Leo Glavine: Mis-speaking oneself while saying the same thing

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

Leo Glavine: Mis-speaking oneself while saying the same thing

On Thursday, in the warm afterglow of a Throne speech that zeroed in on “unsustainable [public sector] wage increases” and promised a “hiring slow down and steps to achieve a more sustainable wage pattern,” Health Minister Leo Glavine was clear as glass. Premier Stephen McNeil’s government had had it up to here with recalcitrant health […]

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

AIMS aims to cover its…

“The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies in Halifax has not responded to questions.” That nugget was nested in the last line, last paragraph of a Globe and Mail story last week about the Harper government’s efforts to “intimidate, muzzle and silence its critics.” Ottawa is spending $13.4 million so its tax auditors can descend, lotus-like, […]

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

Halifax Transit’s not-so-public response to its own public consultation

In 2013, Metro Transit began a series of public consultations to figure out how our public transportation system should look five years from now. The company was seeking answers to four basic questions: should the system focus on routes providing the biggest passenger bang for the buck, or offer service to as many local neighbourhoods […]

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

The government’s craven; we’re stupid. I’m OK with that

“Nova Scotia’s shale potential will remain in the ground,” harrumphed Financial Post columnist Terence Corcoran. Blame “growth-killing theories and activists.” “The McNeil Liberals have nailed shut one more economic doorway,”fretted Chronicle-Herald columnist Marilla Stephenson. “It’s a sorry day for Nova Scotia,” tut-tutted her editorial overlings. “Fear is trumping science,” piled on the Toronto Sun’s Brian […]

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

What would you do to un-Harper Canada?

Winner of the 2014 Atlantic Journalism Award for Commentary — Any Medium. For as long as I can remember, Canadian politics has been a pleasantly diverting if meaningless game of rascal tossing. We pick one set of rascals to govern us and toss the last set out. After a while, those no-longer new rascals run […]

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

Don’t trust Nova Scotia Power to fix what ails it

So there were these trees, see. And, it being July, these trees had leaves. Leafy leaves. And, this being Nova Scotia, there was a storm. Which meant rain that made the leaves wet. And wind that blew the wet leaves, so some of those trees fell down. around So — this still being Nova Scotia […]

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

No offence intended, Mr. Rudderham

One shouldn’t mess — litigiously speaking — with Parker Rudderham. The Cape Breton businessman who owns Frank Magazine — a publication with its own storied courtroom history — sometimes seems as (in)famous for his legal battles as his business successes and philanthropic donations. On October 30, 2012, to cite but one recent example, his hometown […]

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

Northern Pulp, the Sobeys and the lessons unlearned

Nova Scotia is a small, interconnected, even inbred political, economic and social ecosystem. So it was intriguing last month to hear former Empire CEO Paul Sobey publicly rail against the dense “haze of emissions” spewing forth daily from Pictou County’s Northern Pulp mill, stinking up the community in which he lives and in which his […]

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

Was Darrell Dexter right?

Metro/Jeff HarperThen Premier Darrell Dexter answers questions in this file photo. Perhaps Darrell Dexter was right. I mean the circa-2009 Darrell Dexter who — flushed with electoral victory and oozing political hubris — unleashed his freshly anointed pocket-calculator brigade on the question whether to keep propping up the Yarmouth-Portland ferry. The number of passengers had […]

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

State of the union

“SOMEONE TO SEE YOU.” Mike Hachey didn’t have time. Not today. He was in the process of sorting through paperwork dregs from last week’s Atlantic Lottery commercial shoot, planning a Canada Games event wrap-up, juggling planned/hoped-for/maybe pitches for future projects and overseeing – from the afar of Halifax – renovations at his company’s Moncton office. […]