… The Nova Scotia Green Party gets all double-entendre with this YouTube ad combating "Electoral Dysfunction." Given the craven, focus group-driven campaigns by the three biggies, it's tempting. Damn tempting....
He said the point of the act was to make people like me feel safe in my home in Lake Ainslie. But it's precisely because this can happen to a guy in Sydney Mines that I don't feel safe in my home in Lake Ainslie.[Last week, CBC's Joan Weeks reported here and here that a Sydney Mines man with no drug convictions was living in his car after being evicted from a home after neighbors complained of drug activity in the house.]
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.
How comfortable are you with a Safer Communities and Neighborhoods Act, which allows people to be evicted from their homes without being charged, or convicted of a criminal offence, or having an opportunity to face their peers?Darrell Dexter, who purports to be a New Democrat, led the charge:
Well there are always concerns, civil liberties concerns, around whether of not people are able to get a fair hearing with respect to these kinds of matters. But what the Safer Neighborhoods and Communities Act [sic] actually does, there is an evidentiary base for decisions that are made, and there are investigations that take place, and they are designed to protect neighborhoods from disruptive activity. It is a tool that is in the toolbox of the authorities and I haveYou have to wonder, is this guy inspired by the likes of Tommy Douglas and Stanley Knowles, or by Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day? The premier, too, stood squarely in the Harper-Day, law-and-order camp.faith not only in the authorities but in the courts of this province that they administer that law appropriately, and they will protect the civil liberties of the people of this province. Overriding all of this, of course, are the rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that is the overall safeguard for those mechanisms that exist in the Safer Communities and Neighborhoods Act [sic].
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?...
Reader Lucas Byers comments on contrarian's annoyance at Premier Rodney MacDonald's use of first names to address voters, regardless of age: You'd like me as your call center rep. I worked in three different ones over six years, and only ever called my caller Sir, Ma'am, Mr Lastname, Ms Lastname, unless directed not to by the caller. Sad that years of Conservative rule has only provided me with six years of call center [experience]; even sadder we're about to elect the Orange Menace to a majority. Maybe I'll be able to get a union job at McDonalds. I guess Nova Scotian voters...
… FUSIONHalifax, a "networking group for young Halifax residents who are inspired to make their city a better place to live, work, and play," has produced a nifty video prodding Haligonians to get off their duffs and vote. Nice! (And never mind those pesky economists who keep reminding us that voting is an irrational act, at least in terms of affecting the outcome.)...
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...
The old saw says they should let Cape Bretoners vote the next day, so we get it right. Until now, there has been a widespread assumption that of the 10 nine Cape Breton seats, only Victoria-The Lakes, held by PC Keith Bain, is in play. Today's CRA poll gives no reason to challenge that assumption. CRA's Don Mills says the NDP are merely holding their own on the island, where they currently hold but two seats. This bears watching. If Cape Bretoners get a sniff of a majority NDP government, things could change quickly....