Archive for: June 2009
Steve v. Stephen
Not owning a TV, at least one connected to the outside world, contrarian is a little late with this, but it’s worth reading. CTV Atlantic’s Steve Murphy deftly navigates the border between politeness and persistence, while the Prime Minister Stephen H. squirms.
Q: You have been spending a good deal of time with Ignatieff lately working on this compromise that averted the election, and at same time your party is running ads that attacked Mr. Ignatieff. And frankly, we and other broadcasters have been getting complaints about those ads. How do those ads right now improve or dignifiy the political process?
Read more »
Paving the way for Tories – another view
Some days ago, contrarian reader Wallace J. McLean challenged contrarian to determine how many of the paving projects Nova Scotia submitted for federal stimulus funding were in provincial Tory ridings. “Too much work,” we said, and went back to surfing Digg and Stumbledupon.
Well, turns out Wally is a blogger himself, and after days with a magnifying glass comparing project lists with the boundaries of Nova Scotia’s 52 provincial ridings, he offers an answer:
Of the 37 projects put forward by the late Macdonald government in NS, five were located in Liberal districts, and five in NDP districts, based on the 2006 election results…. Twenty-six were located in districts which the Tories held, or had won in 2006.
Drinking the feed-in tariff Kool-Aid
In his latest Herald column, the normally estimable Ralph Surette drinks the feed-in tariff Kool-Aid. Moneyquote:
Check out how they’re doing it in Ontario and other out-front jurisdictions, where “feed-in” laws or “standard offer contracts” are in effect — in which the utility is required to take power produced by entrepreneurs at a fixed rate, no haggling. Wherever it’s been tried, there’s been an explosion of energy entrepreneurship and new jobs.
The [Nova Scotia Power] system of calling tenders one project at a time didn’t work elsewhere, and it hasn’t worked here.
Ralph makes a few good points in the column, but these two paragraphs contain more foolishness than enough.
Ontario passed a bill authorizing the Minister of Energy to permit the use of feed-in tariffs just six weeks ago, and the regulations haven’t been written yet. So it hasn’t produced “an explosion” of anything yet, except perhaps hyped expectations among the uncompetitive producers who have been pushing for such a law here. As for other jurisdictions, in North America, Ontario is it: the first state, province, or country to pass a feed-in tariff law.
As for tendered contracts not working, that will come as news to generations of good governance experts. Elsewhere in the same column, Ralph rightly criticizes NSP’s attempt to win Utility and Review Board approval for an untendered biomass project. Read more »
Greens face imminent deregistration – Update
Chief Electoral Officer Christine McCulloch’s annual report has been posted, and it confirms our report last week that she has initiated deregistration proceedings against the Green Party for failure to comply with financial disclosure laws.
As the chart above shows, the failure appears to be complete across the board: No audited financial statements, no public access thereto, and no copies or accounting of tax receipts. The Green Party of Nova Scotia received $133,469.90 in public financing last year.
McCulloch’s report doesn’t say when deregistration will take effect, but over the weekend party officials told contrarian they had until July 17 to avoid losing official party status.
The da Vinci of data shows why the iPhone works
Edward Tufte, the Yale University statistician known to Business Week as “the the Galileo of graphics,” and to the New York Times as, “tbe da Vinci of data,” explains why the iPhone works so well. The secret lies in the “magnificent and intense” resolution of its screen, and its “brilliant suppression” of content-stealing “computer administrative debris.” Moneyquote:
Here’s the general theory: To clarify, add detail. Imagine that. To clarify, add detail. And, clutter and overload are not an attribute of information; they are failures of design.
If the information is in chaos, don’t start throwing out information, instead fix the design. And that is exactly what the iPhone platform has done.
‘Reckless and inflammatory’ references to Epstein’s Judaism
Jay Wilson challenges contrarian‘s references to Howard Epstein’s Judaism:
In the article, “Howard’s end”, you referred to him being, “The only Jew currently serving in the legislature.” By itself, it’s an accurate statement, but something of a throwaway statement as well. By itself, it has little relevance unless you had a specific reason for putting it in. My assumption upon reading it was your desire for full disclosure of the facts.
Then in your most recent article entitled “You have my iPhone and I know where you are,” in reference to Kevin Miller losing his iPhone, you wrote, “…the chances of getting it back looked more and more like a Jewish environmentalist’s chances of getting into the Nova Scotia cabinet.”
It seems to me that you’re making the implication—saying it without really saying it—that Howard Epstein was passed over for cabinet, in some part, because he’s Jewish. Read more »
NDP & Grit riding associations race to avoid deregistration – Feedback
Defeated Green Party candidate and perennial political gadfly Michael Marshall, who has been hounding his party’s executive to comply with financial disclosure rules, finds the legislation governing riding associations too complicated—and a damper on participation.
Elections Canada is asking the parties if the added complexity of their new election legislation is reducing the number of people willing to get involved in the political process. Part of the reason for the lower voter turnout is because, in many ridings, only one or two parties are truly competitive—and the complexity of election laws is one reason that many riding executives are so weak—no one wants to take on thanklessly complex jobs that may send them to jail.
Elections Nova Scotia communications director Dana Philip Doiron hinted Friday that the Elections Act and the Members and Public Employees Disclosure Act need tweaking. In an interview Friday, he said the legislation offers no guidance on how a party that has been deregistered—as the Greens are on the brink of being—can be reregistered.
“It’s a bit of a work in progress,” he said. “There are some holes in the legislation.”
This Nova Scotia
Artist Peter Matyas composes a portrait of Blues great B.B. King between sets by the Roger Howse Band at Bearly’s in Halifax Friday night. At night’s end, the finished portrait fetched $400 in an auction to benefit Phoenix House.
Darkest M.J. joke ever
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Q.: Q: What was Farah Fawcett’s last wish?
… (Answer after the jump.) Read more »
