2013 grade: I (incomplete) 2012 grade: B+ 2012 grade: C- 2011 grade: C- 2010 grade: D 2009 grade: D Cell: 499-3744 On council this year, Rankin has performed admirably. He has stood up for residents in his district, and fought hard against CAO Richard Butts’ attempt to take the front end processor out of the […]
Tim Bousquet
Posted inNews + Opinion
Gloria McCluskey
2014 grade: C 2013 grade: B+ 2012 grade: C- 2011 grade: C+ 2010 grade: B+ 2009 grade: B- 2008 grade: B 2007 grade: C Cell: 476-1667 Gloria McCluskey is a two-schtick pony. She stands up for Dartmouth, and she is hard-nosed about budgets. Each has an up and a down side. Standing up for Dartmouth […]
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Matt Whitman
2013 grade: C- 2013 grade: C- 2012 grade: N/A Cell: 240-3330 A lot of people dislike Matt Whitman. We get email pretty much every week from people questioning his credentials, or accusing him of electoral fraud or saying he’s part of some scary religious cult. We’ve ruled out the fraud, haven’t found anything of interest […]
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Darren Fisher
2014 grade: B- 2013 grade: B- 2012 grade: F 2011 grade: C- 2010 grade: C+ 2009 grade: N/A Cell: 497-7166 Last year we wrote that “Darren Fisher remains remarkably silent at council meetings, and votes more or less with the crowd. He gets high marks, however, because of his constituency work, which we are repeatedly […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Brad Johns
2014 grade: C- 2013 grade: B+ 2012 grade: C 2011 grade: B- 2010 grade: D 2009 grade: C 2008 grade: D 2007 grade: D Cell: 476-1234 There’s not a lot to say about Brad Johns this year. He shows up, he pals around, he votes with the council supermajority, he goes home. He annoyed us, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Waye Mason
2014 grade: B+ 2013 grade: B+ Cell: 483-7283 Waye Mason is energetic and thoughtful. Agree with him or not, there’s no denying that he’s the most engaged councillor, in terms of bringing his district’s issues to council for resolution. We could go on about Mason, but there are two things that matter most. First is […]
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Fifth Estate to tell Holly Bartlett story
This Friday night, March 28, CBC television’s Fifth Estate program will examine the death of Holly Bartlett, the 31-year-old Halifax woman found dying beneath the MacKay bridge in 2010. Friday is also the fourth anniversary of Bartlett’s death. A Coast investigation published last year (“Holly Bartlett’s unlikely journey,” December 12) detailed the murky circumstances around […]
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Hazardous material incident at Halifax’s Ceres Terminal
Thursday night, at about 10pm, a “flat” holding four flasks of uranium hexafluoride was accidentally dropped about 20 feet while being off-loaded from a ship at the Ceres Terminal in the north end. A flat becomes the trailer part of a flat-bed truck when it is attached to a rig. The casks are about eight-foot […]
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Police blotter release mired in delay, fear of open government future
The release of the police blotter is mired in delay. Technical issues are partly to blame, but the underlying problem seems to be a fear in the Halifax Regional Police Department of a full release of data. The police blotter is a daily log of all police calls, where officers were dispatched to, what sort […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax’s XANADU
The Nova Centre now under construction downtown is by far the largest development project in Halifax history. Revised plans for the project submitted by developer Joe Ramia’s company, Rank, Inc., show two towers for the site–a 17-storey hotel facing Market and Prince Streets, and an office tower along Argyle Street, consisting of two connected bulbs, […]
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Police announce independent review into Holly Bartlett’s death
Halifax Regional Police and the Halifax District RCMP have announced an independent operational review of their investigation into the death of Holly Bartlett. Holly Bartlett died on March 28, 2010. The day before, her severely injured body was discovered under the MacKay Bridge in Halifax. Her death was the subject of a December feature in […]
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Purcells Cove backlands targeted for development
A major firm is making a last-minute attempt to open up the Purcells Cove backlands to development. The backlands were zoned “urban reserve” in the 2006 regional plan. That designation prevents the area from being developed for the 25-year lifetime of the plan, or until 2031. At that point the area will be reassessed for […]
