Contrarian has learned that the Department of Community Services and L'Arche Halifax have resolved their disputes over funding and staffing levels. The newly constructed L'Arche House in North End Halifax, vacant for six months, will open in early January....
Contrarian reader Cliff White, who perches somewhere to the left of our new blue NDP government, responds to our complaints about the Dexter/Steele spin on their foregone fiscal promises: Enough with the self righteousness already. Of course they have to take responsibility for, and be brought to task for, their broken promises and misleading statements. On the other hand, dismissing them offhand and branding them all as liars, as some readers have, is not helpful. Lets face it: they didn't get into this predicament on their own. There are, for instance, the unelected workers and volunteers who craft strategies and policy statements...
CBC Cape Breton's Information Morning host Steve Sutherland did a deft job Tuesday Morning holding Finance Minister Graham Steele's feet to the fire on the NDP's no-deficit, no-tax-hikes, no-program-cuts campaign pledge. Steele had a well-rehearsed answer, including a far-fetched analogy about a family doctor whose honest diagnosis gets overruled by four specialists, but Sutherland was politely persistent. He pressed Steele twice more to explain the glib falsehoods at the core of the NDP's spring election platform. "The fact is that we were acting on the best information we had at the time," Steele said. "The fact is that now we are in...
Contrarian reader Kirby McVicar offers an interesting take on Mayor John Morgan's problems with the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society: "The mainlanders are out to screw us all!" This is what I call Mayor Morgan's race card. Morgan says the Halifax/Ottawa bunch are keeping Cape Breton down with unfair distribution of wealth, with judges who are political appointees, and by using ECBC as a political tool that lets "outsiders" and "mainlanders" have it all. Cries of "Go, John, go!" can be heard from 80% of the kitchens in CBRM. And when the mainland media take on Johnny-Boy's opinions, you'll hear this same group say,...
Contrarian reader Colin May writes : Do you know anyone who believed the three promises made by DD and his colleagues ? Did you believe they would be able to keep the ERs open ? Everyone in the health business knew it was BS. Voters just wanted rid of Rodney, they cared less about reality. The less said about the media the better. Looks like Premier McNeil in four years, about the only bright light in the Canadian Liberal firmament. Stan Jones adds: While I tend to agree with the recommendations in the report, I wonder if it isn't true that Dexter and Steele knew...
This morning, Contrarian observed that Darrell Dexter had to have known he could not keep the three main promises of his June campaign: no deficit, no tax increases, and no program cuts. Sure enough, the premier jettisoned all three promises at a news conference this morning, and lamely tried to ascribe his about face to new information: But there are economic realities that we are faced with today that we did not know six* months ago. and: We have information now that no one had six months ago. Do tell. What new information is that? The Economic Advisory Panel report offers little that wasn't known long...
Contrarian is working his way through the Economic Review Panel's 95-page report. At first blush, it seems a sensible document, offering a balanced approach to navigating the economic mess the MacDonald government left us in. Premier Darrell Dexter choose wisely in selecting Donald Savoie, Elizabeth Beale, Tim O'Neil, and Lars Osberg to carry out the review. All are respected, progressive, and fair-minded. But before we get too deep into discussing the pros and cons of their recommendations, something needs to be said: Darrell Dexter campaigned on a triple-barreled promise: not to run a deficit; not to raise taxes; and not to cut programs....
CBRM Mayor John Morgan has convinced Jim Meek of the Chronicle-Herald, Wendy Bergfeldt of CBC-Cape Breton, and Gillian Cormier of AllNovaScotia.com that the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society is trying to punish him for criticizing a judicial decision. Nonsense. Anyone can criticize a judicial decision. Lawyers do it all the time. Even the most cursory review of Morgan's comments makes it clear that his offense was not criticizing a decision but impugning the impartiality of Nova Scotia judges in general, and Supreme Justice John Murphy in particular. Morgan's comments came in an interview with CBC-Cape Breton's Information Morning host Steve Sutherland on April...
Britain's 500-year-old Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons has thrown its weight behind a new approach to the shortage of organs for lifesaving transplants: make people decide whether they want to be donors. Health professionals involved in organ and tissue donation have long been aware of a maddening statistic: Although about 90 percent of adults express willingness to be organ and tissue donors, only about half get around to signing the consent form (which appears on on the health card renewal application in Nova Scotia). Without a signed card, it's harder to get distraught relatives to agree to donation in the...
[caption id="attachment_2847" align="alignright" width="350" caption="Inter-provincial power grid diagram shows the startling degree to which Nova Scotia is an energy island. This is a big obstacle to the development of local renewable energy supplies like wind and tidal, which are intermittent and therefore require robust interconnection with nearby power porducers and users. The Hydro Quebecwick deal means that any increase in our connectivity with the rest of the world will be at the mercy of the new monopoly owner of the grid, the Government of Quebec."][/caption] Premiers Shawn Graham (NB) and Jean Charest (QC) have unveiled the details of the Hydro Quebecwick...