There are days it's hard to remember Justin Trudeau and Stephen McNeil belong to the same political party. Justin is so sunny, sunny ways; McNeil can be so Harperesque. Trudeau had not been prime minister three days when his Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development assured government scientists they were free to communicate with the media and the public—thus putting paid to the previous government's muzzling. Last Thursday, the bureaucrat in charge of the McNeil government's communications agency warned the province's civil servants to be circumspect on social media. "Some types of personal use [of social media]," wrote Tracey Taweel, "can result in discipline, up to and...

03 February, 2016

You couldn't soft-boil an egg in the time it took three senior judges of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal to dismiss Richmond County's appeal of the UARB decision trimming its council from 10 seats to five. (See previous posts here, here, and here.) So the UARB decision stands and Richmond County Council will have only five members after the October 15 election. Or will it have six? The Municipal Government Act gives the UARB final say on the number of councillors in each municipality. But an odd wrinkle in the act empowers the council itself to decide if it will have a warden elected from among its members, or a mayor...

31 January, 2016

Kris Bertin, who writes short stories by day and tends Bearly's bar by night, was featured Sunday in a Toronto Star story on "Five up-and-coming writers to watch in 2016." Bertin's first book, a collection called, "Bad Things Happen" will be published Feb. 23 by Biblioasis, the hip Canadian publisher de jour. Alexander MacLeod, who encountered Bertin in his short story course at Saint Mary's, served as editor on the project. Writes the Star: David Adams Richards says: “Kris Bertin’s stories are a revelation, a triumph — each stamped with the mark of a new and rising genius.” Alexander MacLeod says: “Kris Bertin’s images are built to last. His fiction...

31 January, 2016

Thanks to Tim Bousquet for featuring this drone-enhanced vacation video of New York-based Victor Chu's trip to Nova Scotia. The video is dedicated to Chu's late father, Jia-li Chu, who apparently always wanted to visit our province, but died before managing to do so. You're left wondering why Tourism Nova Scotia can't capture our province as skilfully as this. The locations shown, in order of first appearance: Mainland: Advocate Harbor, en route to the harbor (Intro) Peggy's Point Lighthouse (0:51) Halifax - MacDonald Bridge (1:11), Citadel Hill (1:14) Peggy's Cove - (1:26) Mahone Bay - 3 Churches (1:42) Lunenburg - Sailboats, red houses (2:00) Transcanada Highway/Truro - Pink Highways (2:26) Port Hastings - Highway near railroad tracks...

29 January, 2016

The hearing will centre not on the substance of the case—the appropriate size and style of government for a small, rural municipality—but on whether the court has any business second guessing the Utility and Review Board, which the legislature empowered to carry out boundary reviews....

27 January, 2016

This promises to be an eventful week in the history of Richmond County, NS, where the municipal government has been in turmoil ever since a palace coup ousted former Warden Steve Sampson in October 2014....

25 January, 2016

Martin Luther King Day having come and gone Monday, this post is 24 hours late. Still, I can't resist the chance to pass along this video, even tardily. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where King gave his "I have a dream"  speech, a Jewish choral group called The Maccabeats joined with a beatbox group called Naturally7 to record the James Taylor song, "Shed a Little Light." The song is an homage to King. Taylor himself calls the Maccabeats/Natually7 vesion one of the best covers of the song he's ever heard. There was a time, before the U.S. Jewish establishment doubled down on support for Likud Party, when American...

19 January, 2016
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