[caption id="attachment_9552" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Too damned many."][/caption] In response to my note about the 40-something Norwegian who had never seen a snow day until he came to Nova Scotia, Contrarian reader Joyce Rankin of Mabou Westmount blames consolidation of schools and secularization of society for the proliferation of snow days. Her response sparked a lively email debate. I remember we never used to have snow days either. But then again, we were close enough to school that we could walk. The questions to ask, for a proper comparison, would be how far children in Norway travel to school, and how far people drive to...

12 March, 2012

I met a Norwegian immigrant last night, a man in his 40s. He has lived in Nova Scotia for four years. At one point, the conversation turned to snow days. "You know," he said, "in 40 years in Norway, I never saw one snow day. Not from school. Not from work." Four years in Nova Scotia, and he's seen about 40. Just saying'....

07 March, 2012

In the interests of tying up loose ends, here are a couple of final notes about the insulated orange lunch bags the Department of Education handed out to grade primary students in four school boards this winter. I voiced suspicion that the selection of the color orange was a transparent political ploy, and even suggested the NDP should reimburse the taxpayers for their cost. It's clear I was wrong. The detailed explanation provided by Ann Blackwood, Executive Director of English Program Services for the Nova Scotia Department of Education, has the unmistakable ring of truth. Education bureaucrats chose the color for reasons that...

05 March, 2012

Last Friday, Rosa's school had an in-service day, so Rosa went birding at Point Pleasant Park. She brought the cardboard binoculars she got for Christmas. She spotted a Common Loon trying to swallow a whole crab: Way off the tip of the park, she spied a Common Eider Drake: A Northern Pintal was hanging around First Beach. Notice his blue bill? Here he is again, standing on one leg: A Pintail-Mallard hybrid was resting on the sand: A Red-Breasted Merganser was drying his feathers in the sun...

25 February, 2012

Halifax engineer Jeff Pinhey thinks Contrarian's attempt “to find political intrigue in childrens' lunch bags is beyond petty, it's almost creepy.” Pinhey first advanced this view in a clever message whose irony sailed right over Contrarian's head: I am outraged at all the obviously NDP sponsored vests being worn by almost every single construction worker in Nova Scotia! And when I looked into this I found that not only are they all NDP orange with some yellow - get this - they are forced to wear them by a LAW!  We actually have been legislated to show our support for the...

25 February, 2012

Labor lawyer Ron Stockton, who is also president of the Lunenburg NDP Association, protests that the insulated lunch bags distributed to Grade Primary students in Nova Scotia  the Annapolis, Cape Breton-Victoria, South Shore, and Strait regional school boards this month and next (and pictured here) do not appear to be NDP orange, but rather, red with orange trim. If the government were Liberal would you have levelled the same criticism?  If a PC government put out materials that were blue (admittedly a much more commonly used colour) would you have criticized them?  At my age I like things to be as colourful as...

24 February, 2012

This week month and next, as part of the Nova Scotia Department of Education's Early Learning Campaign, the Dexter government distributed a variety pack of learning materials  — books, a CD, construction paper, plastic animals, bubbles, clay, scissors, and sundry other education-related items — to every Grade Primary student in the province Grade Primary students in the Annapolis, Cape Breton-Victoria, South Shore, and Strait regional school boards. Best of all, the goodies all came packaged in a handy insulated orange lunch bag, suitable for use throughout the school year. Subtle, eh? Early education for today's families, you could call it. No, the lunch bags do not...

23 February, 2012

Lauren Oostveen, Nova Scotia's tweeting archivist, today unearthed a clipping from The 4th Estate, Halifax's one-time alternative weekly, about a vampire conflab that took place at Dalhouse 39 years ago this month. The 4th Estate story is good, but the yarn Oostveen dug up to go with it is even better. Organized by English Professor Devendra P. Varma, a renowned Dracula-lit buff, the goth-before-its-time conference boasted "the largest gathering of vampire experts ever presented in Canada," and featured a screening of the classic 1931 movie Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. The Himalayan-born Varma, who died in 1994, was apparently quite a character. According to Oostveen,...

11 January, 2012

Grad student, cultural activist, and entrepreneur Mike Targett writes: I appreciate a lot of Jay Macneil's general complaint. I've made similar ones about decision-makers not trying hard enough to make this place more livable, and even actively trying to make it less livable. I can even be pretty cynical about council at times. Maybe that cynicism is what made me think twice about this vote, since Morgan the populist voted with Kim Deveaux the radical. Curious. Did Morgan vote for what he knew would be the popular sentiment ("All he wanted to do was dance!") despite testimony from the Chief of Police...

09 December, 2011

[See update below] Paul W. Bennett, the director of Schoolhouse Consulting, and Nova Scotia's best known educational policy critic, shares Bert Lewis's skepticism about Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk. With the advent of TED Talks, Sir Ken Robinson, the current, undisputed rock star of public education, has been, or will be, coming to a School Board near you, so it's wise to be forewarned and perhaps even forearmed. Sir Ken puts on quite a show, especially with that snazzy RSA animation. Very few can match him when it comes to the British accent, rhetorical flourish, and sardonic humour. Having listened to him many...

01 November, 2011
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