The rise of the city as preferred human habitat is a relatively recent phenomenon. From the origin of the species until about 200 years ago, humans organized in small groups around food—either in agricultural villages or as tribes of nomadic hunters. Cities flip this, so basically people organize around other people, and the food comes […]
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
Tom Martin for mayor? [updated]
Update: Around noon at a press conference in Dartmouth, Tom Martin doffed his metaphorical hat and threw it into the ring. His campaign slogan: Ask for more. With a bit more than a year to go until next October’s city election, today might bring us the first officially declared challenger to current mayor Peter Kelly. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Peter’s pants on fire
Mayor Peter Kelly is a liar. Which isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker. In his profession, being flexible with the truth is akin to a basketball player being tall or an undertaker being creepy. What matters in our politicians is whether they’re lying for us or to us. Kelly has long been an expert at keeping the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Brad Marchand, from Coast cover to Cup holder
Before Brad Marchand became the latest Halifax hockey hero to win Lord Stanley’s beer bong, he was a member of a promising Halifax Mooseheads squad. Marchand and two of his friends from Hammonds Plains, Andrew Bodnarchuk and Ryan Hiller, were the local connection that anchored the Mooseheads’ strong shot at Canadian junior hockey supremacy in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What happens in Halifax stays in Halifax
Let’s do a quick association game. You know the kind. I say something— “Stanley Cup”—and you say the first word that comes to mind (like “Bieksa”). Ready? Here goes. I’ll say: “A bunch of politicians from towns and cities across Canada come to Halifax to talk about stuff like homelessness.” What did you think of? […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dhaba Express and Coles Neighbourhood Restaurant taking over from Indian Buffet Palace
Two new restaurants are about to open, each taking over a location where Indian Buffet Palace closed earlier in the year. Look for Coles Neighbourhood Restaurant to be up and running first: After several weeks of renovations in the former Buffet Palace space at 972 Cole Harbour Road, Coles is due to be serving customers […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Great video from last night’s lightning storm
Over on the YouTube, one Shawn Hirtle captured this super look at the electrical storm that rattled windows and took down power for nearly 50,000 of Nova Scotia Power’s valued customers last night. And since a customer is a home or business, that figure probably translates to 10 percent of Nova Scotians had no electricity. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Port of Houston officials live it up in Halifax
Paris, London, New York, Halifax. What do these these four cities have in common? According to this news report from an ABC TV affiliate in Houston, they’re all places where high-flying officials go to live it up on the taxpayer’s dime. In his “Port-o-Plenty” investigation, undercover reporter Wayne Dolcefino explains that three bigwigs from the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Apology to Dr. Stan Kutcher
[image-1] On April 28th, The Coast published an article online and in print, regarding Dr. Stan Kutcher. In that article, The Coast referenced, without limitation or criticism, statements to the effect that, Dr. Kutcher, being one of the authors of a research paper, distorted the outcome measures and essentially lied. The Coast retracts those statements and without reservation, apologizes to Dr. Kutcher for having published them. We recognize that Stan Kutcher is the federal Liberal candidate in Halifax and we sincerely regret having published those statements during the campaign. Again, The Coast apologizes to Dr. Kutcher and has agreed to
Posted inNews + Opinion
Give us a break
Anyone else feeling it’s been waaaaay too long since we’ve had a day off? This weekend’s Easter break comes 111 days after the last statutory holiday, New Year’s Day. That stretch of winter drudgery gets broken up in several provinces, but not in Nova Scotia. Here we’ve got the fewest holidays in the nation, making […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Anyone but Conservative
Thanks to prime minister Stephen Harper, we are facing not just the drudgery of yet another election, but international scorn too. “At a time when Arabs risk life and limb for political freedoms, Canadians seem largely apathetic about the erosion of their democracy,” wrote Ramesh Thakur in The Australian. He went on to say “the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A man against the people
In the days after the Common concert funding scandal came to light last week, I noticed a new parlour game being played everywhere I went. The goal sounds simple: Name a contender who can challenge mayor Peter Kelly in next year’s municipal election. However, it’s surprisingly hard. Just a short list of names keeps coming […]