Halifax council is needlessly secret, stretches the justifications for holding secret meetings and uses secret meetings to resolve political issues that should rightly be discussed in public. That’s the result of an analysis of the 30 secret council meetings held in 2008. In those meetings, 71 issues were discussed; my analysis finds that 23 of […]
Gloria McCluskey
Posted inNews + Opinion
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 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Transit tax bid collapses
This is an expanded version of my column in today dead tree version of the paper. ——– After first embracing it last week, Halifax council Tuesday abruptly reversed course and rejected a service-based taxation scheme for transit funding, opting instead to use an assessment-based general tax rate, at least for a year. Then, they held […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Gloria McCluskey, councillor and heckler
Yea, I’m easily amused, but here’s an audio clip from last night’s council meeting. You’ll hear Tim Outhit complaining that council shouldn’t be spending so much time on this issue, this is what council gets criticized for, etc. Listen close and you’ll hear Gloria McCluskey responding with “then sit down!” and so forth. Adding, I […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Money Shot
Overcoming some ignorance of the kinds of cultural events that are staged locally and despite disagreement over the type of events that are worthy of city support, Halifax council last week OKed expenditures of $160,000 in support of four events: Halifax Pop Explosion will receive $10,000; an upcoming basketball tournament hosted by the Halifax Rainmen […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Candidate notes
The candidate filing deadline has passed, so the list is complete. These are my random thoughts on the Halifax councillor races, as I’m unwinding from tonight’s council meeting. I’m sure I’ll have more intelligent things to say over the next few weeks… Unopposed candidates: Gloria McCluskey, Andrew Younger, Bill Karsten, Russell Walker I don’t know […]
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District 05 – Gloria McCluskey
Gloria McCluskey is a tough old battleaxe. Last year she went through open-heart surgery and was back at her council duties a mere two weeks later. Last month she had knee surgery, and kept apace of council budget deliberations by television and phone from her recovery bed. She is a large presence at council—she’s outspoken, […]