What would Andrew do? Jagmeet?

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

What would Andrew do? Jagmeet?

The SNC-Lavalin affair offered a stark choice for our prime minister. We know which door he chose. But what about the opposition leaders. Shouldn’t we know what they would have done with the same choice? This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner March 11, 2019. There is an unanswered, barely whispered question at the heart-attack centre […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Bobbleheaded Zach joins the public accounts follies

Education Minister Zach Churchill was just filling in on the public accounts committee last week, filling in Liberal interest spin in the usual please-the-premier way. And so it went. Funny, but… The column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner March 4, 2019. I’m almost certain Nova Scotia Education Minister Zach Churchill is not really a Bobblehead. He was just […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Councillor Lindell Smith: Not is proud of… Will be proud of…

As he begins the second half of his first term as a city councilor, Lindell Smith reflects on what’s been accomplished. And what’s still to do before he moves on. He is not, he says again/still, a career politician. This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner February 25, 2019. What are you most proud […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Alex Richman: R.I.P.

When Alex Richman’s son “did not survive” the 1991 crash of US Air Flight 1493, his and his wife’s grief turned to frustration, then anger and finally resolve as they set out to make flight safer for all of us. This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner February 18, 2019 “Alex was laid to rest beside his son David in Shaarey Zedek Cemetery, Winnipeg […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

The Cat can’t come back… to Portland

But the money-sucking ferry service will continue to suck Nova Scotia tax dollars. That’s good news for columnists, bad news for taxpayers. The good news for need-to-always-be-even-more-shocked-and-yet-more-appalled columnists is that the Yarmouth ferry is the gift that keeps on giving. The bad news for taxpayers is that it is also the ferry that keeps on […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Now that the Fangless Five have become the Insensate Seven, it’s time for…?

Stephen McNeil’s Liberals have made a mockery of the notion of public accountability. So now the opposition parties need to step up and do their — and our — job. The column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner February 4, 2019. Stephen McNeil’s Liberals have made a mockery of the notion of public accountability. So […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Writing in the Writers’ Relay

Hello, So… I’m one of 12 Nova Scotia writer-volunteers taking part in — wait for it — a “writing relay event.” On Feb. 19, each of us will take a turn creating 200 words of a collective short story before handing off to the next relay writer. And so on. And so on. It’s a little […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Encounter re-encountered, with lessons for today

In 1970, a dozen outside experts came to Halifax for a week to turn the city ‘upside down.’ Last week, a local group played excerpts from ‘Encounter on Urban Environment,’ the NFB’s documentary on that cataclysmic week in Halifax, and discussed whether it’s time for another upside-downing. This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner January 28, 2019. I […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Health minister promises to fix long-term care, but offers no money to actually fix it

Last week’s expert-panel report into the province’s flat-lining long-term care system offered a clarion call for the government to finally fix our ailing long-term care system. But the panel didn’t provide a clear, costed pathway to do that, in part because the government didn’t provide it with enough useful data about the existing problems and […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

The Fang-less Five, the McNeil government and (un)accountability

In his own Trumpian, alternate-fact world, MLA Gordon Wilson wants us to believe the public accounts committee can’t venture beyond the narrow confines of published auditor general’s reports when examining public spending because… well, that would be against the law. Time for Wilson to re-read the “law.” This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner […]