A source tells Contrarian the Globe and Mail had the Hydro Quebec-NB Power story six weeks ago, but didn't get around to running it until last weekend. Speaks volumes about how much Atlantic Canada has slipped off the national press corps radar. Initial man-on-the-street reaction in NB seems negative; one can only wonder at the outcome had the Globe alerted its readers before negotiators sorted out all the details....
[caption id="attachment_2855" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="Kempt Head, Nova Scotia"][/caption]...
Friday's Globe and Mail carries an extraordinarily brave and wise letter from Emily Mitchell, mother of Taylor Mitchell, the talented 19-year-old folksinger who died Wednesday Morning from injuries sustained in an extremely unusual coywolf attack on the Skyline Trail. This passage bears special note: I've noticed that the media have often mentioned that Taylor was hiking alone when the coyote attack occurred. I want people to know that Taylor was a seasoned naturalist and well versed in wilderness camping. She loved the woods and had a deep affinity for their beauty and serenity. Tragically it was her time to be taken from...
[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...
A health worker who reads Contrarian weighs in: You can add to your post that the line-ups should have been triaged—the elderly, frail or disabled, and those with infants or children under five, should have been moved to the front. Or, if you smartly use the polling stations, set up a few specifically for these groups. I am appalled at the description of anyone carrying an infant or using a walker having to stand in the same line I would be expected to stand in. Poor planning indeed....
Who said this? There is no piece of land in Afghanistan that has not been occupied by one of our soldiers at some time or another. Nevertheless much of the territory stays in the hands of the terrorists. We control the provincial centers, but we cannot maintain political control over the territory we seize. Our soldiers are not to blame. They’ve fought incredibly bravely in adverse conditions. But to occupy towns and villages temporarily has little value in such a vast land where the insurgents can just disappear into the hills...
For a process that has (or should have) undergone intensive preparation for months, the Cape Breton District Health Authority's first public H1N1 vaccination clinic, Wednesday in Baddeck, was an organizational disaster. Here's how one Contrarian reader described it: I gathered the kids after school and navigated our way through the car-lined streets to the Masonic Hall. We grabbed a spot at the end of the line, several car-lengths back from the corner of Queen & Grant streets. It was typical Cape Breton gathering—lots of chatting and laughing between neighbours, and new friends made with unfamiliar faces. Many of us who arrived after...
Contrarian reader Colin May writes: Thank you for exposing the Fralic twit. And thanks to CBC Halifax for the Tuesday lunchtime phone-in which answered all my questions. Many of us have, or had, parents who were cognisant of the diseases which killed many children. Even I remeber the iron lung. Unfortunately we now have a new generation which has little knowledge of the risks faced by previous generations and now listen to all manner of quackery, theory, and new age nonsense. I'll have the jab because the risk is less than the risk of the disease, and as my RN wife points...
How sad that Marilyn MacKay, the Louisdale resident who spent two years in Toronto waiting for a double lung transplant, has died just six days after receiving the surgery. Her MLA, Richmond Liberal Michel Samson, apparently deems this an appropriate time to issue a news release mixing condolences with thinly veiled political point scoring....
For anyone who still needs persuading, the Michael Hoh's letter of resignation as the US State Department's Senior Civilian Representative in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, bears reading. As the Atlantic's James Fallows points out: [R]esignations on principle are vanishingly rare in U.S. government practice. It's much easier to keep your head down, protect your career prospects, and when it's over say that you had been against [failed policy xx or yy] all along. Apart from the merits of his argument, Hoh deserves respect for taking this step so forthrightly. Each person who does so creates an example for others to reflect upon. [...