I don't mean to be overly cranky with my former colleagues in the political journalism racket, but I could do with a little less psychoanalysis and a little more content in reports from the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. CBC legislature reporter Jean Laroche's weekly debrief this morning  was long on the former and light on the latter. Premier Dexter, he explained, normally doesn't have a short fuse, but the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board's threat to decimate library staff caused him to blow his stack. The debate, opined Laroche, had an unusual, intensely personal character. Really? None of the clips Laroche played showed anything...

13 April, 2012

Liberal MLA Kelly Regan put two questions to Community Services Minister Denise Peterson-Rafuse in the House of Assembly yesterday: MS. KELLY REGAN:  Mr. Speaker, for 53 years Talbot House provided residential addiction treatment for men in Cape Breton. Talbot House recently, abruptly closed its doors and left the people of Cape Breton with a whole lot of questions. Will the Minister of Community Services lift the shroud of secrecy and tell the men and their families who rely on these services why the minister closed the doors and removed this vital service from this community? HON. DENISE PETERSON-RAFUSE:  Mr. Speaker, we know...

04 April, 2012

Citing the latest of several Corporate Research Associates polls showing Darrell Dexter's New Democrats with a comfortable lead, longtime Progressive Conservative Rob Smith has a piece in today's AllNovaScotia.com [subscription required] proposing some form of Liberal-Tory co-operation to prevent what the news service alarmingly headlines, "Socialists forever." [caption id="attachment_9599" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Beware of blue Bolsheviks!"][/caption] This argument would be more persuasive if the Dexter Government had shown any sign of being either permanent or socialist. Dexter won office less than three years ago,  and he did so by turning quietly away from the strident leftist approach of previous NDP leaders, and toward centrist policies...

19 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

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

A Contrarian reader asks: Does it not seem to you that there is a major conflict of interest in the Savage-for-Mayor camp? [AllNovaScotia.com, the online news service]  lists Don Mills as one of Savage's top supporters. Since  Mills operates Corporate Research Associates, the major polling firm in the province — one that just recently reported Savage with a big lead — why would one trust anything CRA has to say on the race? A fair question, and we put it to Mills, who replied: Corporate Research Associates has been since its inception a non-partisan polling company. It is one of the reasons our...

23 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

  CBC Radio's Joan Weeks follows up suggestions arsonists have intimidated residents and civic officials in northern Cape Breton into silence, while insurance companies are declining to cover homes in the area against fire damage. True on both counts, she reports. Previous instalments here and here. [audio:http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/cbnsinfomorn_20120217_79179.mp3|titles=A_Burning_Issue]...

17 February, 2012
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