Peter Kelly's stadium dream our nightmare…

The stadium is dead. Long live the dream. But let’s keep it a dream instead of the reality turning into a taxpayers’ nightmare. A brief history is in order. Peter Kelly, our in-search-of-a-legacy-to-match-his-longevity mayor, has long been eager to have the city to erect an expensive new stadium, most recently—and urgently—in the faint hope we […]

Time to make transit an essential service… no, really

It’s time to make transit an essential service. By that, I don’t—necessarily—mean it’s time to take away bus drivers’ right to strike. What I do mean is that, however the current labour dispute ends, it’s long past time city council made transit a can’t-live-without service. And not just for those who, because they can’t afford […]

Goodbye Peter, hello future

Peter Kelly’s final mayoralty meltdown announcement last week was not triggered by any of the many mis-governance issues that should have long since ended his political career. Ironically, the mayor was ultimately hoist on the petard of his own sloppy-and-perhaps-worse handling of the estate of a friend, a private matter unrelated to his duties as […]

Metro Transit negotiations require talking… and leadership

Whatever else one can say about the rights-wrongs of the current Metro Transit strike, it is clear city negotiators were never interested in negotiating with its 760 bus drivers, ferry operators and support staff. The contract between Metro Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Union expired Sept 1. There was just one face-to-face session—essentially a presentation […]

How not to end up up with the mayor we least want

Perhaps Halifax should adopt a kinder, gentler version of the American cage match, survival-of-the-sleaziest primary system to winnow our choices for mayor. Or maybe we need to consider some variation of the NDP’s upcoming advance preferential leadership balloting system to determine who we most—and least—want as next super mayor of our supercity. Consider. Four candidates […]

Progress? Who's whining now?

On Wednesday, local radio personality Bobby Mac launched a new Facebook group “for those of us who are tired of those whining people who don’t want any progress in this great city of Halifax.” Its name? SCREW THE VIEW!! By Saturday morning, STV had 163 members. “We are tired of the groups that stop progress […]

You showed them, Mr. Mayor

Dear Mayor Kelly, Congratulations. You showed those dangerous… democrats. Who knows what calamities might have befallen our fair city if those peaceful hooligans had been allowed to stage yet another one of their interminable, speak-and-repeat, consensus-decision-making general assemblies on our sacredly public Grand Parade (which, until recently, served as a sacredly private parking lot for […]

The stadium… moving right along

The good news: there are public consultations. The bad news: those consultations are happening late, and only after the central question has already been answered. “Is a stadium a good idea for HRM?” demands the white-letters-on-red-bristolboard-styled poster on the home page of the Stadium Consultation web page. But the actual questions we are now being […]

Your call is important to us, City Hall edition

Andrew Macdonald had a question. Several. The allnovascotia.com reporter was following up a recent HRM decision not to challenge a Supreme Court ruling that Polycorp Properties could develop a $15-million, 66-unit condo project on Brunswick Street. The city had refused to issue a development permit for the project because it claimed a never-officially-registered 1970 document […]

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 […]