Many of those who responded to my posts on the Dexter government's mistakes and accomplishments (here,  here, here, and here) were disappointed New Democrats. To my complaint that a small cadre of apparatchiks in the premier's office exercised far too much central control, a party supporter employed in the administration offered this colourful label: [A] group of too-young, nasty, disconnected, Harper-style assholes. Another longtime party supporter on the party's left flank wrote: One of the most disappointing failures of the government was not bring more talented, knowledgeable, and competent people into the government and the party. In every area the government claims to be interested in improving—the environment, poverty,...

04 October, 2013

Labor lawyer Ron Stockton, who is also president of the Lunenburg NDP Association, protests that the insulated lunch bags distributed to Grade Primary students in Nova Scotia  the Annapolis, Cape Breton-Victoria, South Shore, and Strait regional school boards this month and next (and pictured here) do not appear to be NDP orange, but rather, red with orange trim. If the government were Liberal would you have levelled the same criticism?  If a PC government put out materials that were blue (admittedly a much more commonly used colour) would you have criticized them?  At my age I like things to be as colourful as...

24 February, 2012

Nova Scotia's New Democratic Party is wasting no time making hay in the sunshine of its Bowater bailout with a direct-mail flyer that's sure to infuriate opposition parties. The one-page card, featuring a photo of Premier Darrell Dester and Queens MLA Vicki Conrad, will start appearing in South Shore mailboxes this week. It uses Chronicle-Herald headlines to highlight the Dexter Government's rescue of the financially shaky newsprint mill, contrasting it with a jaundiced appraisal of opposition efforts. The NDP government is protecting 2,000 jobs with an investment in the mill workers and the Bowater Mersey pulp and paper mill in Queens County...

15 December, 2011

To judge from my inbox today, something about the manner of Robert Chisholm's departure from the provincial leadership pissed off a few New Democratic Party loyalists. But one party stalwart rejected these comments as, "old wounds and sour grapes." Don't be too quick to put him in the Chisholm column though: More to the point - how can a uni-lingual politician aspire to the leadership of a national political party in Canada in 2011? A party with over 50% of its caucus from Quebec? A party with official opposition status and its eye on the big prize? Je ne comprends pas. Moi non plus....

01 November, 2011

A failed Nova Scotia NDP leader for leader of the national NDP? Hasn't that been tried before? I don't know what he's up to. Certainly not hoping to become leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. Raising his personal profile? For what? Consolidating regional delegates in case of a brokered convention? To what end? The whole thing strikes me as an exercise in misplaced vanity....

31 October, 2011
Dexter at the Pride Parade - mediumSeven weeks after electing Atlantic Canada's first NDP government, Nova Scotians have seen little if anything in the way of policy initiatives from Dexter and Co. Senior civil servants, however, seem practically giddy with delight at the NDP's methodical approach to policy. "They actually read the briefing books," exclaimed one official, referring to the massive tomes each department prepares detailing the policy issues an incoming minister will face. "They read them, and they ask intelligent questions. They are really into policy."
27 July, 2009
NS Power logo - mediumLurking behind Nova Scotia Power's increasingly frantic efforts to find renewable sources of electrical generation is the threat of a crushing $500,000-a-day fine should it fail to meet legislated targets for 2010. That works out to $183 million per year—half again what NSP earned its shareholders in 2008. For better or for worse, the threat is symbolic, not real. Under the Electricity Act, a set of regulations known as the Renewable Energy Standards (RES) requires NSP to purchase at least five percent of its 2010 energy supply from renewable sources owned by third parties and built after 2001. The RES requirement increases to 10 percent in 2013, but may include generation from both third party and NSPI facilities. The Climate Change Action Plan, released last January, would have increased this to 25 percent by 2020, but a little noticed NDP campaign promise trumps that provision, moving the 25 percent deadline up to 2015. RES regulations stipulate "a daily penalty of no more than $500,000" for failure to comply.
27 July, 2009
[caption id="attachment_1270" align="alignright" width="325" caption="The Boss"]dexter-finger-adjusted[/caption]
Premier Dexter's office is quietly taking a firm hand in the hiring of ministerial executive assistants, insisting the new hires must be chosen for their policy chops. Officials in the premier's office will begin interviewing candidates for long-term EA positions next week, replacing the makeshift crew of temporary EAs assigned immediately after the election. The move suggests the Dexter Government could feature a Harperesque degree of central control. Executive assistants are explicitly political positions tied to a ruling party's tenure. Each minister gets an EA to help with political aspects of the job, including major constituency issues and partisan concerns related to a minister's portfolios. They are not to be confused with the eight unpaid 'ministerial assistant' positions Dexter handed out Monday as sops to disappointed backbench MLAs who lost out in the 12-person cabinet sweepstakes.
02 July, 2009