09 Jul Jumpshot

Premier Darrell Dexter shot a few baskets Monday afternoon during a courtesy call at the former Holy Angels High School, which New Dawn Enterprises is turning into a center for cultural organizations and entrepreneurship. Pictured in the doorway is Blair Oake, recently retired manager of City Printers, who will manage the facility. Seated in the stands, wearing a blue shirt,  is New Dawn president (and defeated mayoral candidate) Rankin MacSween.

Dexter squeezed in a series of meet-and-greets en route to the NDP’s Cape Breton-The Lakes nominating convention in Eskasoni, where Mi’kmaq John Frank Toney was acclaimed. Toney’s nomination, tacitly endorsed by Eskasoni Chief Leroy Denny, is good news for Conservative MLA Keith Bain, who faces a tough fight in a greatly expanded riding against Liberal Pam Eyking, wife of Mark Eyking, MP for Cape Breton-The Sydneys. Toney’s entry into the race essentially takes the large Mi’kmaq community, where Bain is not well known, out of play as far as the front runners are concerned. Racking up a large margin in Eskasoni had been a key element in the Liberal strategy.

Since polls show the Liberals to be the main threat to the Dexter government’s re-election, NDP strategists may be content to help the popular Conservative retain a riding they have no realistic hope of winning.

[Photo: Mike Targett]