[Image-1] The mild winter must be making us soft. During last year’s frozen hellscape we chiseled grades out of sidewalk ice and wrote the councillors’ names in the snow. But in preparing the 2016 City Council Report Card we can’t help but think it hasn’t been that bad of a year for HRM. The municipality’s […]
city council report card
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Cast your vote in our city council report card
[Image-1] This week, HRM Regional Council will gather to review and finalize the 2016/17 budget, marking the end of one fiscal year and the slow march toward this fall’s general election. Come October you’ll be able to let the municipality’s 16 councillors and one mayor know how you really feel about their efforts, but who […]
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City Council Report Card 2015
[Image-1] It’s coming up on three years since this colourful coterie of city councillors was elected to govern Halifax, and the cracks are beginning to show. Maybe everyone’s just smelling that fall 2016 election on the horizon, but personalities are finally bubbling up. Any 17 people forced to put up with each other for this […]
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Voices of the city (council)
[Image-1] Early last month we sent a small survey out to Halifax’s 16 councillors and mayor to learn a little bit more about them. It’s an exercise The Coast has offered for a few previous city council report cards, and always proves of tremendous value. After ten months of personally attending council meetings, there are […]
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Time to vote in our city council report card
[Image-1] Editor: Thanks for all your votes! Results are now being tabulated to be published in our April 2 edition of The Coast. Stay tuned! It’s almost that time of year again. The Coast is getting ready for our annual Halifax city council report card. Our expert judges have been sequestered, and the data is […]
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David Hendsbee
Cell: 483-0705 Grade this year: C Grade last year: D+ Last year, I gave David Hendsbee a D+, then, a few weeks later, the Mineville community in his district burned up in a forest fire. “Not a D councillor anymore,” Hendsbee joked afterwards, referring to all the work he had to do connecting residents to […]
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Brad Johns, BIG improvement
Cell: 476-1234 Grade this year: C Grade last year: D Brad Johns hasn’t fared well in these report cards, having received two Ds in a row. At his insistence, I spent a day in Sackville, as Johns showed me around the district and introduced me to people. We visited a remarkable old school that has […]
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Lorelei Nicoll, Council newbie
Cell: 478-2705 Grade this year: C- Grade last year: N/A Lorelei Nicoll replaces the absolutely horrendous Harry McInroy, the repeat “F” councillor who retired last year, and for that alone Nicoll should gain the eternal gratitude of the people of Cole Harbour. For her part, Nicoll is gracious, perhaps to a fault. As a council […]
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Bob Harvey
Cell: 488-4820 Grade this year: B- Grade last year: B+ Everyone likes Bob Harvey. How could you not? A gentleman, kind even in defeat, an old-style statesman if there ever was one. But Harvey could use the respect and status he’s earned over the years to better advantage. For example, he personally understands the value […]
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Gloria McCluskey
Cell: 476-1667 Grade this year: B- Grade last year: B She lives just outside of the district, but Gloria McCluskey is the definitive councillor for Dartmouth Centre—the seat is hers for as long as she wants it, which is why no one opposed her in the October elections. McCluskey serves her constituency well—the former mayor […]
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Tim Outhit
Phone: 490-5679 Grade this year: C Grade last year: Incomplete At the time of last year’s report card, Tim Outhit had been sitting on council just two weeks. “Outhit hasn’t had enough time to find his council legs, much less define himself politically or demonstrate how he will represent his constituency,” I wrote at the […]
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Andrew Younger, MLA!
Cell: 476-1727 Grade this year: C- Grade last year: B- Ah, Andrew Younger. Always with an opinion, whether one’s required or not. That’s not a fault, necessarily—we could only wish other councillors were half as engaged. And as Younger was unopposed in the October elections, he seems to resonate with his constituency; alternatively, his in-your-face […]