Gerald Regan and the legacy of our #MeToo moment

It isn’t the jury’s verdict from 1998 we should be remembering, but the fact the RCMP and prosecutors finally chose to believe women over one of the country’s most powerful political men. And, more important, that women — lots of them — stood up for other women, and said ‘me too’ before #MeToo. This column […]

Winning, losing and Jamie Baillie

This column original appeared in the Halifax Examiner November 6, 2017. Many years ago, probably after an election campaign he’d just lost that he believed he should have won, I interviewed then-Nova Scotia Liberal politician Gerald Regan. He was in a philosophical mood. “Victory and defeat,” he told me, paraphrasing a Rudyard Kipling poem, “are equal […]

Are you better off? Discuss

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on September 5, 2017. As someone who has spent most of his life living to the rhythms of academia of one sort or another, I always think of the day after Labour Day as the real New Year’s Day, an annual day of stock-taking, resolution-making and future-fantasizing. […]

Who is Lyle Howe? And why are so many people saying such nasty things about him? (Part II)

PART II: The un-making of Lyle Howe “I have gained some valuable wisdom from this matter, and all young men should benefit from the things I have learned without going through what I have gone through. Being innocent isn’t enough. Having legal education and a good lawyer is sometimes not enough.” Lyle Howe Post to […]

Who is Lyle Howe? And why are so many people saying such nasty things about him? (Part I)

PART I: The Making of Lyle Howe “High school taught me what to think. Philosophy taught me how to think. Law school will teach me why all this thinking is necessary.” Lyle Howe Dalhousie University “Discover the Unexpected” marketing campaign 2006 “The Complaints Investigation Committee of the NOVA SCOTIA BARRISTERS’ SOCIETY gives notice that the practising […]

The Cat, the commitment and the costly complication

“Let me be clear,” Stephen McNeil said clearly last August even after Nova Star’s cash-sucking Yarmouth-Portland ferry had taken on sinking-level financial water. “As premier I’m committed to that link to the New England States… to a ferry service from Yarmouth.” Our question today. As Nova Star’s replacement — Bay Ferries high-speed Cat — sails […]

Yarmouth ferry: We pay money, Portland makes money

Transportation Minister Geoff MacLellan doesn’t want you to jump to conclusions. If he had his way, you wouldn’t know enough to jump to even the most preliminary conclusions. Unfortunately for him, Portland, Maine, requires Bay Ferries, operator of the Yarmouth-Portland ferry service, to submit a monthly accounting showing just how many passengers the Nova-Scotia-government-funded ferry […]

Thanks Stephen, Darrell, Rodney, et al… for ‘The Donald’?

If you want to understand the un-understandable appeal of Donald Trump, you could do worse than begin with Stephen McNeil. That is not as far-fetched as it might initially seem. We are not talking here about Stephen McNeil, the individual, but Stephen McNeil, the symbolic end result of far too many years of all-too-usual politics […]

Politics in Nova Scotia is getting interesting

The best news about the just-ended Nova Scotia legislature session is that there was so little government news. There were no new zigging announcements the government was eviscerating working-just-fine programs, like Seniors Pharmacare or the film tax credit (oh wait, Stephen McNeil’s Liberals already attacked those), and no zagging gifts to money-pit ferries (oh, wait, we’re […]

Is Joan Jessome most hated woman in Nova Scotia?

Let’s start with a question: is Joan Jessome the most hated woman in Nova Scotia? Google “Joan Jessome” and “hated,” and you’ll get 5,630 hits in less than a Google second. The top three results are news stories following the December 11, 2015, announcement she would be retiring as president of the Nova Scotia […]