After an exciting off-season in which we decided to change up our roster at City Hall, the moment we’ve all been waiting for is here. That’s right, we’re talking budget season! For those who need an introduction or refresher, budget season is the planning period of months from now to April 2025 when the […]
News
Show me the progress
In 2023, the provincial and federal governments put together a group called the Progress Monitoring Committee. Chaired by former Nova Scotia lieutenant-governor Myra Freeman, the PMC was an oversight panel, a way to monitor, report on, provide accountability and exchange knowledge and information as the governments implement a response to Turning the Tide Together, the […]
Police board goes the wrong way on reviewing sexual assault cases
In June 2022, Sunny Marriner from the Improving Institutional Accountability Project posed a question to Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners: If women who’ve been sexually assaulted aren’t coming forward to the police, and even when they do, there’s very rarely a conviction. Shouldn’t we try to figure out why? She made her case when she […]
“You’ve turned your back on women in this province”
On December 27, 2005—still in the warm glow of Christmas and one week from her daughter Anna’s first birthday—36-year-old Paula Gallant was violently murdered. Her lifeless body was put in the trunk of her car and driven to the parking lot of the elementary school where she taught Grade 3. The crime shocked the community […]
Andy Fillmore’s dumb encampment plan almost passes at council
Tuesday’s council meeting was dominated by old business being rehashed by new mayor Andy Fillmore. Last council meeting, Fillmore caused a procedural kerfuffle when he put forward a motion to rescind Halifax’s list of potential encampment sites without a staff report. Since Fillmore’s motion did not have a staff report, it was deferred to the […]
What you can do to remember gender-based violence victims on Dec 6
This Friday, Dec 6 marks the 30th annual National Day of Remembrance & Action on Violence Against Women. It will also be the 35th anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre. Activist groups are holding events across the city that day in remembrance of the 14 women who were killed during the Polytechnique mass shooting, […]
Here are your Best of Halifax 2024 winners for Shopping + Services
Make that seven Best of Halifax gold awards for Spring Garden Road’s Bookmark. In its 35 years downtown, the indie bookstore has survived a change of ownership, two years of COVID-19 lockdowns and Jeff Bezos’s ever-expanding tentacles to bring Haligonians the latest titles from authors big and small. That’s not a small thing, says manager […]
Voter turnout dropped by nearly 10% for the 2024 provincial election
Statistics based on the unofficial results from the 2024 general election in Nova Scotia show that voter turnout decreased by nearly 10% from the last election, which took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Election NS’s post-election report from 2021, the total voter turnout was 422,712 out of 767,618 eligible voters—55.1%, a minor […]
Houston leads PC Party to record-breaking victory in provincial election
The provincial election Tuesday night saw premier Tim Houston and the PC Party win a historic victory, netting them the most seats out of any political party in Nova Scotia’s history. The Progressive Conservative Party gained enough ground to form not just a majority but a supermajority, which requires at least two-thirds of the House […]
The Wanderer Grounds podcast: Who’s in and who’s out this Halifax Wanderers offseason?
Halifax Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar is not, generally speaking, the type for drastic measures. “Never too high, never too low” has become akin to a mantra at the Canadian Premier League soccer club during his two years at the helm. It will be interesting, then, to see how Gheisar and the Wanderers’ front office […]
How you can vote on election day in Nova Scotia
Provincial election day is finally upon us. Although some are still feeling the fatigue of the recent municipal election and from watching the American election, getting out to vote is still a right worth exercising. With community and advanced polling stations closed as of Saturday, Nov 23, early voting is limited to returning offices […]
Birth control screwup and a weird pizza analogy: Takeaways from the second leaders debate
Premier Tim Houston had one message for Nova Scotian voters during CTV Atlantic’s provincial leaders roundtable Thursday night: the plan is working. Criticisms from his fellow party leaders would suggest otherwise. The roundtable itself was messy. While Houston and Liberal leader Zach Churchill fired shots at each other throughout the evening, it was hard […]

