Do boots on the ground equal votes in the hand?

Time flies when you’re having fun. Ask Darrell Dexter. Next month, he will celebrate his second anniversary as the province’s first ever NDP premier. In two years—probably less—he will try to become Nova Scotia’s NDP premier to win a second majority government… or, perhaps, settle for a minority… or, failing one of the above—and politics […]

So really, why do we love this town?

The question, of course, is why? According to the latest CityThink survey—conducted for Metro Halifax and the Greater Halifax Partnership—91 per cent of us are pleased as punch to live in our awkwardly named Halifax Regional Municipality. Forty-two per cent of us, in fact, are very smug about it. Why? Consider that this particular poll […]

Banning developer cash: methinks thou dost protest a bit too much

Well, Brad Johns certainly kicked over a few hornets’ houses. The Sackville municipal councilor had the temerity last month to suggest “individuals or businesses directly involved with the development industry” be banned from contributing to local candidates’ elections. Within days, prominent Halifax developer Wadih Fares was demanding an apology. “Who does he think we are? […]

Was our mayor as dumb as he pretends?

Here’s what we are supposed to believe. Howard MacKay’s Power Promotional Events was in deep doo doo. Tickets for its July 24 Black Eyed Peas concert on the Halifax Commons were selling so poorly the promoter was on the edge of cancelling that concert as well as a two-day country show set for the same […]

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 […]

Convention centre choices—with consequences

CBC Radio’s Mainstreet host, Stephanie Domet, had an interesting conversation last week with federal Liberal MP Scott Brison and former provincial PC leadership candidate Bill Black. The topic: taming Nova Scotia’s debt woes. While Black in particular had many thoughtful things to say, I was intrigued by his answer to one question. Does it really […]

The convention centre gamble that isn't

So Darrell Dexter’s government has decided to gamble $163.5 million of our tax dollars over the next 25 years on a spiffy new, super-sized, half-billion-dollar downtown-convention-centre-bunker-hotel-and-office-tower complex we may or may not be able to fill five years from now. That reckoning—conveniently and perhaps not coincidentally—will coincide nicely with when the bills actually begin to […]