The Senator, the Herald and the obituary

Senator Keith Davey died last week at 84. Davey was a Liberal backroom wizard, famous for wresting electoral triumph from the jaws of political ignominy. In 1963, for example, he helped Lester Pearson become prime minister. In 1974, he helped transform Pierre Trudeau’s then-floundering minority government into a renewed majority. Most famously, in 1979, he […]

Howard Epstein: the man who wasn't added to the NDP cabinet

The most intriguing aspect of last week’s provincial cabinet shuffle was not the Cheshire-cat-like, photo-op grins on the faces of the two newly blessed members of Darrell Dexter’s inner circle. Or the nameplate-shuffling and amoeba-like subdividing of ministerial responsibilities the government predictably insisted will help it do its job even better and eventually save taxpayers […]

Today's lesson from the gospel of Peter Munk

In its traditional year-end orgy of page-filling lists of accomplished Canadians—young, old, corporate, literary—the Globe and Mail this year named Peter Munk, 83-year-old chair of “multinational mining giant” Barrick Gold Corp., a finalist in its nation-builder category. Though born into a well-to-do Budapest Jewish family in 1927, the Nazi occupation wiped out the Munk fortune. […]

Convergys diverging: Don't pay us, we won't call you

On Tuesday, 300 employees at the Convergys call centre in Cornwallis got the bad news. Their employer—in the euphemistic-speak favoured by bad-news-delivering companies everywhere—had decided to “transition” their jobs elsewhere “to better serve its clients by increasing efficiencies and reducing costs.” They’d been fired. The reason: a six-year government payroll rebate program that initially lured […]

Weep not for 'unrepresented' business interests

So here’s my question. Who speaks for workers in the 82 per cent of businesses in Nova Scotia whose employees are not represented by a union? I ask this in light of the recent foofarah over Bill 100, the innocuous-sounding Act to Establish a Unified Labour Board. The Dexter government claimed it was merely tinkering—merging […]

And the rich get… tax cuts

Last week, news reports about three economic reports thudded into my electronic in-basket. The first had to do with Canadian Business Magazine’s “The Rich List,” an annual compilation of who’s-worth-how-astronomically-much this week. Toronto’s Thomson family topped the list again with a net worth of $23.36 billion—yes, billion! As allnovascotia.com noted proudly, Maritime titans were well […]