Contrarian reader Kirby McVicar responds to our post on MLAs’ pay and public begrudgery:
The question that springs to my mind is: “Who are you and what have you done with Parker Donham?" [caption id="attachment_4485" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Resigned MLA Richard Hurlburt"]Resigned MLA<BR>Richard Hurlburt[/caption] What I hear you say is, "Well, MLA’s only stole a little bit, and it's the media’s and the public's fault for not providing adequate salary." Are you serious? What does this line of thinking say to all the honest MLA’s who did not steal from the public purse: "You missed out on an opportunity we, the public and the media, set up for you. How stupid of you!" I agree that politicians need an independent body to set remuneration policy that is binding, but this issue should not be confused with theft from the public purse. Where is the CBC Parker, from the "Harry and Parker Show" who would have spent 15 minutes railing against such a rationale? Has the election of an NDP government outed you?
I was out of the country, but wasn't it a Tory MLA who resigned? After the jump, more reader reaction.
17 February, 2010

A friend asked recently why I had not written about the MLA expenses flap, and I confessed that I have trouble summoning much outrage over the issue. While I admire Brian Flinn's dogged pursuit of the facts in AllNovaScotia.com, I fear that the public and the media are almost as much to blame for the problem as our lawmakers. The public nurses an attitude of begrudgery toward politicians, and the media fans these embers at every opportunity. This is not our most attractive quality, and it makes it almost impossible for MLAs — who by definition must set their own salaries...

15 February, 2010
What's up with AllNovaScotia's curious blind spot for Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor John Morgan? Like many others, AllNS's editorialists took umbrage when the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society charged lawyer Morgan with professional misconduct for accusing Supreme Justice John Murphy, and Nova Scotia judges in general, of political bias in the performance of their duties. An AllNS editorial argued that it was dangerous and wrong to muzzle political speech by a politician who also happens to be a lawyer. So far, so reasonable. The odd thing is that the usually reliable news service seems to be letting its editorial passion slop over into its news columns. AllNS news stories have persistently misrepresented the comments that got Morgan in trouble. Instead of quoting or characterizing Morgan's original words, AllNS quotes only the sanitized version Morgan came up with after he got in hot water. The background is here, but in short, Morgan pretends he merely said Nova Scotia judges were not tree-shakers; in reality, he went on for paragraphs alleging political bias by the judge who first rejected his grandstanding constitutional claim for higher equalization payments — a lawsuit that was ultimately rejected by every judge who reviewed it, up to and including the Supreme Court of Canada.
13 February, 2010
For the on-line record, and thanks to Joey Schwartz's OCR magic, here is the start of the Sable MOU signed Monday, with the remainder after the jump. To download the official PDF version, click here and the unofficial Word version here.

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (hereinafter referred to as "MOU)

BETWEEN

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN RIGHT OF CANADA AS REPRESENTED BY THE MINISTER OF THE ENVIRONMENT (hereinafter referred to as "CANADA")

AND

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN RIGHT OF NOVA SCOTIA AS REPRESENTED BY THE MINISTER OF NATURAL RESOURCES (hereinafter referred to as "NOVA SCOTIA")

RESPECTING

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A FEDERAL PROTECTED AREA ON SABLE ISLAND IN THE PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA WHEREAS Sable Island is a remote island located about 160 kilometres from mainland Nova Scotia near the edge of the continental shelf;

27 January, 2010

Canada and Nova Scotia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the future of Sable Island Monday amidst considerable fanfare and media coverage.  Surprisingly, and unusually, the actual text of the agreement was not made public at the time. Normally such agreements are posted on government websites at the time of such announcements. Thanks to the communications folks at the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, Contrarian has posted a copy which you can download here. [PDF file].* The MOU confirms that the process annouced Monday will unfold in two stages, only the second of which will involve the public. First, provincial and federal...

27 January, 2010

[Correction appended] Harper Environment Minister Jim Prentice wants to protect Sable Island by turning it into a national park. He has a funny notion of protection: Prentice would protect the island by ending the current ban on visitors impediments to tourism. He would protect the island by inviting the private sector to ferry tourists out to visit Sable. He would protect the island by continuing to allow oil and gas drilling off its shores. He would protect the island by permitting the slaughter of seals that whelp there. He would protect Sable by building park facilities to "take care of" the tourists he would "encourage" to...

26 January, 2010

Richmond MLA Michel Samson responds belatedly to our post of October 28, Annals of Unseemliness: "Mixing condolences with thinly veiled point scoring"??  Get a Life Parker.  You never miss an opportunity to take a cheap shot when you can.  I thought you may have learned a little class following my comments on your appointment as mouth puppet of the Tar Ponds.  Guess I was wrong.  Maybe you should focus more time on paying off your debts from lost wagers. It's true: I owe Michel a two-four....

14 January, 2010

At long last, someone on the Cape Breton Regional Municipal Council has delivered a stinging rebuke to Mayor John Morgan's portrayal of Cape Bretoners as helpless victims of Halifax. Council is scrambling to meet a March 31 deadline for producing a sustainability plan, without which it stands to lose $7 million per year in federal gas tax rebates for four years. It has to scramble because senior governments rightly rejected an earlier grandiose plan proposing virtual provincehood for CBRM, with Comintern-like powers for its  "legislature." That nutty document, cobbled together with mayoral encouragement by CBRM's Gyro Gearloose development director, was submitted to...

12 January, 2010

Each year, the Province of Nova Scotia provides equalization grants to municipalities with less-than-average fiscal capacity. The unconditional transfer is based on a formula that compares a municipality's needs and ability to pay. In the current fiscal year, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality received $16.7 million, which amounted to 52 percent of all the equalization money given out in the entire province. The next largest recipients were Amherst at $1.2 million, and New Glasgow at $1.0 million. Put another way, CBRM got 14 times as much money as the next largest recipient. The numbers for 2009-2010 are expected to be similar....

18 December, 2009

Haligonian Warren Reed has a sobering take on our discussion about potential "cures" for people with Down syndrome: I am still stuck on the Down Syndrome thread.  As Canadians with disabilities will tell you, Canada has a medical model of disability. The approach is, "let's fix what's wrong with you," rather than, "let's fix what's wrong with us." Hence the inaccessible buses, devilish sidewalks, and antediluvian building codes. The result is a hidden and large group of people who are disenfranchised, undervalued, ignored, and sometimes abused.  See the shocking account in Monday's Chronicle-Herald. One of my big defeats was an unsuccessful complaint...

11 December, 2009
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