[Image-1] As announced today by Dartmouth MP Robert Chisholm, the NDP are promising to bring back door-to-door home mail delivery if elected this fall. “I’m proud today to tell my constituents that an NDP government would reverse this terrible decision and restore home mail delivery to those from whom it’s been taken,” Chisholm declared to […]
Canada
Posted inNews + Opinion
Running on empty: voter fatigue in Nova Scotia
[Image-1] If you’re a political junkie living in any of the three electoral districts in Nova Scotia that will see a trio of elections between now and the autumn of 2016, you’re going to get your fix in a big way. Should you not be looking forward to sales pitches from political candidates, or casting […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What’s the best way to file your taxes?
Mimi Cahill says she knew “absolutely nothing” when she first started filing taxes. But who can blame her? “How to do taxes” usually isn’t a high school course. She was only 15. “The people I babysat for actually put it in their taxes to get a credit for me, because they were paying me so […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Trudeau plays it politically safe during Halifax visit
[Image-1] He was charming and affable to the onlookers who snapped photos. He had a circle of supporters following him around—from giggling fans to local volunteers. While thousands were gathered in front of the Legislature Wednesday afternoon protesting changes to the province’s film tax credit, federal Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau was wooing crowds at […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What bombshells will drop from the Duffy trial?
[Image-1] Halifax journalist and author Dan Leger is closely following the Ottawa trial of suspended Tory senator Mike Duffy. A Prince Edward Island native, Duffy is facing 31 charges stemming from the Senate expenses scandal. Leger will be preparing a paperback version of his 2014 book, Duffy: Stardom to Senate to Scandal, for publication later […]
Posted inArts + Music
Film tax credits across Canada
Before the budget dropped, Nova Scotia and Manitoba had the best film tax credit incentives—highest amount of money that could be given back to productions for local spending—in Canada. Now that Nova Scotia has backed out of the race, it’s “Hooray for Winniwood!” And given PEI’s efforts, even an Anne of Green Gables reboot would […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Canada just told Halifax’s council to stop saying its prayers
[Image-1] Today the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that reciting prayers at municipal council meetings is a breach of religious neutrality and discriminates against public freedoms. It’s a decision that potentially could mean an end to Halifax Regional Council’s non-denominational “invocation.” The Supreme Court ruling originates in 2007, when a resident of Saguenay, Quebec […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax lights a candle for Kenya
[Image-1] Kenya may seem like a world away, but Halifax’s Ntombi Mzimela-Nkiwane feels the heartache of her fellow African people this week. Mzimela-Nkiwane—originally from South Africa—is organizing a candlelight vigil tomorrow evening at 6:30pm within Victoria Park. The vigil will be held in remembrance of the 142 students, three security officers and two security personnel […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Finding home: one gay Iranian’s quest for peace in Nova Scotia
[Image-1] When Air Canada flight 608 finally touched down in Halifax in December 2013, it marked the beginning of Pedram Niakan’s new life. He was excited. Above all, he was terrified. Not many people visit Halifax in the winter, least of all people from warmer climates. Yet he was moving in. Voluntarily. Niakan, 25, first […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Embrace big ideas or Nova Scotia will never turn the corner of prosperity
[Image-1] The March 21 Globe & Mail article, “The Incredible Shrinking Region,” is honest and depressing. While it provided important context and outlined our current economic and demographic challenges, it didn’t reveal any real surprises. The insightful political history was the only “new” content for me but then again, I was raised in central Canada […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Closure and the social media accounts of the dead
[Image-1] Over the years, the Facebook community has grown exponentially, and, as life runs its course on all of us, people keep dying. More and more posthumous profiles continue to haunt cyberspace. Whether it’s creepy or comforting, we are the first generation to ever have to deal with it. Twenty-four-year-old Alex Walker lives in Halifax, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Badminton—a darn Canadian sport
[Image-1] In a national gold medal match a few weeks ago, a badminton player earned a red card when he told the umpire—a petite gray-haired woman—to “keep track of the fucking score.” Yes, the sport can get more intense than a birdie going ping, leaving welts on faces and tearing skin from knees. But at […]
