Halifax arts and culture activist and New Democrat Andrew Terris weighs in on the union donation flap:
As I understand it, there are two critical factors: 1. Are the members of the [Building and] Construction Trades Council separately incorporated bodies?  If they are, their donations are not illegal. The [Members and Public Employees] Disclosure Act says "a trade union and all its members and affiliates are considered to be one organization." But it looks to me like the Council is an association of unions rather than a single, inclusive entity under the act. 2. Given #1, the NDP could well have accepted the donations in good faith. The real problem was the offer of the Council to reimburse the unions, an offer about which the NDP might well have known nothing until it was leaked to you and other media bloodhounds...
07 June, 2009

Contrarian reader Scooter Bob complains that the media is ignoring NDP ads that are just as negative as the Tories': The NDP are distributing a two-page flyer. On one side is a less-than-flattering picture of Rodney MacDonald and a list of five alleged missteps — ERs closing & longer wait times; wasting money on expensive vehicles for ministers; putting HST on electricity; and putting the province in more debt. Isn't this exactly the same negative, US-style electioneering the NDP are complaining about? Why doesn't the media report on this? Perhaps because the ads go a step further by implying illegality by the...

07 June, 2009
manning-mackay
A spirited CBC Radio forum for candidates in Cape Breton South last Thursday degenerated into a shouting match in the back parking lot of CBC  Sydney after the show. Feisty Liberal veteran Manning MacDonald and earnest NDP up-and-comer Wayne MacKay nearly came to blows after MacDonald took umbrage at suggestions he was an absentee MP. The debate itself, on CBC-Cape Breton's Information Morning, featured a generational clash as MacDonald, 66, defended attacks from MacKay, 34, and Tory Stephen Tobin, 25, both teachers (sort of). Cathy Theriault of the Greens, a one-time Marijuana Party candidate, also took part.
06 June, 2009
iuec
Contrarian reader Garland Ingraham, former Business Manager for the Mainland Nova Scotia Building & Construction Trades Council and former Business Representative for International Union of Elevator Constructors, Local 125, thinks the media are making too much of the dubious council donations to the NDP that were returned following inquiries by contrarian.
Prior to the Mainland building trades meeting held on April 9, 2009, the Mainland council had made political contribution to all three main parties, Tories, Liberals, and NDP . A motion in the Council's books, which had been there for some time  basically stated that if political contributions were to be made that all parties receive an equal amount. As a past Business Manager for the Mainland Building Trades Council, I have personally written out checks, signed by the signing officers, for payment to various candidates of all three parties, Tories, Liberals and NDP. No checks were ever returned durning my term with the council. So if the NDP is tainted so are the other two. With all this political bull in the air, I am thinking its a great time to plant my garden.
03 June, 2009

Reader Jean McKenna thinks the mainstream media have overlooked a critical detail in the union minutes contrarian published Monday The date on this document is very interesting - long before the NDP, acting on information apparently from yourself, decided to give the money back. I am curious as to why the Herald didn't reproduce this; I wouldn't have known about it without reading to the distant, page 2, end, of their article. Where is investigative journalism? Why hasn't there been some follow-up from someone on the possible ties between the various "brothers" and Mr. Dexter, et al?...

03 June, 2009
debate-1s
6:55:  The very small crowd is getting seated in the very small space in The Alexander Graham Bell Museum National Historic Site where the leaders will debate. There is seating for 70 in the shadow of Bell's HD-4 Hydrofoil. Contrarian will be live blogging. 7:12:  Twelve minutes into the debate, the sound track in the media room is working. 7:14:  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz... 7:15:  There was much back and forth among organizers and the three parties over seating for leaders during the debate, because McNeil, at 6'5, towers over the other two.  The Tory solution, apparently, is for MacDonald to stand each time he speaks. The N-dips, apparently, are content to let Dexter sit, seemingly at ease at 3/4 height. 7:22: Rodney turns a question about wage freezes for civil servants into a jibe at Dexter over ties to trade unions. But the tame format of the debate precludes any follow-up. 7:25: Moneyquote Understatement of the debate so far:  Rodney MacDonald, asked about whether the legislature should sit longer during the year: "There is nowhere more that I would like to be right now than sitting in the legislature." You betcha. Rest of debate after the jump.
02 June, 2009

Esteemed Metro gadfly Michael Marshall, running this time for the Greens in Bill Dooks's Eastern Shore riding, agrees with fellow veridian David Croft. He writes: I am running and organizing again for the Greens, and I do for them what I did as an N-dipper: tell everybody what I think we'll actually get for votes, be it 2% or 16%. It didn't seem to hurt me among the public, other parties, or the media, but the party faithful often protested that we were going to win and should say so. But when I asked if  they were willing to sign for a...

02 June, 2009

Minutes of the April 9 meeting of the Mainland Nova Scotia Building and Construction Trades Council confirm that the council tried to circumvent statutory campaign limits. A member of another political party described the minutes to Contrarian Saturday evening, and agreed to forward copies, on condition of anonymity. While waiting for the minutes to arrive, Contrarian sought reaction from NDP campaign director Matt Hebb, who said he had no knowledge of the donations. Today, the original source forwarded the minutes shown above, shortly after the NDP announced it was returning $45,000 in Trades Council donations. The source ascribed the delay in sending...

01 June, 2009
ATV's CTV Atlantic's domination of supper hour television reflects an unerring ear for Maritime sensibilities. Host Steve Murphy is affable, respectful, and moderate, and these qualities draw viewers in droves. They were not on display, however, on October 9, 2008, when CTV officials chose to break an earlier undertaking and air three false starts of a mid-campaign interview with then-Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, who stumbled repeatedly in response to an awkwardly worded question from Murphy. (The National Post's Colby Cosh wittily dissected the grammatical minefield underlying the Francophone Dion's incomprehension of Anglophone Murphy's question.) CTV Atlantic News Director Jay Witherbee gamely defends the network decision, contending that politicians cannot expect mulligans in election campaigns. Contrarian is more inclined to the view of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council panel that reproached the network this week.
28 May, 2009

Most economists have at least grudgingly accepted the need for deficit spending to replace economic activity lost to the worldwide economic meltdown. But when CBC Radio's The Current sought to analyze Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's miscalculation of the federal deficit, the national broadcaster's idea of balance was to match Harper booster Janet Ecker with anti-tax zealot Kevin Gaudet. Ecker is a former Ontario Tory finance minister who now toils for the Toronto Financial Services Alliance. Halifax native Gaudet is national director of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation. With balance like that, who needs a center?...

28 May, 2009