Bill 329: the ‘good’ developers gift law?

Let’s begin with our question of the day. Do we really need a Law Amendments Committee? After Public Bills have received second reading in the House, the Standing Committee on Law Amendments gives them clause-by-clause consideration and hears representations from any interested persons or organizations. That’s the official logical rationale for a committee that has […]

The Mayor’s markers: Are people happy, confident we can be better?

When you ask Halifax Mayor Mike Savage what he takes the “most pride in” from his first two years on the job, he doesn’t mention the two balanced budgets with no tax increases, the $350 million debt at the time of amalgamation now wrestled to $260 million “while the province has gone from a debt […]

Mike Savage Part 1: Not quite his father’s son

It’s hard to imagine a 30-minute conversation with former mayor Peter Kelly that could skip seamlessly: from the rebuilding Halifax Mooseheads; to a previous life as a backbench opposition MP (“the only less relevant position being a backbencher on the government side”); to the job of Halifax mayor (“I like it, sometimes more than I […]

A mayor we can laugh with… Hey, it's a start

The good news — for all concerned — is that Mike Savage is not Brad Pitt. The better news is that he isn’t Bruce Banman either. Banman is the beleaguered mayor of Abbotsford, the currently virally — not to forget bacterially — in-the-news B.C. community where city officials recently scattered chicken manure around a homeless encampment […]

06/10/2013
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Shocked and appalled stocking stuffer

With the pre-holiday spate of comment-worthy local news and the upcoming holiday absence of venue to vent my inevitable shocked-and-appalled-at-it-all spleen, today’s column will be an assorted stocking stuffer. No charges in Home for Coloured Children investigation: I’m less shocked than I’d like. But winning convictions when allegations date back decades, involve children and include […]