Tim Bousquet

It’s was truly a great move to bet Halifax’s future on the financial industry.

Have you heard? Halifax is anti-development. It’s a giant conspiracy on the part of heritage freaks and anti-growth politicians to pull the rug out from anyone who wants what’s really, really (really!) best for the city. Or, well, maybe not. Here’s a short list of development projects that have recently been announced, approved or otherwise […]

I’m always amazed at how little cash it takes to buy a politician. The on-line contribution reports to Nova Scotia political parties only goes back so far as 2005, but here are some numbers of interest: Contributions to the Progressive Conservatives2005Armour Group Limited- $6,823.662006Ben McCrea- $5002007Armour Group Limited- $395.65Ben McCrea- $500 A thousand bucks out […]

allnovascotia.com: Premier Rodney MacDonald said he will overule Halifax Regional Council’s decision to block the redevelopment of part of Historic Properties. MacDonald emerged from a cabinet meeting today resolving to make sure the Armour Group’s 80,000 square foot Waterside Centre goes ahead. “My government’s going to do something about it,” the premier told reporters. “We’re […]

The strangest election returns come from District 17— Armdale-Purcells Cove. For council, 73.83% of voters went for incumbent Linda Mosher. But for mayor, 51.17% of the same voters went for Sheila Fougere. I’m not saying anything one way or the other about either Mosher or Fougere, but the two were on completely opposite sides of […]

On a 9-9 tie vote, the Halifax council defeated the controversial Waterside development proposed for the heart of the downtown Halifax historic district. Tie votes are considered a “no” vote. If approved, the development would have seen the razing of five buildings on a block bound by Upper Water, Hollis and Duke Streets and by […]

A press release: The Halifax Chamber of Commerce is calling on the provincial government to bring an end to gas regulation when the house resumes later this month. Gas regulation in Nova Scotia has been in effect since July 1, 2007. Promises of stable gasoline prices and increased opportunities for independent gasoline retailers to make […]

As I discussed before, it was a brilliant procdure move on the part of the Armour Group to get the vote on the controversial Waterside development postponed until after the election. It was unclear at the time exactly when the vote would happen, but by holding it today developer Ben McCrea and city staff don’t […]

The HRM Election office placed polling places in 25 retirement homes, assisted living complexes and nursing homes. Collectively they had the following results: Boyd- 41 (2.9%)Fougere- 289 (20.6%)Kelly- 1,076 (76.5%) Now, I’m all for placing polling places in retirement homes, even if in some cases there is a miniscule return on the resources spent— some […]

Weirdest result of the election: David Boyd actually won the internet portion of the District 11 vote. He brought in 552 votes, to Shelia Fougere’s 547 and Peter Kelly’s 18. Only 52 other people voted for Boyd at the conventional polling places, bringing his total to 604. But even that is wildly out of proportion […]

A district-by-district breakdown of the mayoral race shows that Sheila Fougere won the four districts on the Halifax peninsula (11, 12, 13 and 14) as well as two districts that were once in the old city of Halifax (16 and 17), although she lost two others that were in the old city– Clayton Park West […]