If it is possible—and it seems it is—for the Halifax Traffic Authority to lift the overnight parking ban a month before its official best-before date because the weatherman isn’t expecting snow for… well, a week, but who’s counting… then why is it not possible to hold off on imposing the ban until the first snow […]
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
- 03/07/2011
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
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 […]
- 02/28/2011
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
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 […]
- 02/14/2011
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
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 […]
- 02/07/2011
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
“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 […]
- 01/31/2011
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
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 […]
- 01/24/2011
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
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 […]
- 01/17/2011
- StephenKimber
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
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. […]
- 01/10/2011
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
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 […]
- 12/20/2010
- StephenKimber
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
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 […]
- 12/13/2010
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STEPHEN KIMBER, a Professor of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax and co-founder of its MFA in Creative Nonfiction Program, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. He is the author of two novels and eight non-fiction books. Buy his books
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