Several readers argue there's nothing wrong with the Harper Tories steering infrastructure money to their own ridings, or pushing out deputy ministers who object, because (1) the money will be spent anyway, (2) the Liberals did it too, and (3) most senior civil servants are Liberal appointees. After the jump, a spirited response from longtime gadfly and former Dartmouth City Councillor Colin May, but first, contrarian reader Wayne Fiander weighs in: 
Since you went to great trouble to note [ousted Deputy Transport Minister Louis] Ranger's expertise, you should have also informed your readers that Mr. Ranger "in the mid 90's, took a two year assignment with the Privy Council Office. He then returned to Transport Canada as Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and was appointed Associate Deputy Minister of Transport in 2001"  and was appointed DM at Transport Canada in 2002.  His connection to the Chretien Liberals is quite deep and therefore sheds the full light on his obviously political comments.
Good point. I should have noted that. But the implication that a two-year stint in the PCO 15 years ago justifies Ranger's firing is bogus. The Harper crowd used public money for partisan purposes. That's corrupt. Full stop. Getting rid of qualified civil servants who raise objections to this corruption is of a piece with that.
19 June, 2009

Howard Epstein will not be in Darrell Dexter's first cabinet, nor will he be offered the Speaker's chair. He may or may not be offered some sort of assistant ministerial position, akin to a parliamentary secretary in the federal cabinet, but it appears unlikely he will accept this. Word of the slight is rocketing around left circles in Halifax. The only Jew currently serving in the legislature, Epstein is best known for his storng, somewhat inflexible, environmentalist views. He was director of the Ecology Action Centre from 1991 to 1994, the year he first won election to Halifax City Council, representing the city's...

19 June, 2009

[caption id="attachment_1005" align="alignright" width="154" caption="Departing DM Louis Ranger"][/caption] Our post on the skewing of paving projects under the federal Infrastructure Stimulus Plan elicited the following e-mail from someone who claims to be (and sounds very much like) a senior official inside Transport Canada: I wondered how long it would take for the media to discover that the infrastructure stimulus spending has everything to with patronage, and nothing to do with what is good for the nation. [Deputy Minister Louis] Ranger [whose retirement was announced yesterday] was pushed out of the job and told, "We don't want your advice" regarding the spending projects. ...

18 June, 2009
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A canny Liberal friend of contrarian suggests that Premier-about-to-be Darrell Dexter would be wise to follow Jean Charest's example and select a gender-balanced cabinet. That would mean five or six of the 11 ministers Dexter will name tomorrow would be women. A key advantage of this approach is that it would disarm the party's already isolated left wing, giving Dexter more leeway to keep Howard Epstein out of harm's way—placing him, say, in the speaker's chair. Do the math: Dexter promised a cabinet of no more than 12 members. He will take one seat himself. Cape Breton must get another, also Pictou, Kings, and perhaps Guysborough. Add five or six women, and it doesn't leave much room for white males from Metro. The left would be hard put to complain about a cabinet that raised the participation of women to an historic high.
18 June, 2009

Contrarian reader Wallace J. McLean wonders: How does the map of road work requested by Premier Fiddler compare to the provincial electoral map as it stood prior to dissolution? It's an obvious question, but from a look at the map, I doubt the answer would turn up anything nefarious. Provincial paving, by its nature, takes place mainly in rural ridings. That's where provincial roads are. Before June 9, Tories held most of the province's rural constituencies, so most of the proposed projects were undoubtedly in Tory ridings. To show bias, one would have to demonstrate that province's proposed infrastructure projects disproportionately favored Tory...

17 June, 2009

When the Harper Government announced an Infrastructure Stimulus Plan focused on construction-ready projects, Nova Scotia saw a golden opportunity to make headway on a huge problem: its crumbling highway system. The province sought federal approval for 39 paving projects. But Ottawa approved only 20 of the paving jobs. Since the 19 rejected projects were all but identical to the 20 that received a federal go-ahead, it's hard to figure out what criteria Ottawa used for its decisions. Until you look at a federal electoral map. Projects in ridings held by Conservative MPs were almost four times as likely to receive federal approval...

17 June, 2009

James Fallows thinks fellow Atlantic Magazine blogger Andrew Sullivan's coverage of the election crisis in Iran represents a sea change. In coverage of Iran over the past week and especially in these last few days, Andrew Sullivan has on his site illustrated the way the internet and related technologies have permanently changed journalism for the better. So have a number of other people at other sites, which have made themselves clearinghouses for information coming out of Iran in emails, blog posts, camera-phone and ad hoc video transmissions, and other forms including, yes, Twitter feeds. Collectively they've let the outside world know...

16 June, 2009

When a foot-long snapping turtle paid a visit to the Burnside offices of Terrain Group, on the shores of Spectacle Lake, yesterday morning, office staff didn't have to wonder who to call. A Purolator driver took matters in hand and delivered Snappy back to the water. According to the Nova Scotia Museum website, Nova Scotia snappers emerge from water only in late June and early July to dig a nest and lay eggs. Contrarian trusts Snappy will find a more felicitous nest site uncontaminated by engineers and couriers....

16 June, 2009

[caption id="attachment_933" align="alignleft" width="350" caption="2009 Nova Scotia Election Results (Click image to enlarge)"][/caption] ...

12 June, 2009

[caption id="attachment_916" align="alignright" width="150" caption="CCF MP for Cape Breton South, 1940-1957"]Clarie Gillis[/caption] .. .. Cape Bretoner Joey Schwartz, now living in Toronto, is not impressed: ...

11 June, 2009
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