Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald’s clumsy—not to forget sleazy and embarrassing—gamesmanship with carbon tax cost figures last week was probably his panting, puppy-hopeful attempt to curry future favour with the man he believes will still be prime minister after Tuesday. He’s probably right that Stephen Harper will win the election. But he’s almost certainly wrong […]
News
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Robots never rest
The first disembodied call came early Thanksgiving Monday morning from a computer announcing itself as a representative of EKOS Research, whose auto-dialers were working their electronic fingers down to their hard drives on this holiday conducting one last poll of Canadian voting intentions in advance of today’s federal election. Did I have five minutes to […]
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What others are saying…
Here’s a copy of an open letter from 85 Canadian economists on the current economic crisis and what Canada’s government should do about it. It was put together by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a progressive think tank: The deepening global financial crisis, the decline in world commodity prices, and the growing possibility of […]
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$300 milion for…
Thank God for Danny Williams. And for the people of Quebec. And for Bill Casey. And, of course, for Stephen Harper, whose stubborn, sweater’s-off-now arrogance helped save us all from a fate worse than George Bush—which is to say a Stephen Harper Conservative majority government. It is easy to imagine what might have happened Tuesday […]
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The Great Interview Gaffe of Election 08
How beside the point will the final days of the federal election campaign get? Consider the latest hiccup in a hurricane over a botched question-and-answer Thursday (October 9) involving local CTV anchor Steve Murphy and federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion. During the taping of an interview with the Liberal leader, Murphy asked: “If you were […]
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Dream team
Perhaps it’s a sign of what a centre-left coalition might be able accomplish in Ottawa. Or perhaps I’m just desperate to find some hope somewhere… The Montreal Rocket, a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team, have two players—Pierre-Antoine Dion and Nick Layton—who not only share the last names of two of Canada’s federal party leaders […]
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Internet voting
About 10 percent of registered voters cast ballots in last weekend’s internet portion of the municipal election. If we have the same turnout as the 2004 election—which was coupled with the Sunday shopping referendum—then about 20 percent of the total votes cast will have come via the internet. It’s still too early to say what […]
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Lower freedom of information fees
In all the jurisdictions I’ve worked, Nova Scotia has, by far, the most unfriendly access to information laws. The Freedom of Information process is something of a private, sad joke among journalists, as we get denied, delayed and ignored at every turn by public bodies holding allegedly public info. But it’s not just journalists who […]
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The new ugliness in municipal politics
I don’t have a problem with heated debate— candidates should try to differentiate themselves from their opponents, and if you can’t stand the heat, you shouldn’t be in politics. So I didn’t find last night’s back-and-forth between Sheila Fougere and Peter Kelly at all offensive. Good on both candidates for a spirited fight. Nor was […]
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Alexa McDonough on Citizens for Halifax
In this weekend’s Halifax Magazine: “ is a complete farce. What you really have here is a smoke screen put up by a group of South End Halifax business leaders looking to further their own financial interests through a thinly disguised political process. Don’t kid yourself; the only citizens they are truly concerned about are […]
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Internet voting problems?
This morning I’ve heard from one reader who says that internet voting didn’t go well for him— as he tells it, he was kicked off the system three times, and it took over two hours to cast votes in all three elections (for mayor, councillor, school board). Is anyone else having problems? Successes? Is the […]
