Every election needs its defining moment—its too-big-foot-in-too-small-mouth moment, its searing, snapshot flash-of-insight moment, its accidental, incidental larger-than-life moment that suddenly careens the campaign off in an unpredictable direction toward some unknowable destination. So far, we have not, needless to say, had any such moment in this blandest of beige provincial election campaigns. There certainly have […]
Editorial
Posted inNews + Opinion
Not your grandma’s NDP
This ain’t your grandma’s NDP. If there were any last lingering doubts on that score, Darrell Dexter erased them Monday with one simple response to a question about whether an NDP government would repeal 1979 legislation that has made it virtually impossible for unions to organize workers at any of Michelin Tire’s three Nova Scotia […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Greater racial diversity needed in humanities
Picture this. Three white graduate students are earnestly discussing the future of post-colonial studies. It’s happening at a symposium to honour a white English professor—a pioneer in studying the work of non-white writers from former colonies such as Jamaica, Kenya and India. During the question period, a black PhD student points out he’s the only […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Provincial politicians cultivate culture of defeat
Stephen Harper started offending large parts of the nation almost as soon as he became a national political leader. Out east, we particularly remember him mouthing off about Atlantic Canada’s supposed “culture of defeat.” Nova Scotian politicians responded quickly to that one, passing a resolution in the provincial legislature criticizing Harper and “his own Party’s […]
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Karlheinz Schreiber’s kickback bonanza
Schmiergelder. It’s a lovely sounding German word, isn’t it? Schmiergelder literally means “grease money” and it’s at the heart of the federal inquiry into why former Tory PM Brian Mulroney received three envelopes stuffed with $1,000 bills back in 1993-94. Karlheinz Schreiber, the German-Canadian wheeler-dealer who handed Mulroney the cash, spent four days testifying before […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Greed acres at Health Canada
Few things in this world function so well as the natural food system. Sunlight and water rain down to feed plants, which convert solar energy to food energy as they grow. Animals then live off that energy by eating the plants, or eating animals that eat the plants. Animal turd and movement in turn spread […]
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Taliban in transition
Protesters took to the streets of London last week as suits from the world’s richest countries pondered the economic meltdown. Demonstrators held up four big horse puppets to represent greed, war, climate chaos and poverty—the four faces of a world crisis brought on by a corrupt political and economic system driven by money, media, militarism […]
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Smoking mad
There is a surprise at the end of Watchmen, the movie. After two-plus hours thick with beatings, war, gore, maiming, mass murder and other on-screen violence—not to mention sex and plenty of naked Dr. Manhattan’s big blue Empire State Building—the filmmakers get squeamish about…smoking. Deep in the end credits is a disclaimer assuring audiences that […]
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Double the CBC’s budget
Ma phoned last week panicking about her tiny pension, which gets topped up every month with money I earn from these editorials. “Look Bubbie,” she commanded, “stop writing tedious shit. The Coast’s gonna cancel your ass.” Her prescription? “Stir readers up. Tell ’em you were raped by a ghost. No, Duffy’s done that already. OK, […]
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Streetcar desires
“We can’t do the same things and use the same excuses that cars and roads work well,” says Patrick Klassen, a graduate student at Dalhousie’s School of Planning. He’s one of several students making an old idea new again: a Halifax Tram system. “We haven’t considered streetcars here per se,” HRM transit planning specialist Brian […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The need for public auto insurance
If the NDP wins the provincial election expected this spring, Nova Scotians may finally get something they badly need—public auto insurance. Let’s hope so because the present privately run system is the shits. Nova Scotians pay among the highest insurance rates in the country, but get the lowest accident benefits. And as car crash victims […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Democracy 251
When Rodney MacDonald calls the election that every political watcher expects him to call sometime in the next few months, the economy is sure to be a major issue. That’s a given, considering the world’s financial meltdown and the shockwaves being felt across the spectrum from individual workers to entire industries. But the premier of […]