Stephen McNeil’s Collective Bargaining Game

The thing about this game — as the government demonstrated last week when it changed the law to take away Crown prosecutors’ collective bargaining rights — is that McNeil always wins. That’s the way the game works. Always. Let’s play a game. A shell game. You say it’s not a game to you. I say […]

If we build it, will they come?

The stadium that refuses to die has returned. Last week, HRM released most of its private sector proposer’s pitch for public sector funding to make its dream of a CFL team reality. But it’s worth asking ourselves: what else could/should we spend that $180 million over the next 30 years on? “Premier Stephen McNeil reiterated […]

Going for the secrecy gold medal

Is Nova Scotia Canada’s most secretive jurisdiction? Or does it just act that way? Consider a few especially egregious, not-at-all-transparent episodes from just the last week. Is Nova Scotia Canada’s most secretive jurisdiction? Or does it just act that way? Consider a few especially egregious, not-at-all-transparent episodes from just the last week. Let’s start with […]

The Sackville-Cobequid byelection: seeking meaning in the meaningless

It is way too early to read anything of significance from a single constituency byelection in the muddling middle of any government’s mandate. But let’s give it a shot… “Steve Craig won the byelection for MLA in Sackville-Cobequid… The district has long been solidly NDP, so a PC victory is notable, but I wouldn’t read […]

And promises to break…

Stephen McNeil promised us the most open and transparent government ever. He lied. Now as our information and privacy commissioner retires, the premier’s wannabe replacements will talk a good game. Should we believe them? I have no reason to doubt Catherine Tully when she told the subscriber-based business website allnovascotia.com last week she would have […]

Crisis? What crisis? Just a(nother) ‘new (lack of) direction’ for healthcare

Last week’s “mutual” firing of the province’s deputy health minister shows just how unwilling our premier is to acknowledge our healthcare crisis — let alone do something about it. Last week, when Premier Stephen McNeil “mutually” agreed to fire Denise Perret — the deputy minister of health he’d hired just two-and-a-half years ago — he […]

Health care crisis? What health care crisis?

Listen to Premier McNeil and Health Minister Delorey and you might imagine Inez Rudderham’s problems are specific and anomalous. Fix them and we fix the problem. The problem is McNeil and Delorey are the problem. “To the premier of Nova Scotia, I dare you to take a meeting with me, and explain to me, and […]

Who’s sorry now? Not the premier, not the justice minister, not the police

No one in authority seems willing to apologize for the decades of “disproportionate and negative” impact street checks have had on Nova Scotia’s black community. Worse, no one seems to committed to finally ending them once and for all. This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner April 22, 2019. Our question for today: why is it so […]

Bobbleheaded Zach joins the public accounts follies

Education Minister Zach Churchill was just filling in on the public accounts committee last week, filling in Liberal interest spin in the usual please-the-premier way. And so it went. Funny, but… The column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner March 4, 2019. I’m almost certain Nova Scotia Education Minister Zach Churchill is not really a Bobblehead. He was just […]

The Cat can’t come back… to Portland

But the money-sucking ferry service will continue to suck Nova Scotia tax dollars. That’s good news for columnists, bad news for taxpayers. The good news for need-to-always-be-even-more-shocked-and-yet-more-appalled columnists is that the Yarmouth ferry is the gift that keeps on giving. The bad news for taxpayers is that it is also the ferry that keeps on […]