The Globe and Mail says Scarborough-Rouge River MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan, 29, might be "the most compelling of the new crop of young NDP MPs." She's the first Tamil-Canadian MP, and so has become the de facto standard-bearer for thousands of Canadians who have felt defeated – militarily, in their country of birth, and politically, in their new home. As a 29-year-old woman from political cultures – both Canadian and Sri Lankan – in which older men make most of the decisions, she exudes the poise, organizing skills and confidence of an old-school political veteran. How awkward for Contrarian, then, to report alert reader...

20 September, 2011

A lo-tech texter has been leaving messages in the Lawrence Street area of in West End Halifax.  From simple labels...

19 September, 2011

Contrarian needed to make a reservation yesterday from Toronto to Sydney. The fact I had to get all the way to Sydney meant I couldn't use Porter Airlines' magnificent service from Toronto Island Airport. Porter is the upstart airline known for its curious, retro habit of treating passengers as welcome guests. Leaving from the Island Airport avoids the time and money wasted getting to and from unspeakable Pearson. So I made a quick check to see if Air Canada could accommodate me from Toronto Island. To my astonishment, I found the following: $219.36 is an almost unheard of low fare. As I snapped...

19 September, 2011

Perhaps something is wrong with me, but I feel bad for Dave Wilson, and faintly nauseous at the mob clammoring for his neck. Wilson f**ked up — spectacularly and inexcusably. In doing so, he violated a public trust and brought disgrace upon himself and upon democratic institutions already in public repute so low as to undermine civil society. Consider also what Wilson has lost: a dream  job that was probably his as long as he wanted it; his home; his family (or parts of it, to judge from his brother-in-law's published comments). He has suffered public humiliation that is hard to...

14 September, 2011

There's a ton of reader reaction to Contrarian's dustup with Nova Scotia's Chief Electoral Officer Christine McCulloch (my original post here; McCulloch's response here). I intend to post a selection shortly, but what with having been out late last night, and having to wrangle opening night at the fall season of the Cape Breton Island Film Series later today, it will have to keep. But why wait any longer for this? Within eight hours of my original post, one resourceful Contrarian reader managed to crack McCulloch's digital locks and return the 2010 donations list to the traditional open pdf format, one that permits...

08 September, 2011

Country rock artist Steve Earle (center, in spotlight) played Dalhousie University's Rebecca Cohn Auditorium last night with his current band, The Dukes (and Duchesses), featuring Allison Moorer. She is Earle's sixth wife out of a total of seven marriages. The evening's highlight was Moorer's unusual rendition of the great Sam Cooke civil rights anthem, A Change is Gonna Come. The ensemble plays tonight at Membertou Trade and Convention Centre, Sydney....

08 September, 2011

Yesterday I complained that Nova Scotia's Chief Electoral Officer, Christine McCulloch, had impaired the usefulness of her annual tally of political donations by rendering them impossible to search electronically. Ms. McCulloch responds: I make no apology for doing our utmost to protect the privacy of Nova Scotians while meeting the obligation of full disclosure of political contributions required under the Members and Public Employees Disclosure Act (MPEDA). The purpose of the disclosure provision of MPEDA is to provide everyone with access to the identity of contributors to recognized parties and candidates and how much they have contributed. That is met in our...

06 September, 2011

Before the end of June, each year, Nova Scotia law requires the Chief Electoral Officer to a publish all the political contributions made in the previous year. For the years 2007, 2008, and 2009, Christine McCulloch complied with the law, posting the information to the Elections Nova Scotia website in a manner that was accessible, searchable, printable, and even, with effort, downloadable to a citizen's own database. This gave every citizen the tools to determine whether contractors who won big roadbuilding contracts, storeowners who won liquor commission franchises, or communications consultants (like me!) who were selected for Communications Nova Scotia's Standing...

05 September, 2011

Summer 2011 is going out like a lamb, but that's not how it came in. Mike Swain of Fall River, NS, caught this lightning strike from his back yard in June, during an electrical storm that wrecked havoc with power lines and communications equipment throughout much of New England and the Maritime Provinces. (Click photo for larger image.)...

05 September, 2011

The International Symbol of Accessibility (ISA), more widely but less correctly known as the handicapped sign, is evolving. The original symbol (far left), designed by Susanne Koefoed in 1968, was pretty much just a stylized wheelchair. The International Commission on Technology and Accessibility (ICTA), a committee of Rehabilitation International, humanized the it by adding a head (second from left). This is the icon we are most familiar with. Critics complain that its static nature stigmatizes the wheelchairs as instruments of helplessness and passivity.  In 2005, VSA, an international organization on arts and disability, produced a more active icon implying self-propulsion (third from left). At least one store,...

05 September, 2011
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