Thanks Stephen, Darrell, Rodney, et al… for ‘The Donald’?

If you want to understand the un-understandable appeal of Donald Trump, you could do worse than begin with Stephen McNeil. That is not as far-fetched as it might initially seem. We are not talking here about Stephen McNeil, the individual, but Stephen McNeil, the symbolic end result of far too many years of all-too-usual politics […]

Development: It’s time to talk

It’s fair to say no one likes Halifax’s development planning process. Consider developer Joe Metledge, who successfully sued the city over its flip-flopping on his St. Pat’s-Alexandra School redevelopment project. During a recent breakfast meeting of developers, planners and lawyers, Metledge complained about the city’s failure to defend his industry against the “demonization of development […]

Smart, funny, quirky, creative… what could be wrong?

My recollection — which is wrong — is it happened out of nowhere and for no reason. It was a Sunday in November 2009. My wife and I and Michael, our youngest son, sat in a Quinpool Road restaurant, waiting too long for the dim sum we’d ordered too much of to finally arrive. Suddenly, […]

Politics in Nova Scotia is getting interesting

The best news about the just-ended Nova Scotia legislature session is that there was so little government news. There were no new zigging announcements the government was eviscerating working-just-fine programs, like Seniors Pharmacare or the film tax credit (oh wait, Stephen McNeil’s Liberals already attacked those), and no zagging gifts to money-pit ferries (oh, wait, we’re […]

Developers get to change rules, the rest of us not so much

If it’s become acceptable — routine really — for developers to apply to bend municipal planning strategy and land use zoning regulations to green-light projects that don’t fit within the rules as they are, should it not be just as possible for ordinary citizens to seek similar exceptions to red-light those who plan to do things […]

Fort McMurray: worst times, best moments

Sometimes, the worst times create the best moments. My nominee, among many, for last week’s best moment is a Calgary woman named Rita Khanchat. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with those worst times. One week ago today (Tuesday), Wildfire MWF-009 — now colloquially and correctly known as “The Beast” — flared out […]

Racism’s crime: ‘devaluing of self and others’

Where to begin? With the too-soon deaths of three young black men murdered in separate incidents within a week last month? Or with last Monday’s announcement the provincial government is restructuring — which is to say eliminating — a community-based program in North and East Preston, Cherry Brook and Lake Loon that had been helping […]

Doctor dysfunction and the case of Gabrielle Horne

I first wrote about the case of Dr. Gabrielle Horne in May 2006. By that time, the incident that initially sparked my interest was already four years old. Who would have guessed then it still wouldn’t finally be resolved 10 years later? In mid-October 2002, the head of the QE II’s department of medicine […]

Sarah Dennis apologizes… but ignores the reason she had to

Chronicle Herald publisher Sarah Dennis was contrite. Under the headline, “We Have Listened And Will Learn From This,” she wrote about her newspaper’s mis-handling of the infamously viral story that “should not have been released.” She seemed forthright: “apologize,” “failure of foresight,” “acknowledge our mistakes,” “accept and try to learn from criticism…” But nowhere in […]

Stephen McNeil’s film dream — you have to (make) believe

To hear him spin it, you’d think Stephen McNeil lived inside the fantasy bubble of film and television instead of outside, systematically decimating the real-world industry that creates screen magic. In January, two of Nova Scotia’s most successful production companies became the latest to announce they were shuttering their businesses here. Since 2001, Special Effects […]