Is Peter MacKay channelling John Buchanan? Is Stephen Harper keen to cultivate a second Danny Williams in Atlantic Canada? Those are two possible explanations of the Harper Government's mean-spirited, post-election reversal of its commitment to help fund the $40-million, four-rink arena planned for Bedford. The Conservative about-face presents an early test for Darrell Dexter's Government. Last month, the feds assured HRM officials that the project was on track to receive $15 million in infrastructure funding from Ottawa's stimulus program. The NDP Government likewise committed $15 million, and HRM was to finance the remainder. Last Friday, Ottawa abruptly informed city hall it no longer...

09 July, 2009

The indefatigable Wallace J. McLean (note correct spelling; mea culpa) has risen to contrarian's challenge, and defended his view that the MacDonald government's paving proposals were as politically skewed as the Harper government's selective approvals thereof. This time he buttresses his case with a map, using traditional party colors in two shades: darker for ridings in which the government proposed  paving; lighter for those where it did not. Turning this map back into numbers, the Rodney government proposed work in two out of six rural Liberal districts (33%); three out of eight rural NDP districts (38%), and 13 out of 21 rural...

03 July, 2009

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...

29 June, 2009
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.
29 June, 2009

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...

27 June, 2009
ryan-watson-smallNova Scotia Green Party leader Ryan Watson says the party will publish its 2008 audited financial statements "within a few weeks." Based on regular conversations with Elections Nova Scotia, he believes this will be soon enough to avoid loss of official party status. By law, the financial statements should have been filed by April 30. Elections Nova Scotia communications director Dana Philip Doiron told contrarian earlier today that Chief Electoral Office Christine McCulloch had issued the required 30-day notice of deregistration required under the Elections Act, and a report due for release Tuesday would detail the issue. He said deregistration could follow shortly. Watson said the late filing resulted from the party being new, its treasurer taking an untimely vacation,  and its reliance on volunteers who were "wading through the election regulations," and busy preparing for and fighting the June election.
26 June, 2009
Three NDP and one Liberal riding associations are racing to comply with financial disclosure requirements that could result in their deregistration. As reported earlier, the entire Green Party also faces imminent deregistration. Joanne Lamey, provincial organizer for the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party confirmed that three NDP riding associations have been warned of possible deregistration for failure to disclose financial information. She said financial statements for the Digby Annapolis, Yarmouth, and Inverness riding associations were in various stages of completion, and she expected to submit them "very quickly—perhaps this afternoon." Glennie Langille, who was co-chair of communications for the Liberal campaign, said one riding association had been asked to supply tardy financial statements, but she denied the deadline was imminent. She refused to identify the riding association because no official action had been taken against it.
26 June, 2009
green-watsonThe Green Party of Nova Scotia, and riding associations for the Greens and two other recognized parties, face imminent deregistration under the Elections Act for failing to publish audited financial statements for the last fiscal year as required by law. Dana Philip Doiron, communications director for Elections Nova Scotia, confirmed that Chief Electoral Officer Christine McCulloch will file her annual report under the Members and Public Employees Disclosure Act (MPED) Tuesday, and deregistration could follow shortly thereafter. "Sometimes [the report's release is] a ho-hum event, and Frank is the only one interested," Doiron said "In this particular case the report will be looking at compliance for reporting, and that report will be interesting."
26 June, 2009

[caption id="attachment_1057" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Steven Bierfeldt: Flush, iPhone-carrying, libertarian security risk"][/caption] Last March,  Steven Bierfeldt, a 25-year-old libertarian who works for US Congressman Ron Paul, tried to board a plane at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, when a security x-ray machine turned up a metal box in his carry-on baggage containing $4700 in cash, proceeds from the sale of tee-shirts and literature at a Ron Paul event the previous day. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials hauled Bierfeldt out of the lineup and detained him for half an hour, demanding to know the source of the (perfectly legal) money, along with a raft of...

20 June, 2009

Howard Epstein will not be in Darrell Dexter's first cabinet, nor will he be offered the Speaker's chair. He may or may not be offered some sort of assistant ministerial position, akin to a parliamentary secretary in the federal cabinet, but it appears unlikely he will accept this. Word of the slight is rocketing around left circles in Halifax. The only Jew currently serving in the legislature, Epstein is best known for his storng, somewhat inflexible, environmentalist views. He was director of the Ecology Action Centre from 1991 to 1994, the year he first won election to Halifax City Council, representing the city's...

19 June, 2009
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