For leading Nova Scotia through a particularly brutal first wave of COVID-19, premier Stephen McNeil and chief medical officer of health Robert Strang earned heaps of praise in the BOH survey. “Even though I am not a Liberal government supporter,” said a typical comment, “I think the premier and Dr. Strang have done a fantastic […]
Kyle Shaw
Loving the arrival of this mysterious climate event people are calling "spring".
Kyle was a founding member of the newspaper in 1993 and was the paper’s first publisher. Kyle occasionally teaches creative nonfiction writing (think magazine-style #longreads) and copy editing at the University of King’s College School of Journalism.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Legendary
We didn’t set out to produce a daily map of C19 in Nova Scotia, but once the provincial government did, we just had to. That’s because the province’s map reflects the province’s stingy approach to sharing any coronavirus information, and even amateur cartographers like us can do a better job. A simple colour-coding system is […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Outside the Atlantic bubble the outbreak is the worst it’s ever been
Update Thursday, October 8: When this story was published yesterday, the then-current national COVID-19 numbers showed a record high of 24,640 cases diagnosed in the west of Canada over the past 14 days. Today we are sad to report that the latest numbers are pushing the record even higher, to 25,335 cases in two weeks. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Hurricane Teddy bears down on Nova Scotia
Update Wednesday September 23: Teddy came ashore around 7:30 this morning near Ecum Secum, more than 100 kilometres east of downtown Halifax. No longer a hurricane, the post-tropical cyclone brought wind and rain as promised, but nothing like the damage feared or witnessed last year with Dorian. Halifax Transit was rolling and sailing at noon, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Planes, strains and automobiles
A traveller has to be awake early to make it to Calgary International Airport in time for WS232, WestJet’s daily 9:30am flight to Halifax. On top of arriving early (two hours early is the recommendation) to deal with virus-safety protocols, YYC is warning of construction delays on the Airport Trail. Getting to the plane could definitely […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Getting the blazes out of here
Stephen McNeil isn’t going to run in the next election, but he’s staying on as premier until the NS Liberal Party chooses his successor. He let the public know in a livecast media conference around noon today (Thursday, August 6), not long after he informed the party and attended a cabinet meeting. McNeil has served […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Draft email hints that Stephen McNeil still wants to open Nova Scotia up to the rest of Canada
Even when he announced the Atlantic bubble back in June, premier Stephen McNeil clearly had bigger things on his mind. “The next step after that will be opening up our province to the rest of Canada,” he said at a June 18 briefing. As for timing, he offered “the end of the second week, third […]
Posted inLifestyle
Seven crushable cans to fill your cooler with
Piquette Benjamin Bridge This piquette (an old style of low-alcohol wine) from the creator of Nova 7 has a hint of sea salt, and is impossibly easy to drink. (7.2% alcohol by volume) Lime Lite Propeller Brewing Company What Bud Light Lime would be like if it was made by a reputable craft brewer and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Welcome to the Hot Summer Guide—now in print around Halifax
H ello and welcome to The Coast’s 25th annual Hot Summer Guide. If you are new to The Coast and/or the city—shout-out to Atlantic bubble visitors!—here’s the deal: The Coast is a small but mighty newspaper and website, and you will not find a media organization on this planet that is more passionate about Halifax […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The 50-person breakthrough
UPDATE June 22: In this section about the number of new COVID-19 cases in Atlantic Canada compared with the rest of Canada, we double-checked the math and discovered an error. To summarize, we said the east coast had 13 cases while the other six provinces had 3,100 cases over the same stretch of time, but […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Pandemic math and the case of the missing cases
How many active cases of COVID-19 does Nova Scotia have? This simple question is vital to our physical and economic health. And it’s proven shockingly hard to answer. Every day the province issues a report about the state of the disease—the number of new cases, how many people are in hospital, how many patients have […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Not today, COVID, not today
Zero new cases. Nada, none, zilch. The province is reporting that no new cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in Nova Scotia. It’s taken 75 days to get here, but Friday, May 29 the humans get a win. Public health doctor Robert Strang announced Nova Scotia’s first C19 infections on Sunday, March 15. We were […]