Rob Smith, son of former premier G.I. Smith, and as loyal a Tory as you'll find in Nova Scotia, takes exception to my assessment of the rupture in the Tory caucus. There  is a lot more to being an MLA  than attending meetings, many of which are a total waste of time, as are many current legislative goings on--they were great for the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, but the 21st century--not so much. In both by professional and political work in recent years, I had a great deal to do with Chuck Porter, found him to be the ablest constituency MLA...

17 June, 2014

Chuck Porter got out in front of Jamie Baillie today, with a pre-emptory announcement he was quitting the PC caucus before Baillie could boot him out. In explaining his decision, however, he couldn't come up with anything more concrete than vague "concerns" about Baillie's leadership. Unfortunately Mr. Baillie and I do not share similar values when it comes to how I, as a member, wish to represent the people here in Hants West that have elected me. It is important that the people of Hants West have a strong voice and one free to share their concerns in Halifax so this move is...

13 June, 2014

Patricia Graham, who serves as ombudsman of Irving-owned Brunswick News, criticized here last week for refusing to lift their paywall during the Moncton shooting crisis, has published a defence of that ethical lapse. Possibly I missed it, but I didn’t see anyone demanding the print edition for free...

12 June, 2014

In an editorial reluctantly endorsing the Liberal Party to win this Saturday's Ontario election, Torontoist, a community news site based in—well, you can probably guess where it's based, put the case against voting for a fringe party even when you really, really dig its policies: We actually quite like the Green Party platform, and if there was a single riding in Ontario where the Green Party had any realistic chance of winning a seat, we would encourage you to vote for them there. Unfortunately, as of this writing there does not appear to be a such a riding: not even in Guelph, where party leader Mike Schreiner is running. And...

10 June, 2014

New Brunswick residents anxious for news about the Moncton gunman might be expected to turn to their local newspaper's website. Unless they are subscribers, this is what they will find: All English language newspapers in New Brunswick belong to the Irving empire, and all use a single website, lodged firmly behind a paywall. As the Moncton drama unfolded last night, many on Twitter urged the company to lift the paywall while the gunman was at large and residents were hungry for information. In a surprisingly querulous response,  Fredericton Gleaner columnist Adam Bowie shed some light on the papers' failure to respond:   After 14 hours, time enough for "newsroom inability" to morph...

05 June, 2014

In response to an engineer's grumble here yesterday that Nova Scotia could take a page from unlikely Iowa in promoting local engineering process, alert Nova Scotia Business Inc. communications director Shawn Hirtle sends along some made-in-NS business promotion graphics that stand up pretty well to Iowa's: Writes Hirtle: It was great to read the piece in Contrarian that highlighted how jurisdictions like Iowa position themselves and attract companies. New and home-grown companies grow in Nova Scotia because of business factors including: Talent and available workforce A supportive business community Cost competitive business models Doing international work (export, export, export). We could quibble about some of this. The second poster boasts...

05 June, 2014

This full-page ad, in an international trade journal aimed at green energy providers, caught the eye of a consulting engineer in Nova Scotia.   How can we compete with this? Well, on a per capita basis, that's how. Iowa has just over three times the population of Nova Scotia, and graduates just over three times as many engineers as we do. Writes the engineer: Imagine the Nova Scotia government putting a full page ad in a major trade magazine extolling our engineering strength. Nah, I can't imagine it either. Instead, we attract a steady stream of talented young people who come here from other parts of the world to get top notch university educations,...

04 June, 2014

One misty, moisty morning, when cloudy was the weather, Laurel Marie Amirault of Pubnico chanced to meet a busy mother Goose. She snapped this image last week at Belleisle Marsh, near Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. It's hard to say exactly how many goslings this bird has in tow. I count at least 17, but there could be more. Since the average brood size for Canada geese hovers around five, the experts on the Nova Scotia Bird Society's Facebook Page, where Amirault posted the photo, speculated that baby sitting, adoption, or kidnapping was at play. Opinions divided as to whether one goose could successfully look after so many charges. This is...

01 June, 2014

Background: On Wednesday, I chided polemicists who use tragic events to push personal causes, citing a Washington movie critic who connected the Santa Barbara killings with Judd Apatow movies. In response, a gun control opponent accused me of mounting a hobby horse of my own, when I praised anti-gun comments by the father of a San Diego victim. A Halifax reader responds: Here's a hobby horse worth riding: Random killings are caused by serious, untreated mental illness. Are we powerless to do something about that? ...

01 June, 2014

On Friday, I paid homage to Jose Bautista, the Blue Jays' right fielder, who accomplished the rare feat of throwing out a batter at first base the previous night. According to MLB.com, it was only the sixth time since 1974 that a 9-3 putout had been recorded in the American League.* Later Friday night, Bautista did it again, cutting down Kansas City Royals' second baseman Omar Infante on a pop fly to right. Infante initially thought the ball was foul, and turned his back on the play while still in the batter's box. Bautista tried to make a sliding catch, but succeeded only in smothering the ball,...

01 June, 2014
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