Reader Jean McKenna thinks the mainstream media have overlooked a critical detail in the union minutes contrarian published Monday The date on this document is very interesting - long before the NDP, acting on information apparently from yourself, decided to give the money back. I am curious as to why the Herald didn't reproduce this; I wouldn't have known about it without reading to the distant, page 2, end, of their article. Where is investigative journalism? Why hasn't there been some follow-up from someone on the possible ties between the various "brothers" and Mr. Dexter, et al?...

03 June, 2009

Reader Lucas Byers comments on contrarian's annoyance at Premier Rodney MacDonald's use of first names to address voters, regardless of age: You'd like me as your call center rep. I worked in three different ones over six years, and only ever called my caller Sir, Ma'am, Mr Lastname, Ms Lastname, unless directed not to by the caller. Sad that years of Conservative rule has only provided me with six years of call center [experience];  even sadder we're about to elect the Orange Menace to a majority. Maybe I'll be able to get a union job at McDonalds. I guess Nova Scotian voters...

03 June, 2009
debate-1s
6:55:  The very small crowd is getting seated in the very small space in The Alexander Graham Bell Museum National Historic Site where the leaders will debate. There is seating for 70 in the shadow of Bell's HD-4 Hydrofoil. Contrarian will be live blogging. 7:12:  Twelve minutes into the debate, the sound track in the media room is working. 7:14:  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz... 7:15:  There was much back and forth among organizers and the three parties over seating for leaders during the debate, because McNeil, at 6'5, towers over the other two.  The Tory solution, apparently, is for MacDonald to stand each time he speaks. The N-dips, apparently, are content to let Dexter sit, seemingly at ease at 3/4 height. 7:22: Rodney turns a question about wage freezes for civil servants into a jibe at Dexter over ties to trade unions. But the tame format of the debate precludes any follow-up. 7:25: Moneyquote Understatement of the debate so far:  Rodney MacDonald, asked about whether the legislature should sit longer during the year: "There is nowhere more that I would like to be right now than sitting in the legislature." You betcha. Rest of debate after the jump.
02 June, 2009

… FUSIONHalifax, a "networking group for young Halifax residents who are inspired to make their city a better place to live, work, and play," has produced a nifty video prodding Haligonians to get off their duffs and vote. Nice! (And never mind those pesky economists who keep reminding us that voting is an irrational act, at least in terms of affecting the outcome.)...

02 June, 2009

Esteemed Metro gadfly Michael Marshall, running this time for the Greens in Bill Dooks's Eastern Shore riding, agrees with fellow veridian David Croft. He writes: I am running and organizing again for the Greens, and I do for them what I did as an N-dipper: tell everybody what I think we'll actually get for votes, be it 2% or 16%. It didn't seem to hurt me among the public, other parties, or the media, but the party faithful often protested that we were going to win and should say so. But when I asked if  they were willing to sign for a...

02 June, 2009

The old saw says they should let Cape Bretoners vote the next day, so we get it right. Until now, there has been a widespread assumption that of the 10 nine Cape Breton seats, only Victoria-The Lakes, held by PC Keith Bain, is in play. Today's CRA poll gives no reason to challenge that assumption. CRA's Don Mills says the NDP are merely holding their own on the island, where they currently hold but two seats. This bears watching. If Cape Bretoners get a sniff of a majority NDP government, things could change quickly....

01 June, 2009

The latest poll from Don Mills of Corporate Research Associates shows the NDP at 44 percent. More importantly, it shows them in first place in the rural mainland. Some will say the NDP vote is highly concentrated in metro, where they will "waste" votes by winning with unnecessarily huge majorities. Elections are won by seat totals, not vote totals. Still, 44 percent is well into majority territory. In the last 14 Nova Scotia elections, no party has ever won more than 40 percent of the vote and failed to win a majority. John Hamm won a majority in 1999 with 39%...

01 June, 2009

Minutes of the April 9 meeting of the Mainland Nova Scotia Building and Construction Trades Council confirm that the council tried to circumvent statutory campaign limits. A member of another political party described the minutes to Contrarian Saturday evening, and agreed to forward copies, on condition of anonymity. While waiting for the minutes to arrive, Contrarian sought reaction from NDP campaign director Matt Hebb, who said he had no knowledge of the donations. Today, the original source forwarded the minutes shown above, shortly after the NDP announced it was returning $45,000 in Trades Council donations. The source ascribed the delay in sending...

01 June, 2009
crest-logoCREST Halifax has uploaded  a video of last Tuesday's all-party debate on environmental issues, which was sponsored by the Ecology Action Centre. The video of the two-hour debate is divided into 10 segments. Unfortunately, they are not annotated, so contrarian can't point you to the particular segments where Howard Epstein tried to defend the NDP's plan to subsidize coal-fired electricity, the many places where Green Party deputy leader Brendan MacNeill oversold the concept of feed-in tariffs for wind power, and the spot where the NDP, the Greens, and the Liberals all but nixed the proposed Donkin coal mine.
31 May, 2009
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