Thursday evening, I drove to an event 12 kilometres west of Parrsboro along the Bay of Fundy shore, one of the great drives of Nova Scotia. In the village of Diligent River, this structure stopped me cold: Leave a book, take a book is the idea. As I've since learned, Little Public Libraries are a thing, pioneered seven years ago by Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, who built the first one in the shape of a one-room schoolhouse as a tribute to his mother, a teacher who liked to read. Bol made a few more for friends, and the idea spread like a Fort Mac fire in the age of climate change. Bt the start of...

20 May, 2016

If the Scotiabank Blue Nose Marathon Society ran Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson might be allowed to participate in a "base-stealing showcase" on the sidelines of the World Series or the All-Star Game. That's the kind of circumscribed role the Blue Nose Society has grudgingly afforded wheelchair athletes at this year's event: a 5K, invitation-only, "showcase" for elite wheelchair racers. Mind you, it still promises to be an exciting race. I'm looking forward to seeing the fastest wheelchair marathoner in the world, Canadian Josh Cassidy. He won the 2012 Boston Marathon wheelchair division in 1 hour, 18 minutes, 25 seconds—the fastest wheelchair marathon ever recorded. The photo at the top of this post shows...

20 May, 2016

Lately I've felt twinges of regret for naming my blog "Contrarian," since the word so frequently connotes sophomoric opposition for the sake of opposing. Thus I was relieved to discover science journalist John Horgan's delightful piece on the Scientific American website titled: Dear "Skeptics," Bash Homeopathy and Bigfoot Less, Mammograms and War More: I’m a science journalist. I don’t celebrate science, I criticize it, because science needs critics more than cheerleaders. I point out gaps between scientific hype and reality. That keeps me busy, because, as you know, most peer-reviewed scientific claims are wrong...

17 May, 2016

The Muskrat Falls hydro project in Labrador is the mainstay, keystone, and linchpin of Nova Scotia’s energy plan for the next half century. It promises enormous benefits for us—and for Newfoundland—in a setting where no practical alternative exists. Without it, the mainmast snaps, the arch collapses, and the wheels come off. That’s why last week’s reckless blustering by Stan Marshall, newly appointed CEO of Nalcor, Newfoundland’s troubled government-owned energy corporation, about possible cancelation of the half-built project, ought to alarm Premier Stephen McNeil. [Disclosure: In 2011 and 2012, I carried out writing projects for Emera Inc., involving the Maritime Link, the undersea cable that...

02 May, 2016

Male ruby-throated Hummingbirds began appearing on mainland Nova Scotia last week, according to the first arrival map at Hummingbird.net. It's only a matter of days before we get word of a Caper hummer. Males, which are easily distinguished by their iridescent red throats, arrive ahead of the females. Nova Scotia's first hummer of the year appeared on April 19, and half a dozen more have been reported since. Each early report is recorded with a dot, colour-coded in half-month increments, so its easy to track the northward progress. The hummers that entertain us at feeders for the next five months likely spent the winter in Mexico, in Central America, or on...

28 April, 2016

Saturday I happened upon a huge lineup for Sydney's latest Chase-the-Ace spectacle and came away with mixed feelings. Cape Breton readers were sharply divided. Earlier I published some thoughts from participants who think it's all good fun. Today, the dark side, starting with a resident of far northern Cape Breton: I've heard about all the fun to be had, from friends, relatives and acquaintances who regularly drove the two hours from here to Inverness, but these Chases seem to me to be business as usual. Money isn't trickling down from the 1%, so the lower-earning half of the 99% (wild guess) circulate...

25 April, 2016

After watching an astonishingly long lineup for Chase-the-Ace at a Sydney mall Saturday, I offered the following conclusion. Unlike Atlantic Lotto’s slot machines, Chase-the-Ace won’t drive anyone to addiction, financial ruin, or suicide. Still, it was sobering to see so many of my fellow Capers willing to endure such a humiliating lineup for such an extreme long shot chance at instant wealth. I don’t want to be a spoilsport, but the whole thing felt sad. Contrarian's Cape Breton readers are sharply divided on both points: whether it's harmful, and whether it's sad. Today, we'll hear from readers think it's mostly harmless fun. Several commenters noted that lineups at the...

24 April, 2016

Earlier this month, I criticized former Health Minister and interim NDP leader Maureen MacDonald for her deliberate snub of incoming leader Gary Burrill as she made her abrupt departure from the legislature. This drew an indignant response from a longtime backer of the party's demoralized Dexter faction. Nevertheless, NDP insiders know the snub was real, deliberate, and gratuitous. For his part, Burrill hasn't exactly embraced the Dexter supporters he so soundly defeated. Now comes an interesting footnote from Dartmouth Halifax resident Allison Brewer, who served as leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party for an unhappy year in 2006-2007 2005-2006. In a...

24 April, 2016

A friend of a friend was trawling through back issues of Punch on when he stumbled upon this gem in the March 13, 1929 edition of the venerable British humour magazine: Newcomers to Nova Scotia are often surprised at what a white bread place we are. It didn't happen by accident. We could still do with a little less Gaelic on our roadsigns and a little more oomph in our quest for immigrants of all shapes and sizes....

24 April, 2016

Saturday afternoon I made the mistake of popping into the Mayflower Mall, Nova Scotia's largest shopping centre outside Halifax and one of nine places Cape Bretoners could buy tickets for yesterday's Chase-the-Ace lottery. The point of sale was just past Best Buy at the extreme western edge of the mall. The lineup stretched three and four abreast for the entire length of the mall—past Best Buy, Winners, Sport Chek, Laura Fashion, Staples, and 40-odd smaller stores, to the mall entrance of The Bay store, then past various food booths to the shopping centre's eastern entrance. The stores were mostly empty. At Best Buy and Staples, clerks stood around in small...

24 April, 2016
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