The premier who won’t get involved versus the sister who won’t give up

I can understand why Nicole Gnazdowsky might have become a “hostile individual” after no one in authority would tell her how and why her brother died in a workplace incident. I can’t understand why Premier Iain Rankin can claim he doesn’t have the authority to act in her case because there’s an election campaign underway. […]

Election 2021: Welcome to ‘stupid season’

“An election” — as here-and-gone Conservative Prime Minister Kim Campbell once infamously but correctly explained — “is no time to discuss serious issues.” The real reason we are going to the polls in the middle of August is because the Liberals hope, and believe, no one will be paying attention. It’s 7:37 am on Saturday […]

Iain Rankin scores unforced error after own goal after…

I’m guessing — hoping, for their sakes — the premier’s inner circle wasn’t responsible for “strategically leaking” news about Rankin’s youthful DUIs last week. But they, and Rankin himself, are certainly culpable for what happened after that. Watching Premier Iain Rankin score one own goal after another — and then, oh god, no, yet another — […]

Promises to make… Promises to keep?

Iain Rankin billed himself as the candidate of generational change. But as a premier in pre-election pretend mode, he seems more like the unwelcome but familiar ghost of politicians past On June 14, 2021, Health Minister Zach Churchill announced the “Rankin government” — as it demands to be known — will invest one million dollars […]

Planning for a re-opening and hoping for a re-election

Premier Iain Rankin needs a do-over after a gaffe-prone first few months in office. His government’s gradual re-opening gives him another chance to make a better impression. On Friday afternoon, Premier Iain Rankin announced what he describes as a five-phase plan to allow too-long shuttered, increasingly restless, can’t-wait Nova Scotians to resume something approximating normal […]

What’s the ‘reasonable’ limit on protest in a public health emergency?

How do you distinguish between anti-maskers intending to flout health restrictions in the name of their “freedom” to infect themselves and others and organizers of a COVID-safe car rally intended to protest violence against Palestinians? You don’t, say police. But should they? On the morning of Friday, May 14, 2021, Nova Scotia government lawyers — […]

Premier Rankin talks a good game. Where have we heard that before?

During a Chamber of Commerce state-of-the-province event last week, our new premier postured back at the chamber’s posturing about his government’s budget. But should we have faith he means what he says? Gavin MacDonald’s introduction was full of the expected whinging and woe-is-us, and — of course, as always — it arrived with its own […]

Well, that didn’t take long

From the smiling selfie of our future-facing face of generational change and environmental salvation to the big reveal only a mini-month later that the shiny new was just one more in a long line of old-style pols in the welcoming embrace of all the usual corporate interests. And it will only get worse. Well, that […]

Can we finally hope to hope?

We have a new provincial government that at least seems to be making the right progressive noises. COVID-19 vaccines are headed our way. And spring is in the air… The first hint that the change of Nova Scotia government might be more than a simple shuffling of shop-worn deck chairs did not come from the […]

Iain Rankin says he’s listened and learned. Now it’s time to lead

On Tuesday, February 23, Rankin got his first chance as premier to make his first lasting impression on Nova Scotians. What did he say? What should he have said? Compare with my columnist’s suggested first announcements After Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor Arthur LeBlanc performs his ceremonial and socially distanced laying on of hands at the Halifax […]