It's not the size of the council, it's the quality of the councilors

The problem with the Utilities Review Board’s solution to the problem of municipal council is that its solution won’t solve the problem. The URB decided the 23 current Halifax Regional Municipality councilors should morph into 16 after the 2012 election. Why 16? The URB “attributes significant weight to the polling results, which express the public’s […]

Let the (Convention Centre) Summer Games begin

Metro reporter Alex Boutilier’s scoop last week that costs for the new convention centre have increased sent local, provincial and federal politicians scurrying about like ants on a hot summer day, but to less positive result. No one was able—or, more to the point, willing—to confirm what Alex’s source had told him. And no […]

Butts kicks some

In his first major public act as the city’s new Chief Administrative Officer, Richard Butts stared down concert promoter Harold MacKay—and won. Sort of. Last year, the mayor and former CAO fronted MacKay $400,000 toward the costs of two concerts on the Common. It was a sweet deal that allowed MacKay to walk away from […]

Heroes and blemishes: Edward Cornwallis and Cesar Chavez

“Edward Cornwallis is deeply offensive to members of our Mi’kmaq communities and to Nova Scotians generally who believe school names should recognize persons whose contributions to society are unblemished by acts repugnant to the values we wish our schools to embody and represent.” Kirk Arsenault Aboriginal Halifax School Board member *** The Atlantic’s latest issue […]

The real crime of Concertgate

Was it criminal? That seems to have become the question. It’s the wrong question. Last week’s 96-page auditor general’s report into the great concert fiasco-fandangle dissected and bisected the ever escalating series of high-level handouts that rambled merrily along—unchecked and in secret—from one faux-successful Common concert to the next fluff-the-numbers extravaganza to, oops, there goes […]

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 […]

Is it time to ban the ban?

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 […]

For mayor, surely we can do better

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 […]