[Image-1] Some crowded ballots are coming together for election day in HRM. Longtime broadcaster Lisa Blackburn has announced her campaign for District 14, joining 51 other council candidates (plus three more contenders for mayor) hoping to win your vote on October 15. The 25-plus-year radio veteran was a morning co-host and news anchor for Newcap […]
Brad Johns
Brad Johns once again HRM’s most absent city councillor
[Image-1] It’s not the kind of chart most politicians want to be topping, but Brad Johns makes no apologies for having HRM Regional Council‘s worst overall attendance record in 2015. “My priority has always been my district, things going on in my district,” says Johns. “Whether it’s a seniors’ dinner, or calling BINGO…that takes priority […]
Brad Johns
2010 grade: D 2009 grade: C 2008 grade: D 2007 grade: D Brad Johns is the nutty councillor for Sackville, famously the rawkingest place in the universe thanks to the Weir Rocking concerts. Johns’ low-rent suburban appeal doesn’t carry a lot of currency among snooty urbanites, but I gotta say I find him delightfully his […]
Brad Johns
2010 grade: D 2009 grade: C 2008 grade: D 2007 grade: D Last year, I took Johns to task for not being engaged with his council colleagues, and for generally distancing himself from City Hall, preferring to concentrate his efforts in Sackville. What a difference a year makes —since then, Johns convinced the other councillors to […]
Chequebook politics leaves city staff short changed
Last week, city staff announced that the pay rates for Halifax councillors had been improperly calculated, and so every councillor serving since 2005 would receive a one-time payment making up for lost pay. The payments totalled $246,096.16; some councillors received as much as $8,000, but most considerably less. Councillors used to set their own pay […]
Feds stimulate city’s wish fulfillment
Thanks to the collapse of the global financial industry, Halifax is getting a new Central Library, an additional Woodside ferry and a four-pad hockey arena in Bedford. Unless, that is, provincial politicians gut the deal with back-room deals and behind-the-scenes maneuvering to divert the money. All three projects have been on the city’s wish list […]
District 19 – Brad Johns
“Why the hell would I want to meet with The Coast?” Brad Johns says when I ask for an interview. “You guys keep giving me a D and I get elected with more votes than anyone else.” Subsequently, Johns offered to give me a tour of Sackville, then cancelled due to a family illness. We […]

